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UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 21, 2019

Scott Frost

Lincoln, Nebraska

Q. Scott, Maurice wasn't on the depth chart. What's his situation right now?
SCOTT FROST: I think it's still to be determined. He won't play this week. We don't see him being a part of our plans in the immediate future, and the farther-out future, we'll have to determine that based on some circumstances.

Q. Is he with you right now?
SCOTT FROST: He's not a part of the team right now going into this week.

Q. Is that by your choice?
SCOTT FROST: There are certain standards that we ask our players to uphold. When those standards aren't upheld, it doesn't matter who it is, they're not going to be a part of our plans that week or potentially longer.

Q. Is it fair to term it an indefinite suspension?
SCOTT FROST: No, those are your words, not mine. We just expect all of our players to conduct themselves in a certain manner and there's certain things that are non-negotiable, and they have to live up to those standards.

Q. He still remains in classes and everything, though, right?
SCOTT FROST: As far as I know.

Q. Is this related to his court case?
SCOTT FROST: No.

Q. Did he practice Tuesday or Wednesday at all, or is he not --
SCOTT FROST: He hasn't practiced last week, didn't practice today. But let's move on to football here.

Q. What about the backups behind him? How does it look at running back right now?
SCOTT FROST: Depth is getting a little sparse there, but the guys have been practicing hard. Obviously Dedrick Mills is doing a good job. Wyatt Mazour should be back this week. He had a minor concussion and was out. He's back and healthy and good to go. Rahmir Johnson still has a couple games to play in. Brody Belt, some other guys are there, and they're all getting reps this week.

Q. Is Rahmir definitely a four-game -- I think you've said he is, but could it change if you really needed him?
SCOTT FROST: Yeah, I think it could change if circumstances change. We'd like to try to save the year if we can, depending on how the last half of the season goes.

Q. Dedrick plays seemingly two different systems; how has he progressed in running the kind of running plays you want?
SCOTT FROST: He's getting better at it all the time. I think probably the big thing was the vision and a little bit of patience in running in our kind of scheme. It's not so downhill and hit right now. You saw how natural he was when we lined him upright behind the center and gave it to him. He's learning how to run in our scheme a little better, and I think he's been getting better every week, so he'll continue to improve.

Q. How much did you guys emphasize just the run game last week in practice?
SCOTT FROST: A bunch. Overall I think we need to be more physical, particularly on offense. We worked the heck out of that last week. A lot of fundamentals, a lot of simple things, and hopefully it'll make a difference.

Q. Pickering was on the second line on the depth chart. Is he close?
SCOTT FROST: Yeah, as far as I know he is. We've got a whole army of kickers down there, and some of them are healthy and some of them aren't, and I can't really keep track anymore. Hope to get him back as soon as we can. I think from what I hear, he's getting pretty close.

Q. How are you feeling about your strength overall on offense, the weapons that you guys have, starting this Saturday?
SCOTT FROST: We'll see. We're practicing whoever is healthy and up and ready to go, and we'll see who's ready and who's not come Saturday.

Q. How has Adrian been kind of getting himself back and ready to roll?
SCOTT FROST: Adrian has been working hard to get back, and he's doing really well, working hard. It helps to have a bye week. It helps to have fall break here where he can spend a little more time rehabbing, so he's going to do whatever he can to get back.

Q. So you're pretty optimistic for this week or hard to say right now?
SCOTT FROST: Hard to say.

Q. Overall just how did you feel about what your team got out of the bye week and getting away from the game a little bit and then the practices that came after that? How do you think you came out of it?
SCOTT FROST: I was pleased with the bye week. I think there were a lot of fundamental things that we needed to clean up. Sometimes you get in the heat of the season and some of those things can deteriorate a little bit. I saw some of those things operate at a pretty high level and really improve throughout last week. Again, hopefully some of that back to the basics and fundamental stuff will provide a little spark for us and make us a little better at some of the things we need to be good at to be consistent.

Q. How much of a balance is there when you've got guys that have been banged up and missing time and you're trying to clean up details and you're missing guys that have played a lot?
SCOTT FROST: Yeah, obviously we miss the reps with the guys that aren't able to practice, but you know, the flipside of that is there's some young guys that got a lot of run last week in some of those practices, and those guys need to continue to improve and get reps so they can be more physical, play with better technique and do all the little things right.

Q. What did Noah's week of practice look like, and where would you like to see him make a jump?
SCOTT FROST: Yeah, I thought, all things considered, Noah played pretty well at Minnesota. A couple mistakes and one or two plays here and there, but it's hard to find a quarterback who plays a perfect game. I thought he came in and did a really good job. Guys did good things around him, just not often enough, not consistent enough, and we feel really good about Noah and where he is and his ability to run our offense.

Q. I know it's hard to throw freshmen into the trenches, but you mentioned Benhart and Piper last week. How close are they to being usable or do you think they could be?
SCOTT FROST: Yeah, you guys keep asking me. We're going to play guys when they're ready. All those young guys keep improving. One thing you learn about this league pretty quick is this is a grown-man's league, and guys have to be ready. It's hard to -- it's probably hard to win in this league, particularly in the trenches, with 18- and 19-year-olds. We're expecting help out of those guys. I think they're really close to helping us. But they're also first-year guys, and when you throw them in, you can expect some first-game mistakes and first-year mistakes. We've got to be smart as a football team when we use them, but I've been pleased with the progress of several guys, including Piper, Benhart and some other guys.

Q. When you think about your offensive line, where can it start? What's the first thing you want to see take a step forward?
SCOTT FROST: We've just got to be a little bit more consistent. We need to get on guys and move them instead of just occupying. There haven't been a lot of mental breakdowns, it's just been technique related, finishing blocks, maybe being a little more physical and nasty up front so that we can count on the holes being there a little more often. Obviously pass pro has to get a little bit better. There's been times we've had good time to throw and other times when I wouldn't want to be quarterback back there. We went back to work on all those things this week, and I'm excited about the progress they made.

Q. Can you teach physical and nasty, or do you recruit it? How do you --
SCOTT FROST: You can teach it some. I think Lou Holtz said it, if a dog won't bite when it's a pup, it probably won't bite when it's grown, and there's some truth to that, too. And I think as a team, it's got to be the culture. It's just got to be what's expected. It's got to be a standard that's non-negotiable. We're working toward that, but it doesn't happen overnight.

Q. One of the players talked about being mentally refreshed from that bye week. What does it look like on the field when it's full of players who are mentally refreshed?
SCOTT FROST: Practice looked a little faster today, a little crisper. Guys were running without hobbles and limps, and it's good to see. It is a long stretch. I know it's college kids and they should recover faster than some of us old guys, but it still takes a toll on you, particularly when you don't have a lot of depth in some areas. I thought everybody had a little more pep in their step today.

Q. I know tempo and pace is central to your offense or has been to this point. Do you examine at all how fast you guys are playing on offense and how that relates to how it may affect the defense?
SCOTT FROST: Yeah, we think about that every week, honestly. We're still not playing at the tempo I want, but I think a lot of that is by choice, for a lot of reasons, and some of it is by choice, some of it isn't, but I think that'll continue to improve, too.

Q. What have you seen in looking at Indiana after seven games?
SCOTT FROST: Yeah, I've watched them more on D than O so far. I think they're big and physical up front, have some corners that can cover. They play a lot of press quarters and some man, mix in some pressures. They really run to the ball, play hard, tackle well, cover well on the outside, and they're pretty hard to move in their front seven.

I've said this a bunch, but there's a lot of good teams in this league, and you'd better show up ready to play every week, or you're going to be in trouble.

Q. Is this alternate jersey week?
SCOTT FROST: Yep, we're going to wear the alternate jersey this week, so I told the team this morning if we're going to wear them, they'd better show up and play with an attitude that makes the black shirt alumni proud.

Q. Any reason why you picked this week to wear them?
SCOTT FROST: No, not really. We just -- we're running out of home games.

Q. I want to go back to Washington for a second. In hindsight, that always being 20/20, is there anything differently you wish you'd done in managing his situation over the last two years?
SCOTT FROST: No, I wouldn't do anything different. I wish things would be a little different. Listen, Coach Osborne was this way. He wasn't quick to crumble kids up and throw them away. Some of the kids that are in some of those situations, if they're gone out of this program, that road doesn't lead to very many good places. As long as I'm here, I'm going to try to help these young men as much as I can. That's the promise I make to their parents when I sit in their living room and tell them we're going to try to help them no matter what. There's certain things that they know if they do I'm not going to help them and they're on their own.

But I want what's best for all these guys, so we're going to try to continue to help them as long as they can be helped, and there always comes a point where you have to throw your hands up and say, we tried. But until then, we want to do what's right by them because I think that's the right thing to do. We certainly tried to do everything we can for Mo, and hopefully it works out well.

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