Mickey Post Game (1 Viewer)

[vailhusker]

 

[vailhusker]

Joseph puts blowout loss on himself, but Husker players say otherwise​

ByBRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON 26 minutes ago

It was never going to be confused as being a cozy first assignment.

Take over this wounded 1-2 football team over here and then take on the No. 6 team in the country over there six days from now as the daily gossip swirls about what Nebraska might be doing with its coaching situation for NEXT season.

Given the scenario, the majority would probably grade Mickey Joseph on a curve for his first game as Nebraska's interim head coach, a 49-14 Oklahoma win that frankly could have come with a worse final score.

For his part, Joseph simply said to put it all on him, as an early 7-point Husker lead was a distant memory after Oklahoma ripped off seven straight touchdowns and then enjoyed the beautiful weather.

"Hey, hey, first of all, we're going to get this presser started: This is on me. This is on me. Not my players. Not my assistant coaches. I got to do a better job, and I will," Joseph said before a question was asked. "I've got to do a better job."

Joseph thanked the fans and said his team didn't stop fighting, but also got licked in all three phases of the game.

"But this comes back to me..." Joseph said. "I've got to accept responsibility for it, and I have. We're going to get better next week. We've got eight games left. We're going to get ready to win some games."

"That's what he's supposed to say. As a team we know it's not all on him ... As a team, we know it's on us," said Husker junior safety Myles Farmer.

It was the first time any players had spoken since Scott Frost was fired on Sunday, so it was worth taking stock of those comments from the three players who spoke to the media in the postgame: Farmer and co-captains Nick Henrich and Travis Vokolek.

"It's definitely been a challenging week," Henrich said. "A lot of players that were here, Coach Frost sat in our living room and recruited us. So we believed in him and now we really believe in Coach Joseph and what he's doing. It's been a tough week but I think the guys did a good job of sticking together."

Henrich said Joseph did an "incredible job" amid the tough situation.

"Players, we're the ones playing the game on Saturday so we've got to buy into what he says and continue to work and believe in him. I know this team believes in him."

Nebraska players may have appreciated the head coach's accountability, but know it was a team-wide butt kicking they took in a game that was already 35-7 at the half, with Oklahoma posting 355 yards of offense in the first quarters. It was 49-7 just six minutes into the third quarter before the subs and vanilla play calling finished out the day.

Joseph said during the bye week ahead, it's going to be even more focus on fundamentals. More drill work, less team work. The team work won't matter if the individual work isn't any good, he added. And, "We've got to continue to tackle. I didn't do enough tackling, I've got to do more."

The bye week is here and it needs to be here for Nebraska football.

"Because we can re-evaluate some players. We had some young kids that had some snaps, and had some good snaps I thought," Joseph said. "So we'll look at some young players and see if they can help us. If they can help us, we increase their reps."

Joseph, fresh removed from his time at LSU, was candid about the need for the Huskers to build up the talent on their roster.

"I think we got to do a better job at recruiting," Joseph said when asked what he saw with the skill/talent level between Nebraska and Oklahoma. "They had better skill players. We got to do a better job. But we've got really good skill players also. We've just got to get them to execute."

There will be no burning of the film.

"No, we're going to go dissect this film. We're going to go find the kids that were doing what we were asking them to do, and the kids that can tackle and block and do the right things. And we're going to increase them if they weren't a starter."

It also didn't sound like Joseph is going to change staff at this point. The Huskers are who they are and all have to get better.

Specifically on staff personnel, he said, "I can't see that right now. I don't know if I'll be able to see that tomorrow, but I can't see that right now."

Vokolek, who dad is on the Husker staff, said there was a "mix of emotions" this week heading into Saturday's game.

"Obviously we all loved Coach Frost. He did a great job here. I love him. He's a father figure for me," Vokolek said. "But it's a business. Personally, I know that with my dad being a coach. We moved multiple times and firings happen and stuff. It's a business. We obviously were upset, but we've got to move on. Coach Mickey is a great coach, great dude. I love him to death. I'm glad he's in our football team and I just can't wait for the future of this football program."

The beginning of the game offered promise. A juiced-up crowd met Joseph as he brought his team onto the field, and Nebraska answered with a stop and a touchdown drive.

"Felt good," said Nebraska's new head man. "Until the game started."

 

[vailhusker]

 

[vailhusker]

 

[Dr.DrakeRamoray]

Smart decision

 

[Jim14510]

"Hey, hey, first of all, we're going to get this presser started: This is on me. This is on me. Not my players. Not my assistant coaches. I got to do a better job, and I will,"

That's annoying to me. He's been HC for less than a week. Don't patronize me.

 

[BorWhiskey]

That's annoying to me. He's been HC for less than a week. Don't patronize me.

That was specifically for you because he wanted to patronize Jim14510 sooo hard.

It's the only thing he can say other than maybe "here's how I'm going to get better".

 

[Jim14510]

That was specifically for you because he wanted to patronize Jim14510 sooo hard.

It's the only thing he can say other than maybe "here's how I'm going to get better".

Patronize us*

He could have just not said it at all.

 

[Loomie21]

Sad thing here is they had to specify that it was in practice that he was talking about, obviously because their in game play has been so poor that Sam might have thought we believed they have been tagging off in games as well.