Scott Frost met with the media Saturday afternoon following Nebraska’s annual Red-White Spring Game. The Red team defeated the White team, 24-13.
Here's the full transcript from his question-and-answer session postgame.
On his overall takeaways
“My first thought is that I’m happy we got out of the spring healthy. For the most part, we didn’t have any major issues. I think we got out pretty healthy today. Spring games are wonderful. It’s a great chance to showcase the great fans that we have, but from an evaluation standpoint as a coach, we’ve been looking at 14 other practices and this is a small piece of it. I thought overall, it was good. I would’ve liked to see the red team come out with a little more fire and execute a little better at the beginning. We did some good things but I don’t think it was consistent enough. Other than that, there was good plays and there was bad plays, which is just about any spring game. But overall with the entirety of spring, I’m fairly pleased.”
On freshman quarterback Luke McCaffrey
“Well just in general, we feel better about the quarterback position than we did a year ago. I think we have better depth, I think we have better talent [and] we’re going to have a little more experience. We were as young as you could be last year at that spot by the time the season hit. Adrian [Martinez] is clearly a top player in the entire country. Noah [Vedral] did some really good things today and that’s what we’ve been seeing all spring. All three of the other guys did some good things, made a couple mistakes here and there and there’s a learning curve there, but I feel good about that room in general. We’ll let the competition stay open all the way through fall.”
On the consistency of sophomore quarterback Noah Vedral
“Looking all the way back to last fall, I kind of felt bad even in the Bethune-Cookman game because that’s what we’ve seen Noah do inside our program since he came back to Nebraska. I kind of wish in that Bethune-Cookman game I would have left him in with the ones and let him operate a little better in that game. Sometimes it isn’t just about the quarterback. It always looks like the quarterback. Sometimes you get more blame as a quarterback when things don’t go well. Right Tom [Shatel]? Sometimes you get more praise when things do go well. But Noah’s a good player and I think the fans got to see a little bit of that today.”
On if sophomore quarterback Noah Vedral is second string
“You know, if we had to play again today he’d be No. 2. But like I said, every position competition is going to stay open through fall. The other guys have done good things too, so nobody’s safe in their position until we hit the first game.”
On if the defense was on par with their performance all spring
“I think the offense did better today than sometimes during spring. It was a good performance by the defense but it’s not the best I’ve seen this spring. There’s been times where we couldn’t move the ball at all this spring, which is a good sign for our defense.”
On freshman running back Miles Jones and sophomore running back Jaylin Bradley
“Again, that’s tough sledding when you’re playing on a team where the other team has more of the guys that are going to be playing on Saturdays. I thought those two guys did a good job. I thought several guys on the white [team] really stepped their game up and competed. I won’t be able to say exactly until I watch the tape and review it. I was just a casual observer watching guys. But I was pleased with a lot of the performances that I saw.”
On freshman defensive lineman Casey Rogers and freshman linebacker Garrett Nelson
“Especially with those new guys – and Casey’s been here awhile but he’s just getting feet wet and Garrett just got on campus – it’s really hard to evaluate them until they completely know what they’re doing. Once they know what they’re doing and they’re not making mistakes, they’re more comfortable, then it’s easier to evaluate them compared to the other people at their position. Both guys had a really good spring and it had set themselves up to be right in the mix come fall.”
On offensive line depth
“I think we had more depth in most places than we had (last year). The one O-line did good at times. We need to finish better. There was a couple of times a hole was there, and if we just finish the block a little better. The margins in football are really small, but I want to keep getting more aggressive and gaining one more blade of grass to help us pop runs. There’s a little more of a separation between one and two than I’d like, too. A lot of those guys that are on the two line are going to keep, hopefully, competing and pushing the guys on the one line. But, we need more depth there, more guys to develop there as well.”
On running back depth
“Running back is probably the position that is going to change the most come fall with three new guys coming in. Obviously, (Maurice Washington) didn’t participate today, and we’ll see what happens with that, but that room is going to look entirely different. It’s really up to the guys coming in on how quick they can learn it to see how much in the mix they are. We’re thin at that spot right now and hopping that reinforcement are on the way. We’ll let all those guys compete against each other, but there’s some good things happening. Wyatt Mazour has had a great spring for us and has been a consistent, reliable guy and Coach (Ryan) Held is going to have is work cut out for him to try and teach those guys in a rapid fashion.”
On Year 2 versus Year 1
“A little less emotional this year than last. That was pretty special coming out of the tunnel. It had been a long time for me. Year two is when you get everything built, trying to get it built. Year two is just easier for a head coach. I don’t lose my voice at practice near as much. There’s not as many details that I have to fix, and it was fun just watching today and watching the assistant coaches operate, watching some of the guys play well. There is still a lot we need to fix. We are not a finished product by any means. We’re just somewhere in the process of getting the whole thing built the way we want it to, but my job gets easier further down that road we get.”
On reuniting with former players and teammates
“I’ve seen some guys that I haven’t seen in two decades. Michael Booker just grabbed me on the way off the field, and obviously he was a big part of a lot of really good teams around here. I haven’t seen him in years. I saw Erick Strickland yesterday. I haven’t seen him in years. Guys that it’s special for me to see because they are a part of this brotherhood. I love having those guys back. One, I care about them, and they care about me. I also like to see those guys back and see what it means to be a Husker football player and see how it goes with you your whole life and see how the fans still know who you are. There really is no place like Nebraska as far as that goes. If you’re a great player here, people are going to remember you the rest of your life, and those guys are still pulling for those guys playing today. It’s awesome to kind of continue that fraternity and have the guys come back and teach this group what it’s supposed to look like.”
On the defense's strength
“I wouldn’t say it surprised me how well the defense did. I was pleased. Maybe more pleased than I had expected to be. They got a lot better. They played freer. They ran around a lot better. I think almost position by position, I saw improvement. With that being said, it’s kind of supposed to be that way. As long as I have been in charge of running this offense as receiver coach, or coordinator, or head coach, defense is always ahead in the spring. Even in fall camp the defense is ahead and most of the time through spring ball, we would get our butts kicked by the defense and think we weren’t going to have a very good offense that year and we’d have a top-five offense in the country. I’m not saying that’s what going to happen here. That’s kind of standard operating procedure for spring ball.”
