Coach Scott Frost met with the media Saturday following the Huskers’ 21-13 loss to Northwestern. He spoke about his team’s lack of discipline, the quarterback situation, keeping morale up and more.
Here’s the transcript from his question-and-answer session postgame.
On sorting through and fixing some of the offensive struggles:
“I have to say where it begins, it begins with me. We didn’t play a disciplined enough game. Exactly what you said. It’s inexcusable we only had 13 points in that game. I give a ton of credit to them. They’re always good on defense. They did a good job. To play like we played and he only had 13 points that starts with me. I got to make sure the guys are in good position to put points on the board. Discipline in our program starts with me and the coaches to make sure that we have it. That’s what we talked about all week is not just playing well but playing smart. We didn’t. We made too many mistakes against a good team. We got to get that fixed. I got to get that fixed.”
On why Luke McCaffrey not getting any touches until the third quarter today:
“We had a couple plays for him a couple little sets. They were doing a couple things differently than they’d shown and one of the things we’d like with him wouldn’t have been available. We just didn’t get the other couple things called to take advantage of him. But we got to do a better job of making sure he touches the ball, Wan’Dale touches the ball. Those are our better players and they need the ball in their hands.”
On the quarterback position moving forward:
“I don’t really want to comment on that right now. Other than to say like I said all along I think we have two really good players. I feel for Adrian. That’s a tough position to be in and he’s poured his heart and soul into this. But those guys are going to compete and I’m comfortable with both of them in a game. I thought we just needed a spark and gave Luke a shot. He deserved it.”
On what happened the center situation with Cam Jurgens:
“We knew cam wasn’t going to play but I didn’t want to say anything because we want to protect our guys, but we knew it wasn’t going to play. We wanted to make sure we had a veteran guy in there to make the calls and at least get the ball back Adrian. So, I thought Matt did a good job repping there.”
On his message to the team after the loss:
“I told them it’s my fault. I told them it’s on me. We talked all week going into this game about not making the mistakes they get ourselves beat. These guys played their butts off. Our defense played their butt off. Other than giving up a punt return and kick return and short fields I thought the defense played really well. They created two turnovers that got us seven points. Offensively, Sam said it. We had the ball down there and we got to punch it in. Had two field goals in the first half instead of two touchdowns. Missed another field goal. Two interceptions. To come away with 13 points is inexcusable. That’s my fault.”
On assesses the defensive play overall:
“Well, I’m sure the defensive guys looked at that. I was on the headset with the offense most of the time trying to figure out how to get the ball in the end zone. We talked about that half with the defensive staff. I told him I’d keep playing those guys in a rotation. Those guys definitely do deserve to play. There’s one positive thing come out of this, we have a lot of young players that I think would be really good football players for us. They are stepping up and playing well. Listen nobody is more impatient right now than me. We should be farther along than we are right now. I think we’re there. We just have to go out on the field and make it happen. Win football games and that starts with me.”
On Luke Reimer’s contribution:
“Certainly, it was good to have him back out there. We had to rely on him. Will Honas wasn’t available to us. He tried to go through warm ups and couldn’t go. We’ve known since early on when Luke got to campus what kind of player we had there and it doesn’t surprise me. I didn’t see that tackle chart yet. But he’s going to make a lot of plays at Nebraska before he’s done.”
On keeping the guys believing that this thing can turn the corner:
“We got a lot of good players. I think the players can see what’s happening. I’m not really worried about that. But we need the leadership step up make sure that happens and the discipline part has got to come from me. We’re going to go back to work as a coaching staff, figure out how to stop playing in games that happen like this. The players need to experience something good. Together with them and us we got to go and make that happen.”
On what ultimately lead to the decision to pull Adrian:
“I just thought we needed a spark. Every player has good plays and bad plays. That interception, the timing was way off of what we expected. At that point, I thought we needed to spark. We had kind of had a plan to get Luke in the game earlier and he hadn’t been in. So, we put him in and I kind of liked what I saw from him. So, we stuck with him. I wouldn’t read too much into that.”
