Everything Scott Frost said at Monday's presser
ByBRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON 15 hours ago
Nebraska has played more football without a stop sign than anyone in the country.
One more week with an important Saturday ahead at Minnesota, and then a bye. Much better spent after a W than the alternative. To make sure his team is fresh coming off an emotional and physical game against Michigan, Husker head coach Scott Frost is tweaking his practice plan slightly.
"We took the pads off them today. We usually have part of practice on Monday good on good, and there's a lot of thumping on Monday," Frost said at his weekly press conference. "We didn't do that today. I thought I just needed to give the guys a break after a really physical game on Saturday. And they responded really well. A really clean practice and the guys were dialed in today. They're excited to play.
"I told them if anybody wants to play in the NFL, you play preseason games, and (17) regular-season games, and sometimes playoffs. You get one week off, and that's after a camp. That is a grind. So eight weeks is a lot for college football, but our guys got plenty of gas in them."
Frost believes this Husker squad is far better equipped than the one he last took to Minnesota – a game in which the Gophers whipped Nebraska 34-7.
"I think we're just more of a grown-up team. We got more kids that love each other and love the team and love football," Frost said.
Still, the Big Ten provides a tough slate every week, and the coach expects a tricky one this week after Nebraska's near miss in the 32-29 loss to top-10 Michigan.
"Top to bottom it's good. Anyone can beat you any week. On top of that, might as well just schedule a scrimmage with Penn State on a Wednesday, because we're going to play everyone that's good in the league every year. We knew that the schedule was going to be a challenge coming into the year and the kids were excited about it. We've battled with these teams that are all good teams and I think we're a good team. We got to win our share."
Here's everything else Frost said.
ON TEDDY PROCHAZKA'S STATUS
"Teddy had a knee injury. He's going to have surgery next week and we won't have him back until spring ball."
Is there any chance for him to get the year of eligibility back despite participating in more than four games – even if some featured limited snaps?
"We'll see. We're worried about him and his health and everything right now and we'll work on eligibility issues later on."
Regarding the tough timing after Prochazka was taking off, Frost said, "Yeah, I feel bad for him. You feel terrible for anybody when they get hurt. I mean, we're playing a team (in Minnesota) that has a couple key guys that have gotten hurt. It's just tough. These kids put so much time, and effort, and energy into this. And Teddy's been just improving by leaps and bounds since he got here. He was getting to reap the benefit of that, and it's a tough setback. Guys come back from these things, and he'll be fine."
ON BRYCE BENHART JUMPING BACK INTO A LEADING ROLE
"I said going into that (Northwestern) week, I had a long talk with the team about just doing what's best for the team, continuing to get better. We've had several guys that have been taken out for a little while and then got their chance again, and just have to make the most of it. Bryce has played a lot of football. I thought he came in and did well. Obviously we had a pretty good second half offensively, and we need him to play well Saturday."
WHERE HAS THE O-LINE IMPROVED THE MOST THE LAST COUPLE WEEKS?
"We just got to keep getting better in protection, and keep getting movement in the run game. And it's been baby steps. We're getting better at that. But when we can establish the run game, everything works and we got a quarterback that can make throws and people that can get open if we make time. So that's not a big secret. That's offensive lines anywhere."
DESPITE NO POINTS IN THE FIRST HALF, DID IT UNLOCK SOMETHING FOR THE SECOND HALF?
"Realistically we could have scored a couple times in the first half and that would have put us in a better situation. But doing some of the things we did in the first half set up some of the things we did in the second half for sure. I think Coach Lubick and the rest of the offensive staff did a good job making a couple tweaks and pointing us in a couple other directions at halftime. We certainly had them in a lot of good plays in the second half, and did enough to win. Needed to do a little more."
HAS RYAN HELD BEING IN THE BOX CHANGED COMMUNICATION FOR ADJUSTMENTS?
"You know, of all the coaches on my staff, the one that understands option football the best is Coach Held. So it's been a benefit for us to have him up there to watch the specifics – how people are playing us in that to make sure we are getting in the right scheme that way. Coach Lubick is pretty dialed in to calling the game with me too, so Held's able to watch the whole field and see some other things. He did a great job catching that (QB knee down that was reversed after review). That would have been another unfortunate touchdown that probably shouldn't have counted, and I'm glad he saw it."
IF TOLD SIX MONTHS AGO RAHMIR JOHNSON WOULD BE A LEADING RUNNING BACK, WOULD IT HAVE SURPRISED?
"Yeah, I think it would have surprised me. He was probably fifth on the depth chart to start fall camp. But I've been saying all along we've been waiting for somebody to step up and take it. He's taken advantage of chances. I think he's running hard. Making plays in the pass game. We certainly need other guys to keep improving, and give him some break. But really happy for Rahmir and how far he's come.
"When you're patient with some people, sometimes they continue to improve and end up being good players."
WHEN WAS THE LIGHT BULB MOMENT FOR RAHMIR?
"It's been gradual, but it really started this fall camp. I used to get frustrated with him for not running full speed. He's such a fast kid and everything wasn't 100 percent all the time. There's only one way to play this game and that's with everything you've got. Sometimes when you're young you dip your toe in the water a little bit instead of just letting it rip. He's really learned how to play as hard as you can."
HOW CLOSE IS THIS TEAM TO MAXIMIZING ITS POTENTIAL?
"We've still got a lot of ways we can get better. We can continue to get better up front. We can block downfield better. There's been a couple little details right when we need them the most that have hurt us. Defense has played so well but one more stop here and there. We had one miscommunication on a coverage on one of their touchdowns. Those things happen during a game. When your margin of error is so slim, they can really hurt you. When it isn't, you don't even notice those things. We're playing a lot of good teams and the margin for error in those games is small. Got to avoid those things. But the guys are playing well. We can still get a lot better."
SPEAKING OF PLAYER PATIENCE, IS (DIRECTOR OF PLAYER DEVELOPMENT) MARCUS CASTRO-WALKER'S ROLE TO HELP THERE?
"Apparently Marcus' role is to get on social media for standing behind me at games. He does a great job. I was always dehydrated at games before because I never even thought to drink anything and he's always handing me a water bottle and it's been nice. Marcus is great with our kids. Our kids trust him. He's able to help them with a lot of things on and off the field. When kids come from a long way away to go to school somewhere, you need people in the kids' corner. And many of them ... to help them navigate football and life. And Marcus is a big piece of that for us."
HOW HAS FROST SEEN BRYCE BENHART'S ATTITUDE TO PLAYING MORE NASTY?
"Well, he's got a chance to show us this week. He's from Minnesota. He's getting a chance to play against them. I don't think he played his best game against them last year. So this is a big opportunity for him and we've got a lot of faith in him. He's got to have a good week of practice, and I'm counting on him and the rest of the guys to play well."
WHAT HASN'T GONE WELL THE LAST TWO YEARS AGAINST MINNESOTA?
"I think we were 4-2 when we went up there two years ago and we played really uninspired football. I had the feeling as head coach, we had some of our kids that really didn't want to be there. It was a little cold. It was spitting rain. We didn't play tough that night. I give them credit. They had a really good team two years ago. Good team last year. But we haven't played our best against them either. They've had two weeks to prepare. I'm sure they're going to play their best game they've played this year. I'm sure we will too."
THE GOPHERS LIKE TO CONTROL THE BALL, HOW DO YOU GET THE GAME TO FLOW HOW YOU WANT?
"You've got to get ahead. We've got to start fast. In a lot of these games that we play in this league, if we're behind then they can kind of play the game they want to and run time off the clock. That changes if you're not ahead. So looking forward to trying to start fast. I'm sure they are too. But we got to take advantage of whatever reps we get on offense because sometimes there's more and sometimes there's less."
DID THE HUSKERS FIND THEIR LEFT GUARD SOLUTION IN NOUREDIN NOUILI?
"I feel good about how Nouri's played. I think that whole process would have happened faster if he was consistent, and that's what I want to continue to see from him is consistency. He's probably exceeded my expectations during games. If we had seen that in practice consistently, it probably would have happened faster. He's doing a good job. He can still get a lot better but I want to be able to count on him all the time."
WHAT'S BEEN SCOTT FROST'S LEVEL OF COMMUNICATION WITH Turd ALBERTS DURING THE SEASON.
"Turd's been great. Sometimes I go up there, sometimes he comes down," Frost said Monday of the first-year Huskers athletic director. "He felt like all of us Saturday. Think he felt like, 'Here we go, this is the one, we're going to get this one. This is a big win. Top 10 team.' Gosh, the kids did so many things right. Heartbreaking for them. But he felt the same way the coaching staff did. And I really appreciated him yesterday, he went around to all the assistant coaches too and told them how proud he was of what the team did on Saturday. It's been nice to have him show his support like that.
"I talk to Turd quite a bit. But yeah, we kind of get together every Sunday and talk about the day before," Frost said. "I'm usually not in the right frame of mind on Saturday night to do that. But he's been awesome. He was in the locker room after the game on Saturday. I know he went around to some of the players and gave them encouragement, and came down and talked to everybody yesterday. It was great."
HOW HAS THE TEAM AVOIDED AN EMOTIONAL FALL?
"I'm not really worried about this game, from an energy and enthusiasm standpoint. When you're running sprints and you have to do 20 of them, it's not the 20th once that gets you. It's the 16th, 17th, 18th one. The guys know that we got a little break coming up after this game. We've been trying to take care of them. Minnesota has a good team. They're well coached. It's on the road. It's going to be tough. But I don't think our guys will fail to prepare and be ready for it."
DOES FROST THINK THE HUSKERS HAVE STABILIZED AT PUNTER WITH WILLIAM PRZYSTUP?
"That spot is like a couple other spots. We've got kids with talent. They have to do their job when they're called upon to do it, and the last two weeks Will has done that. The team is counting on guys to do their job and I hope all of them continue to do it when they're asked to."
Asked if he thought the Huskers showed improvement in coverage, he said, "Yeah, they were really good on the return units, and I thought our kick coverage team did an exceptional job. But I've been saying that for a while the special teams problem hasn't been our coverage units, it's kind of just been the guys doing the speciality jobs here and there. Those guys are doing better. So hit reset and it's not a problem."
HOW TOUGH IS IT TO TURN AROUND FROM NIGHT GAMES AND JUMP INTO NEXT WEEK'S PREP?
"It's probably tougher on coaches than it is on players. I remember being a player and I would just sleep in and skip church, which I shouldn't have done. But sometimes you skip church. As a coach you got to get up early and get to game-planning again. But I told the players after practice today that the big thing this week is we got to recover. It's been a grind and we've got to recover. So sleeping and eating right, and hydrating, and getting physically right for this game, I know they'll be emotionally and mentally right."
WITH RETURNMEN, HOW MUCH DO YOU WEIGH USING STARTERS TO ELIMINATE RISK?
"Normally, I would weigh it quite a bit. Right now I want someone that is going to catch it and give us a chance to return it. We're fielding it right now. We need to make a play in the return game at some point. And that would really help us. Normally you make sure everybody's healthy. Right now it's all hands on deck."
