Press Conference - October 5

[74Hunter]

Still the worst coaching decision and time management skills I have ever seen from a Nebraska team. Didn't get the play in until 8 seconds on play clock? Couldn't get our TE motioned over. Hey coaches, how bout we call a timeout. I know we had at least one left and you can't take them home.

Doesn't even matter if it was a designed run, cause it's still awful coaching.

Call a timeout so the clock stops huh? That makes even less sense

Huh? Tommy let's the play clock down to 1. Calls time out. 55 seconds left. Regroup. Call a handoff to the running back, get 2 yards. Takes 5 seconds, let the play clock run, call timeout with 1 second left, hell take the 5 yard delay of game. Snap on 4th comes with 10 seconds to go, have Sam run around, do a little rugby punt, roll Tommy and and throw the ball, doesn't matter, Illinois Has no more than 10 seconds left to go 70 Or 80 Yards.
But I guess that still would be doable against this pass defense.

 

[Kiyoat Husker]

Riley on moving on from Illinois Loss:

For me, my message to our coaches, and players, ... first of all, talk to players right now, and focus on the best teaching, the best preparation, the best plan, and get everybody's mind moving forward on a positive thing. Because, you know, all the "bugs crawl out" at times like this. It's just a great, great mental test for everybody. And there can be great growth out of it if you let it.

I've been in it long enough also to have experienced all those things. My wife reminded me the other day, she sent me a text about it, that she had to talk me off a cliff in Winnepeg one year because we had lost 7 games in a row. Normally when you go through a season like that, you don't get a chance to coach the next year. But we did, and we won the championship. So, you're going to - if you stay in it long enough, you're going to have some hard times.

The test isn't physical right now, its mental. It's all about the approach, so the coaches have to set the tone, with really good teaching, preparation, and plan. "this is how its going to work" and get everybody's physical energy going that way. (coaches included).

Lots of different opinions as to "why" or "what" or what could have been done. In our world, when we're working, we gotta push this team forward. And we need good examples on the team to do that.

 

[Pwnyboy]

Still the worst coaching decision and time management skills I have ever seen from a Nebraska team. Didn't get the play in until 8 seconds on play clock? Couldn't get our TE motioned over. Hey coaches, how bout we call a timeout. I know we had at least one left and you can't take them home.

Doesn't even matter if it was a designed run, cause it's still awful coaching.

Call a timeout so the clock stops huh? That makes even less sense

I mean, you call a timeout, you actually get to run the correct plays and we win the game. So actually it does make sense. I hardly think 1 second matters.

 

[NUance]

Still the worst coaching decision and time management skills I have ever seen from a Nebraska team. Didn't get the play in until 8 seconds on play clock? Couldn't get our TE motioned over. Hey coaches, how bout we call a timeout. I know we had at least one left and you can't take them home.

Doesn't even matter if it was a designed run, cause it's still awful coaching.

Call a timeout so the clock stops huh? That makes even less sense

I think he meant let the time run down on that play and call a timeout. Given the confusion that would have been the best way to go. We had plenty of timeouts.

No way around it. That was some piss poor time management down there by NU. We had 1:46 left after 2nd down. It looks like our coaches were solely concentrating on making the 1st down rather than running the clock down. If we make the first down the win is a certainty. If we don't convert the first but run the clock down to 15 seconds, we probably win. If we don't convert the first and leave 51 seconds--well, we know how that turned out.

 

[NebraskaHarry]

• 1st and 10 at NEB 38Andy Janovich run for 3 yds to the Neb 41
  

• 2nd and 7 at NEB 41Devine Ozigbo run for 4 yds to the Neb 45
  

• 3rd and 3 at NEB 45Andy Janovich run for 6 yds to the Illin 49 for a 1ST down
  

• 1st and 10 at ILL 49Devine Ozigbo run for 1 yd to the Illin 48
  
• Timeout ILLINOIS, clock 02:31
  

• 2nd and 9 at ILL 48Andy Janovich run for 8 yds to the Illin 40
  

• 3rd and 1 at ILL 40Andy Janovich run for 10 yds to the Illin 30 for a 1ST down
  
• Timeout ILLINOIS, clock 01:49
  

• 1st and 10 at ILL 30Andy Janovich run for no gain to the Illin 30
  
• Timeout ILLINOIS, clock 01:46
  

• 2nd and 10 at ILL 30Andy Janovich run for 3 yds to the Illin 27
  

• 3rd and 7 at ILL 27Tommy Armstrong Jr. pass incomplete to Devine Ozigbo
  

• Timeout NEBRASKA, clock 00:55
  

• 4th and 7 at ILL 27
• Tommy Armstrong Jr. pass incomplete to Andy Janovich
  

Regardless, it's 3rd and 7. I would have had all the players on the sideline before that play and called a timeout with 1 second on the play clock. That way they get it right. This is what we're running, do this, don't do this. Have to have everyone on same page. Kind of an important play.

Keep the clock running, goes to 15-20 seconds. Punt, Field Goal, whatever. But I like our chances better with only 15-20 seconds on game clock then 55.

 

[Undone]

Was the clock running or did Illinois use their last timeout to stop the clock?

It was running.

And like somebody else said in another post, if Tommy takes the third down play from the shotgun and just runs sideways to the sidelines and slide inbounds, you take an extra five-ish seconds off the clock, let the play clock run down, use your second timeout, and have Foltz punt it to the sideline, bringing the game clock down to actually less than 15 seconds to go.

It's mind-boggling that this wasn't better managed.

 

[GSG]

• 1st and 10 at NEB 38Andy Janovich run for 3 yds to the Neb 41
  

• 2nd and 7 at NEB 41Devine Ozigbo run for 4 yds to the Neb 45
  

• 3rd and 3 at NEB 45Andy Janovich run for 6 yds to the Illin 49 for a 1ST down
  

• 1st and 10 at ILL 49Devine Ozigbo run for 1 yd to the Illin 48
  
• Timeout ILLINOIS, clock 02:31
  

• 2nd and 9 at ILL 48Andy Janovich run for 8 yds to the Illin 40
  

• 3rd and 1 at ILL 40Andy Janovich run for 10 yds to the Illin 30 for a 1ST down
  
• Timeout ILLINOIS, clock 01:49
  

• 1st and 10 at ILL 30Andy Janovich run for no gain to the Illin 30
  
• Timeout ILLINOIS, clock 01:46
  

• 2nd and 10 at ILL 30Andy Janovich run for 3 yds to the Illin 27
  

• 3rd and 7 at ILL 27Tommy Armstrong Jr. pass incomplete to Devine Ozigbo
  

• Timeout NEBRASKA, clock 00:55
  

• 4th and 7 at ILL 27
• Tommy Armstrong Jr. pass incomplete to Andy Janovich
  

Regardless, it's 3rd and 7. I would have had all the players on the sideline before that play and called a timeout with 1 second on the play clock. That way they get it right. This is what we're running, do this, don't do this. Have to have everyone on same page. Kind of an important play.

Keep the clock running, goes to 15-20 seconds. Punt, Field Goal, whatever. But I like our chances better with only 15-20 seconds on game clock then 55.

+1

I'm with you. I just posted the plays so everyone could see when Illinois used their timeouts.

On this drive we went 35 yards on 8 rushes, which is a little over 4 yards per carry. There's a pretty good chance we get the first down by just hammering Jano or Ozigbo up the gut on 3rd and 4th and instead of 2-3, we're 3-2

 

[brophog]

The entire complexity of this situation makes one wonder how much the failures of previous defensive drives this year weighed into this decision. Because, frankly, we shouldn't be talking about taking a timeout in this situation. Standard procedure in this situation is to call a safe handoff, milk clock, and either attempt the field goal or play field position. We all know this, and they do, too.

Generally speaking, you get too creative, and that was the case here, when you feel you must.

 

[Kiyoat Husker]

Riley on Wisconsin:

Q: what kind of physical challenge does Wisconsin represent, and have you reviewed the games that Nebraska has played in recent years against Wisconsin?

A: Yeah, I have. I looked at last year's game this morning, as a matter of fact.... What you asked is what I see, and what I already know, is... I know the coach there pretty well, and I know, style-wise, .... we had played Wisconsin ourselves when I was at Oregon State a few years back. Unfortunately, that was the year when they got Russel Wilson.

But, style-wise, and approach-wise, .... what they did then, and what they do now, appears to be kinda right-on-track with their Wisconsin identity. You know, it's gonna be physical. You better be able to handle the run, obviously. And they're gonna have some good play-action stuff out of it. Whether its bootleg, out of the pocket stuff, or what they do in the backfield with the quarterback faking the run.... I think that, that's their game. So you gotta be able to handle that part of it physically up front, and then be sound and good position in the secondary. A lot of double-move deep play-action stuff.

 

[NebraskaHarry]

The entire complexity of this situation makes one wonder how much the failures of previous defensive drives this year weighed into this decision. Because, frankly, we shouldn't be talking about taking a timeout in this situation. Standard procedure in this situation is to call a safe handoff, milk clock, and either attempt the field goal or play field position. We all know this, and they do, too.

Generally speaking, you get too creative, and that was the case here, when you feel you must.

Why couldn't they call a timeout? High School, Collegiate, and Professional teams call timeouts in this exact situation all the time. You don't have to get cute with the play. Just make sure you call the right damn play.

 

[Mavric]

 

[Bowfin]

Call a timeout so the clock stops huh? That makes even less sense

If you call time out with one second left on the play clock, then Illinois gets an extra second.

If you DON'T call time out, and then run a bonehead play that stops the clock then Illinois gets an extra 40 seconds.

 

[Bigred_inSD]

Tommy seems like the kind of guy you'd want your daughter to bring home.

He's responsible, owns up to stuff, takes blame even when it isn't on him (highly crucial in a relationship ) very determined and wants to be succesful

 

[Enhance]

It was not well managed, and that's on the coaches. The whole game was not very well managed offensively and that's on the coaches. Hey, fair is fair. Everyone learns something (you hope) and moves on.

The slightly unnerving thing is that, apparently, clock management issues have been noticed before under Riley coached teams.

I overheard a brief part of a conversation on Unsportsmanlike Conduct today - the guys spent a few minutes googling mentions of Mike Riley, Oregon State and clock management problems and said they found a handful of articles in just a few minutes. They also found a recent article detailing the 7-most painful losses in recent Oregon State history. One of them was a bowl game against Texas which was in 2012, IIRC. OSU had a two possession lead near the end of game some but questionable play-calling and clock management issues allowed Texas to come back and win at the very end.

Now, Riley has coached a long time and I'm sure every coach has had issues of clock management plague them at some point. It's likely bound to happen. So, I don't really know what to make of it. The show hosts called it a 'pattern.' I'm not sure if I'm ready to go there yet, but, it's no less disgruntling.

 

[Kiyoat Husker]

Riley on blown 3rd Down:

Q: One of the running backs said he thought it was a pass, and the Tight End who wasn't on the right side _____ Pass, so didn't some of them think it was a pass?

A: Well, normally that play is a pass play. It's a bootleg pass. But we "tag" it when we want the quarterback to run. It's basically "chill bronco run". Now, we did NOT get in the right formation. It was a mess.

Q: Did Tommy think it was a pass, or did he think it was run?

A: Like I said, we reiterated that it was a run, we called it a run, ... and, like I said, I don't blame..., I blame myself for the training of it. He just reacted. He had the guy too fast in his face, and just reacted like that.