Matt Rhule’s Post-Game Press Conference Notes: Nebraska vs. Colorado

Opening Statement:

Rhule congratulated Coach Sanders and Colorado. They are a well put together team and explosive.

He talked to a coach after teh game that he has gone up against and that coach mentioned that it was very uncharacteristic of a Rhule coached team to have so many turnovers. Rhule responded, “same as last week. I think we are better than what we have shown. But what does that mean? It’s just words. I told the team. We are going to get this right. We will get the offense right. We will get the turnovers right. I thought the defense played well and hard for stretches and eventually just kind of wore out.”

Reactions to Questions:

• Jeff Sims had a high ankle sprain. Sims wanted to go back in but at that point there was no reason to put him in. Everybody needs to take care of the ball better. Jeff Sims will be the first guy to tell you that they can’t have that many turnovers.
• Everybody is going to be upset. They should be. We are better than we are showing. But it is just words. We need to put it into action.
• There was never any conversation (coming out of half) to taking Jeff Sims out. Even with the issue with the cadences. Rhule was hesitant to comment on the quarterback “because it is such a big deal” that he wants to look into it more before saying anything.
• Right now they are minus six on the turnover margin and that is sort of the story that they are trying to fix and they simply have not gotten that fixed yet and he’s going to keep on working on it until they get it fixed.
• (On that big third down play after Nebraska scored the touchdown to bring it to 13-7) Colorado had three big third down plays in the second half. The first was on that all out blitz on the long completion, then a long run by Sanders and another long completion. We aren’t getting those same explosive plays.
• (Sam McKewon asks if starting on the road for first two games has led to some of the issues) Rhule thinks they are a good team, he really does. The plays have been there. You will not get a sense of panic from Rhule. He sees the things that can get fixed.
• Defensively the difference between the halves was that Nebraska’s defense wore down. Does not want to take any credit away from them. They made some throws on third down which hurt them and the screen game.
• Over the next couple of weeks he’s hoping to see the offense take some steps. The defense has been good, and it needs to be better, but he really expects the offense to take steps.
• Rhule didn’t think the atmosphere affect the team. It was a great college football atmosphere.
• If there is anything good about these four turnover games it is that the players that didn’t sign up to play for Rhule get a feeling of how they react. They get to see that he is the same guy every day. He takes ownership of the things he can control and tries to get better. They will absolutely improve from this.