Nebraska football coach Matt Rhule and players speak out after UCLA loss

Nebraska football coach Matt Rhule met with the media after his team lost to UCLA 27-20 on Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium. Watch Rule’s full speech above and read some of his comments below. Keep scrolling to hear from several players, including Isaac Gifford, Ty Robinson, Dylan Raiola and more.

Opening Statement

“Obviously we are very disappointed. A huge missed opportunity for us. This was a game we had every chance to win. Even when we went down, we made our way back. We didn’t make the plays we needed to make. Thanks to them.”

About offensive difficulties

“They did a good job early, bringing four guys into the B-gap and leaving the free safety behind. Some of the mechanics we have to deal with are the screen play and us breaking it up and trying to throw the ball down the field. We eventually got to one with (Isaiah) Neyor where he hit them down the field and pulled them out of it a little bit. They took the ball and went on a long trip. The three of us headed out and they went on another long drive. We saw that against Rutgers. This is roughly how they play at the beginning of the first half. Rutgers had just three possessions. We managed to play big and make the game 7:0. But I think overall in the passing game, when it came to converting third downs, they just beat us to zero and we didn’t respond to it the way we needed to. We finished the game 9-17 in third place. At one point in the first half it was one for many. We fought, made timely adjustments, and in the second half we finally sorted out the situation and were able to stay on the field more. In the red zone, we scored for the first time there, or rather before the half, when we sent the ball to the deuce. We had the majority of the game. We lost Barrett (Liebentritt), so we put Elijah Jeudy at guard. He did a great job. He fell…then he just found a place to enter. We were maxed out again, reset to zero, and we just couldn’t stand it. As for everything that went wrong, in the first half I went up to the guys in the locker room and said: “This is as bad football as you can get between offense and defense, and yet the score was 13-7.” ‘We were happy to come out and play in the second half and then unfortunately we got picked six. But still got into it again, so there’s a lot of things we’ll have to keep working on.”

On what the UCLA defense did to keep NU off balance.

“UCLA came out and scored the first goal against Rutgers. I believe they scored in the first game against Minnesota. They have an experienced guard who is trying to find his rhythm in this offense. They beat the man in third place. They threw the shallow cross, they threw the corner route. We were able to hold them to a field goal, but we just couldn’t get off the field early in that series. The second time we really couldn’t leave the field either. I got all the guys up and told them we had a bag and we just fell off of it and he ran away. We had another one where he hit five with lightning speed and went up the A-gap about 60 yards. There were a lot of little things that didn’t really have to do with talent, but just us making the game that needed to be made. I thought we calmed down a little after that. I think (Ethan) Garbers’ legs hurt us. We came into this knowing they were moving the ball early. The key for people was their fatigue in the fourth quarter. This game was a carbon copy of their game in Minnesota, where Minnesota got the ball back and took the field. They just made one more play to win the game. Unfortunately, Heinrich (Haarberg) makes the fourth stop. We go there, take the penalty, waste time and don’t play.”

On UCLA’s fourth-quarter interception.

“He (Dylan Raiola) was under pressure in the first half and I think any young defender coming out of that will start to see a lot. The old saying is: you see a lot, you see a little, you see a little, you see a lot. I think he was uncomfortable. I won’t speak for him, but with everything he saw, I don’t think he was truly comfortable. It was a ball to Thomas (Fidone) in the middle of the field, into second cover, he was running free, it was an explosive play and there was a strike behind him and he threw the strike. To his credit, I thought after he calmed down we found some game. A lot of this we have seen people do against them. They survive an early attack against UCLA and their playbook, and then you do everything you can to get back into the game. Unfortunately, the pick six and missed opportunity in the red zone the first time hurt us and set our team apart.”

Quarterback Isaac Gifford

According to standard

“I cannot answer this question from the top of my dome. I’ll go back and watch the movie and maybe give you a better answer. Obviously we need to get off to a quicker start.”

In third place in defensive struggle

“We have to stand up and fight. Too many guys catch the ball and the defender can’t make the tackle. We need to stand up, be there for them, we need to challenge the passes.”

About the problems facing secondary education

“It’s a next-man-up mentality. We all go to training every day. I feel comfortable with anyone. We train together all week. It all comes down to competing and winning our singles matches.”

Player Brian Buschini

About the mood during the break

“It’s that despite how poorly we played in the first half, it was a one-goal game. Tried to bring some juice during the break. It seemed to me that the mentality was good, it is obvious that the specialists managed it a little faster than the team. What was said after that I am not sure. Coming out in the first game and getting that kind of turnover was tough. I thought we fought back and put ourselves in a position where we could win the game. It’s not like we should have won the game with all the mistakes we made. We don’t deserve to win the game after making so many mistakes, but that’s the nature of the beast.”

About the veteran and what he tells young players

“In times like these, a lot of people want to start pointing fingers. In times like these, it is very important to understand that when you point a finger, three are pointed back at you. You just need to educate yourself and how you play. If you’re not contributing as consistently as you’d like, if you’re not the same guy every day, if you’re someone who has the opportunity to play and you don’t, maybe rethink your process and see what’s going on there. It all starts with me and the punt team. I can influence the special teams room and try to be more consistent on every play. I think everyone needs to look at themselves before they start saying that this or that needs to change this or that.”

About Big Ten Football

“I would say the Big Ten is a mini-NFL. The travesty is crazy, from that perspective yes, but Big Ten football shouldn’t look like the number of mistakes and mistakes we make. From a talent standpoint, gone are the days where we could line up and say, “Oh, we can beat this team, beat that team.” With the transfer portal and zero on every team we play in this conference, they’re going to have guys up front, they’re going to be able to run the ball, they’re going to be able to get the ball across the yard, they’re going to be good defenders and good skilled players. Today we saw that they have incredible players. I would go back to this point to look at myself, because in the end, talking about the enemy only takes you so far. If you give it your all and play your best, we can’t be stopped, but we don’t do that.”

Defenseman Ty Robinson

In defensive preparation

“Everyone was there, everyone was ready to go out and compete for 60 minutes. This performance with throws, we didn’t see many of them when we were breaking down the film. This is one thing you just have to understand when you’re there. We did it pretty well when we came out in the second half and finally settled in and started playing our ball.

How to survive the farewell week

“We’re making sure that doesn’t happen, with a ‘here we go again’ mentality.” I know I won’t tolerate it because I’m here to win. That’s the reason I came back: if I start hearing it, I’ll nip it in the bud, and I know the older guys will too. I know how much us older guys want to go out there and win. Just to fail like that and no, it’s very painful, it’s very painful. I know we as a team are disappointed.

Third down and defense leaving the field

“I think the guys just needed to start winning their one-on-one matches. The last few times I’ve been here, that’s been the mentality of the defense. When all the guys are able to win their one-on-one matches, we become a force to be reckoned with in a deal like this. In the second half, we finally learned to click a little better and our defense got a lot better in the second half.”

Wide receiver Isaiah Neyor

About what doesn’t work for crime

“We just need to start, start quickly, play with more confidence, although I think we are confident in attack. We just need to go out and believe in our abilities and get to work. Complete the task and do your job to the best of your ability.”

On concerns about a lack of trust among forwards

“We believe in each other, we believe in the coaching staff. They do a great job of planning the game. It’s up to us to find a rhythm and maintain it throughout the game and just do what we normally do. Treat it like a team competition and go out and do it.”

About getting into the flow after a slow start

“It was a little difficult not being able to go out on the field and just play. We were warm. We stayed in the game. In such situations, it is easy to get confused and fall out of rhythm. We did a great job staying up. When the time was right, we went out there and did what we did.”

Defender Dylan Raiola

On returning after injury

“I thought I could get away, I thought I could get through it. I just went out there and it kind of locked me in. From now on, try to come back, but we trust Heinrich (Haarberg) in these situations and I thought it would be better for the team. I could have hurt them if I went back there, Heinrich did a really good job.”

About trying to stay in the game

“I think their offense helped them stay on the field. They had an appearance that we had not seen. We came out after the second half and we had all the answers. They did a good job and I give them credit.”

About the missed opportunity today

“As coach Rhule said, ‘I missed.’ We had every chance to win this game, especially in the first half, but lost. Let’s wait a couple of days, this week we have a bye week. We have to get to the bottom of this, and there’s really no way around it other than attacking it head-on.”