BAD BOY MOWERS PINSTRIPE BOWL MEDIA CONFERENCE

December 10, 2024

Mark Holtzman

Matt Rhule

Troy Dannen

Bill O'Brien

Blake James

Yankee Stadium

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Great to have you with us today. Nebraska and Boston College, you got the ACC, you got the Big Ten. What was it is selection process like?

MARK HOLTZMAN: First of all, you want two schools that really want to play in the game. From early on in the season, both Boston College and Nebraska expressed a strong interest to play here, which is what you want. You want a motivated team, a motivated administration, a motivated fan base.

The selection process itself is a little convoluted because you really don't know until the Sunday of the draft process actually what's going to happen. A lot of things can happen that affect it.

With the Big Ten, we have a straight pick. We pick after the bowl in Nashville. We had a pretty good idea going into the game where we were going to pick. We're fortunate we were able to pick Nebraska. Obviously a very popular pick. Other bowls would have liked to have had them. Fortunately we got them.

With the ACC, there's a pool. Three bowls in the pool, Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, Duke's Mayo, and ourselves.

Fortunately we work well with the two other bowls. There's a little going back and forth because we try and have to work it out amongst ourselves, and we try and get some regionality in it because some schools will relate more in some markets better than other markets.

Fortunately it worked out and we got Boston College, which has done well in the past. We're very happy with who we selected this year.

There's a few criteria that go into who you want to pick. You want star power on both teams. I think we have that. You want players that are actually going to play in the game. With Nebraska you have freshman Dylan Raiola, who's possibly the top freshman quarterback in the Big Ten, finished the season very strong. Especially now that he has our old buddy Dana Holgorsen as the offensive coordinator there. Did really well, very excited to have him. Of course, running back Emmett Johnson, one of the top running backs in the country, there's star power right there.

On the Boston College side you have Kye Robichaux, who is the All-Conference running back. Outstanding player. As well as Donovan Ezeiruaku, who is the defensive lineman who is ACC Defensive Lineman of the Year.

You have the star power which really makes a difference going into the game.

There are a few other criteria. The Big Ten, when we entered into this, they wanted to get us a variety of schools, which we wanted to do. We wanted to showcase all the different brands in the Big Ten. Believe it or not, Nebraska will be the 10th school in 10 years that we're having here. We're very pleased about that. We've been waiting to have Nebraska for a long time.

It's their first bowl game since 2016. There's a lot of pent-up demand there, so to speak. When you get 90,000 people at every game, sellout since 1962, those are a lot of fans. We think they'll want to come here. The first bowl appearance in a while, New York City. We're very excited about having them.

Boston College, of course, this is their third Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl. They've done very well here in the past. Their brand really relates to this area. You have so many -- 80,000, alumni within a 150-mile radius, from New York to the Connecticut Gold Coast, where you live, right into the Boston. You have a real large fan base. They're ending their season well. They won three out of their last four games. You want schools to have momentum. They almost beat SMU who is going to the big dance. You want schools with momentum.

Both are coached by two former NFL coaches, which I think adds a lot. There's Bill O'Brien of Boston College, and of course Matt Rhule, local New York guy coming back home at Nebraska.

I also want to take this opportunity to welcome the ADs who are going to be on with us, both Blake James at Boston College and Troy Dannen at Nebraska, as well as the two head coaches, Bill O'Brien and Matt Rhule.

Yankee Stadium has so much of a history. These schools do, as well. You look at the history of both of these programs, you look at the head coaches, Tom Osborne, Bob Devaney at Nebraska. You look at Nebraska players going way back, it seems like when we were growing up every year Nebraska was in the Orange Bowl. I remember my grandparents taking me to Florida every year, we were staying at the hotel where Nebraska was staying at, and I got Jerry Tagge's and Johnny Rodgers', Irvin Fryar's and Stanley Morgan's autograph from way back when. It has a special meaning to me.

Of course, Boston College, I don't know if you know this, it's the 40-year anniversary this month of the Hail Mary from Doug Flutie to Gerard Phalen.

THE MODERATOR: I was surrounded by Miami fans when I was down there (smiling).

MARK HOLTZMAN: Then of course later you have Matty Ice, Matt Ryan who played there.

There's so much history with both schools. There's so much history at Yankee Stadium. We're very excited about all the history coalescing and having one great week of great fandom, a lot of opportunities to visit the highlights of New York, then obviously a great game.

THE MODERATOR: You bring up the history. I think that's what goes into this game on December 28th at noon on ABC. You have Nebraska has their first bowl appearance since 2016. Matt Rhule in his second year as the head coach there. First-year head coach Bill O'Brien is in his first bowl game with Boston College. You have the history of both of these programs and the history of New York and Yankee Stadium. You put those two things together, the excitement has to be off the charts.

MARK HOLTZMAN: That's what we like to believe. Initial sales have gone very strong. Nebraska, a lot of pent-up demand, and of course Boston College, you have a lot of Boston College alumni in the belt who regularly come to Yankee Stadium.

You want that combination. You want the big national brand in Nebraska from the Midwest, then you want to have the local school that still has national prominence in Boston College. We'd like to say it's the perfect storm.

THE MODERATOR: It is the perfect storm indeed.

Let's turn to Nebraska director of athletics, Troy Dannen. Your thoughts on heading to the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium?

TROY DANNEN: We're thrilled. It's been a while. Eight years out. This is bowl game 54. Nebraska has a great, storied history. A lot of people are making references back to the Gotham Bowl in '62, which is the last time Nebraska was in the city.

For our fans to get back into the bowl mix again, to get to do it in the city in December. There is something special.

I'm actually at the National Football Foundation event honoring one of our past coaches. Frank Solich is going into the Hall of Fame. This event was in New York City for the longest time. A lot of us around college football understand that December in New York City is probably the best time, greatest time.

We have about 4,000 alums in the tri-state area. A lot of enthusiasm, a lot of excitement. I'm happy for our program to get back. This is an important step for us to get back where we think we belong.

THE MODERATOR: Now for the head coach, Matt Rhule, your second season with the Huskers, first bowl appearance. First bowl appearance for Nebraska since 2016. How excited is the team to be playing in New York City?

MATT RHULE: We're unbelievably excited and grateful. We've worked really hard to get to this point. A tough schedule this year, had a chance to play against a lot of great teams. To have that continue against a great Boston College team.

I remember started watching them to start the year beat Florida State. I have so much respect for Bill O'Brien going back to when he was the head coach at my alma mater, Penn State. I know it will be a great game.

I'm a New York City alum. We've got six guys on our team from North Jersey or from New York City. This will be really special for us. Some of the best moments of my young life growing up in the city were taking the train, going to see a Yankee game.

Since this game first came to fruition years ago, when you first had the Pinstripe Bowl, I've always wanted this opportunity. To have that now for me also as the head coach, to know Coach Devaney's first game was the Gotham Bowl. Talked to his son about that the other day. Everything comes full circle.

We're excited, excited for our fans. Two years when we were out, my wife and I went to see the Rockettes. I know it's going to be an amazing, amazing, amazing experience for our guys, also a great football game.

THE MODERATOR: Great to hear that, a local New York guy. Those kids, too, the kids that play for him coming back home and playing near their hometowns around Christmastime.

Now we head to the ACC participant in this year's game, the Boston College Eagles. Their director of athletics thinks Blake James.

Your school's third appearance in the Pinstripe Bowl. How excited are your student-athletes and fans to be playing so close to home over the holidays?

BLAKE JAMES: I think everyone is thrilled to be in New York. Like you said, it's our third experience. For the kids on our team, it's not something they experienced before, but for our fans, they know what a first-class experience it is.

For me personally having attended the bowl before, I know it's one of the great experiences in all of college football. Credit to Mark and the team there for the event they put in.

So we're excited.

THE MODERATOR: Mark, what will these two teams experience during bowl week?

MARK HOLTZMAN: Obviously Christmas week in New York is very special. We want these kids to be able to go back home and tell their parents, someday tell their kids, their kids tell their grandkids, they were able to be in New York Christmas week, they were able to see the tree at Rockefeller Center. We have a bunch of stuff that's going to be really special for them.

The first night, of course, we're having the welcome party at Yankee Stadium. The field is going to be lit. Very special evening for the traveling party.

Then, of course, everyone gets to go to Radio City, as Coach Rhule alluded to. What's more New York than going to see the Rockettes at Radio City Christmas week?

Then, of course, we take the kids to see the 9/11 memorial. Let's face it, most of these kids weren't alive when that happened. Obviously it affected all of our lives, mine and yours, everyone else's for the rest of our lives. We feel it's important that these kids see it, what went on in New York. It's a very moving time. As long as we have a bowl here, we're going to continue to do that every year because we think it's very important.

Then, of course, we ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange. We get the team captains, the head coaches, a few other representatives. What a great opportunity. I mean, 200 million people around the world see the ringing of the bell at the New York Stock Exchange. These kids get to experience it.

A lot of very special stuff.

Then of course the community outreach continues to be very important for us. We work with the Kids Pediatric Center at Memorial Sloan Kettering, then also the Red Cross of the greater New York area. We have both teams participating in that. A lot of kids signing stuff, giving out gifts. The charitable component is always a very important part of what the Yankee organization do, which the Steinbrenner family stands for, and what we as the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl want to stand for as well.

Amongst other things, the night before the game itself, we're going to light up the New York Skyline with the colors of the BC Eagles and the Nebraska Cornhuskers, 1 World Trade Center is going to be lit in both teams' colors as well as Bryant Park. You'll see the colors lighting up the sky the night before.

We also have a lot of other events planned for the traveling parties. We have a boat cruise. We're taking everyone on a boat cruise around the harbor. What's more New York than taking everyone on a boat cruise and seeing the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, where maybe their ancestors came in. We're trying to hit the highlights and make it very special for everyone.

THE MODERATOR: There's a lot to do in New York City.

MARK HOLTZMAN: In a short period of time (smiling).

THE MODERATOR: Bill O'Brien, first year at Boston College, first bowl appearance. How beneficial is it for the team to play in New York and be featured in this game at Yankee Stadium?

BILL O'BRIEN: This is a great honor for BC to play in this bowl in New York City in Yankee Stadium and to play legendary program like the University of Nebraska. I see Coach Rhule on the Zoom here. Just to have the honor to go up against him and his team just means a lot to Boston College.

Boston College is a unique place. We feel good about the season that we had. We feel like we're on the right track. What a way to cap it off by having a shot to go play in this bowl game.

So we're very honored to be in this bowl game, excited about the opportunity.

THE MODERATOR: Coach O'Brien, Coach Rhule, thank you so much for those thoughts. We'll start with some media Q&A.

Q. Given the fan bases for your respective schools, the alumni here in New York City, we know there's going to be plenty of diehard fans in the stands, but for the more maybe casual fan who is curious to come to Yankee Stadium and see a bowl game, how would you sell them on your team? What can they expect out of your squad?

BILL O'BRIEN: Who do you want to go first (laughter)?

MATT RHULE: I was going to defer to you, Coach (smiling).

BILL O'BRIEN: Look, I think we're a team that plays hard. We play tough. We realize the challenge that we have in playing the University of Nebraska.

We just are very excited to be in the bowl. We're very excited to have the opportunity to gain some more practice sessions, to keep developing this program. We're excited about traveling to New York City. I'm excited about seeing Coach Rhule. Haven't seen him in a long time.

Relative to our football team, we're going to show up and play. These guys play hard. They care about Boston College. They care about their teammates. We're looking forward to the game.

MATT RHULE: I think to echo that, people that are thinking about coming and watching the game, trying to make that decision, I think you're going to see two teams, I have great respect for Coach, and I have watched his team, two teams that love to play the game, they're physical. They're going to compete. This is going to be a game where both sides show up. Isn't that what we all want when we watch a bowl game? See people play the game and play it the right way.

My wife said, when I said it was Coach O'Brien and Boston College, what a classy team, classy coach. Our family's connections to Boston College, being the head coach at Temple, coaching at the Giants, which obviously a lot of the Mara family are Boston College people, Ed Foley is on our staff, whose brother Glenn was the quarterback at Boston College, whose dad was there. The ties to Boston College for us are great.

Two iconic brands, in today's college football, two classy organizations. I think people will see a great, great football game.

Q. Coach O'Brien, you're going to have a familiar face on the other sideline with John Butler, who's going to be the defensive coordinator at least for this bowl game. Going back to 2013, what do you remember from your experience working with him? What kind of defense can Nebraska fans expect?

BILL O'BRIEN: John is a very bright guy, did a good job for me at Penn State and the Houston Texans. Great knowledge of the game.

They're going to be a tough unit, very physical. You better be ready for a lot of different looks, a lot of different things that he can throw at you.

He has great background since he worked for me, working for obviously the Buffalo Bills, Sean McDermott, now at the University of Nebraska. Big challenge for us. Like I said, we're excited about it. We're very thrilled to be in this bowl. Just looking forward to the opportunity, looking forward to the game preparation and then looking forward to going against the University of Nebraska.

For me, I coached at Penn State. I know Matt went to Penn State. Playing the University of Nebraska is an honor because when I was at Penn State, we played them at Nebraska, at Happy Valley. Had two really tough games. Didn't win either one of them. That's what Nebraska football is.

Coach Rhule has carried that tradition on. They're very tough, very physical. I'm sure we can expect that from their defense.

Q. There's a lot of physical preparedness that goes into this. What is the mental preparedness from both teams?

MATT RHULE: For us, we started bowl prep last week. We started practicing last week. As Coach said earlier, this is an opportunity for our team to move forward. Once we knew it was Boston College on Sunday, now we've begun prep for them.

I think mentally for us, our guys will be prepared. This is an opportunity. We made some coaching changes. We've had some coaching changes. It's an opportunity for our guys to really get familiar with kind of what we're going to do and ask them to do versus the opponent.

So yeah, we're already in it. In fact, I left practice to come in and do this. I can hear them blowing the whistles outside. We're full steam ahead for this.

BILL O'BRIEN: Yeah, I would say very similar thoughts on that.

I look at this in many ways. For us at BC, this is the 2025 Boston College team. There's a lot of guys that will be playing in this game that will hopefully be playing for us next year.

These guys have a great opportunity. I told them this morning in the team meeting, we practiced this morning, I told in the team meeting there's only I think nine teams in the history of college football that have 900-plus wins. You're talking about Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan. You've got University of Nebraska. It's a great opportunity.

For a lot of these guys who are playing in this game for Boston College, man, it's a great opportunity to go out and play as good as you can play against a really good Big Ten opponent.

Mental preparation, I mean, if you can't get up to playing in a game like this, I think for our guys, I don't know, you might want to check yourself out a little bit.

Q. Blake, 7-5 regular season. The Pinstripe Bowl with a chance at eight. What does that mean to you and the program?

BLAKE JAMES: It is a great first year. So to be 7-5, to finish the way that we did, to have this opportunity to play a storied program like Nebraska, we're building this. Coach O'Brien is building it. I'm going to continue to do everything I can do from my position to give him the support that he needs to have this program be one that everyone who has an association with Boston College can be proud of.

I think we saw that on the field all 12 weeks this year. Looking forward to a game on December 28th against a great University of Nebraska team.

Q. Matt, when you had the opportunity when you found out that you were going to be in the Pinstripe Bowl, what was your reaction from your parents? With your upbringing, what kind of moment is this for you and your family?

MATT RHULE: Appreciate you asking that.

Yeah, my parents live in Omaha now. My sister just moved from Brooklyn to North Jersey a couple years ago. She works in the city. My dad was a minister at Times Church in Times Square. He was also a teacher, first at Calhoun on the Upper West Side, and then at Fieldston. My mom was sort of like an outreach social worker. She worked down in the Lower East Side.

For us, it's a chance to reconnect with friends. I grew up in Park Slope, 32nd and 2nd, lived over on Roosevelt Island. So I had all my buddies from Roosevelt Island hitting me up. Are you coming over? What are we going to do?

We love the city. It's home. It's been home for a long time. We love the people that are there. So it will be fun. It will be fun for my parents. It will be fun obviously to see my sister. But it will be fun for my wife and I and our kids.

As I said, in that time when I was out at Carolina, before I took a job at Nebraska, we brought our kids to the city. In our profession, you don't get a chance to do that, right? We did the Rockettes, we did the Lion King, Serendipity. All the things I grew up doing I had a chance to share with my kids. Now for the staff to share it with their kids.

Really for our players. Cam Lenhardt, who is from Staten Island, I had him explain to the guys how much fun this would be. Just walking around the streets of New York.

It's a special, special kind of full-circle moment for us. When I talked to John the other day, I conveyed that. I don't want to make it about our family, but we are very, very, very excited.

Q. Bill, what was your reaction, your family's reaction, when they were going to enemy territory, Yankee Stadium?

BILL O'BRIEN: We're all Yankee fans right now, I can promise you that.

We're excited. For my family and I to be able to have a chance, kind of what Coach Rhule just said, spend Christmas in New York City. That's a pretty cool opportunity for all these guys on our team, for the coaches and their families, the staff and their families. We're excited.

When we beat Pitt, we were looking at where we could possibly go, there was no doubt in our minds relative to BC, and Blake James did a great job with this, was that we wanted to play in this bowl. Such an opportunity to go play in New York City, which is a place where we have a lot of alums, a lot of support. Then playing in Yankee Stadium, I mean, like I said, I told the team today, what a great opportunity.

Then obviously my thing about these bowls is, this is my first bowl. I've never been to a bowl game as a head coach. I've been to several bowl games, but not as a head coach. When I was at Penn State, we were only double secret probation, we couldn't go to a bowl.

To be able to go to a bowl now and play an opponent like Nebraska, I think that was the big thing for us. Can we play a great legendary program? When we found out it was Nebraska, we were all very excited about the opportunity to go up against a program like that in Yankee Stadium around Christmastime. I mean, it's a very, very cool opportunity.

Q. The portal is open right now. You both have players that are going to be turning to NFL careers. How do you navigate that here in the bowl season? Do either of you have guys that are set to transfer who might participate, opt-outs?

BILL O'BRIEN: I can start that for you (laughter).

I have a few things to say about that. Look, our team is sticking together. I'm not going to get into who's doing what, all that.

Again, who makes these rules? Who opens the portal during the bowl season? I don't understand that. Like, the portal should be open after the bowl season. But that's just one man's opinion.

Look, for us at Boston College, we're trying to build a program where you really want to be here. You're coming to Boston College to play for a coaching staff that can develop you, you can get an unbelievable education at a place that really does an unbelievable job of giving back to the community.

It's a unique place. We got hired in February. We haven't even been here a full year. Like Blake said, we're going to try to keep building it the right way relative to Boston College.

The whole portal, things like that, I could sit here for hours. I don't want to speak for Coach Rhule at all, but you're trying to keep your team together, trying to get them ready to play a game, the portal pops up.

It is part of the deal. It's the system we live with. We deal with it every day and do the best we can.

MATT RHULE: I'll answer that question.

I do want to say one thing. We have a unique situation in that we had 150 guys to start the year. We signed 20 guys in our class, which puts us at 170. Lose 30 guys, 140, you have to get to 105. We have maybe 30 to 40 kids who walked on here, paid their own way to come to the University of Nebraska because they love it. They love what it means to be a Cornhusker. They want to be on this football team in whatever role. Many of them moving forward may not be able to because, as Coach O'Brien mentioned, some new rules.

I think as we all know, when something is meant to benefit some, it usually benefits the upper 10%, then there's a lot of collateral damage.

So we have a bunch of kids that don't know where they're going to be in the future. They don't have a place to go. Yet they still want be a part of this bowl because they love their team, they love Nebraska.

We live in a day, obviously our fan base is very excited about Nebraska, you guys cover them really well, but we cover a lot of the stories like, Hey, this one guy left. I would like to think about the 50 guys that instead of going on official visits right now to find a place, they're sticking around to go be a part of something that hasn't happened since 2016. This will be the last time many guys will get a chance to put on that helmet.

Talk about gratitude. I've been to some bowls before. Probably the most grateful I've ever been for a bowl. And I think about those kids that are there.

And I don't foresee anybody necessarily maybe -- each kid will be a little bit different. Everything is fluid. We have agents now. There was never an agent in college football legally; now everyone has agents and things like that. We'll deal with each kid as they come.

I think Coach O'Brien said it best. For us, this is a celebration from last year, but it's also a great start to next year. Looking forward to seeing the opportunity a lot of guys get.

I don't want us to ever forget, Nebraska is the walk-on program. That's in many ways coming to an end. This is really the last game for a lot of these kids.

It will mean a ton to me to be out there on the field with those guys. I prefer to think about that than the one or two kids that might leave that we'd like to stay. There's a lot of kids that want to be here.

BILL O'BRIEN: Can I add to that?

I think you have two head coaches on the call here that have put a lot of time into this profession. Don't want to really speak for Coach, but I will to say that Coach Rhule is a very accomplished coach. An NFL head coach, a guy that has resurrected programs wherever he's been.

When he talks about the 105, I said to our team this morning, one of the many things that University of Nebraska is known for is an incredible walk-on program. I think they called them Blackshirts back in the day when Coach Osborne was there.

The 105 rule might be the most ridiculous rule in my opinion. When I went to Penn State, the way we kept the team together was with walk-ons. We have a couple walk-ons from Penn State that are coming this week to watch us practice.

The walk-ons are the heart and soul of college football. So a guy pays whatever he pays to come to Boston College to get a great education, says, You know what? I want to play football. Our captain, Joe Marinaro, special teams captain, he was a walk-on that I awarded a scholarship to this fall. He was a walk-on for four years.

We don't have 150 like Matt does, but we have 120. At some point in time, we have to cut 15 kids to get to 105. That makes no sense to me. I don't know who makes those rules, but I would certainly love to sit down with them and discuss how important the walk-ons are to college football.

Q. Matt, there have been rumors about Dylan Raiola potentially entering the transfer portal. Are you able to confirm that Dylan will be playing in the Pinstripe Bowl later this month?

MATT RHULE: He's at practice right now, going through the game plan.

Again, I think this press conference is really more for the teams. I don't speak for our players. I know he put a message out last night. I think there's always going to be rumors. I don't deal in rumors. I deal in fact.

He's here. He's with us. He's been all in for us. He's a good enough player that every school in the country should probably come try to recruit him. That's the world we live in now.

But like I said, I think he's out there right now. This game will be more than about just one guy. It will be about our whole team. Excited to see the way that he plays.

Q. Troy, it's been a little while for this university in this position. How is it working for you guys from a logistics perspective in terms of the band, the cheerleaders, getting everyone to New York, how that's being financed?

TROY DANNEN: Well, I think even though maybe it's been a little bit for Nebraska, there was a plan in place here. Obviously I and my lieutenants have been at places where we've been through this before.

The logistics, we're not reinventing any wheels. We've got the band set. I think we'll have probably 150 band members there. The cheerleaders... It's not a bus trip. It's a little different.

Tracking down airplanes, getting people halfway across the country.

As has been said about the student-athletes are in the game, it's also going to be a new experience for everybody else that gets to be a part of this. The band, for Pete's sakes, is going to be on the field in Yankee Stadium. Who would have imagined when you signed up as a freshman when you signed up for band at the University of Nebraska that this is something you get to do in your career?

The opportunity here goes well beyond the student-athletes.

Q. Emmett Johnson entered the portal, then withdrew from the portal. How does that affect your game plan going into the weeks to come?

MATT RHULE: Yeah, full disclosure, the portal wasn't open till Monday. As people go through the post-season process, all different kinds of emotions and decisions, sticking points, financial points. How am I going to be used? I think it's different in every area. Just like for me as a head coach, I do that with my staff. I have staff that all try to figure out, What are my opportunities?

Yeah, I think we go out every day and we coach the players that are out there for that day. If a guy's got a class, then we don't coach him. If a guy is sick, we don't coach him. If a guy decides he wants to leave, we don't coach him.

I have a unique perspective in that I have conversations with a lot of these guys. There's lot of pressure on a lot of players. There's a lot that's there.

We love Emmett. He's a great player? His heart. We know he's always wanted to be a Husker. I think it's been good for all of us just to kind of get through the season, take the weekend off. Here we are.

Again, there's going to be all kinds of questions and conjecture. We need 11 guys on offense. We need 11 guys on defense. We need 11 guys on special teams. We still have 130-some guys on the roster. We're going to bring a big group to New York.

Dana is brilliant. He will game plan, have it ready. I know Emmett will be a big part of that game plan.

I do want to say this. Rahmir Johnson has given six years to this program, a ton of injuries. I think one of the things we're all excited about is he obviously grew up in Harlem. I think we're all excited to send him off at home. I know Emmett is excited about that.

Yeah, I'm not giving a great answer other than this is a very stoic time. Just like I can't complain about the portal and then recruit it (smiling). I'm with Bill. The times is a little bit off.

We're going to recruit the heck out of the portal. The guys that need to be here will be here.

Q. Obviously Mark went through all the activities planned. Memorably Steve Addazio said he was coming to New York to look for a 'meaningful meatball'. What do you want to do if you get some time to sneak away in New York a little bit?

BILL O'BRIEN: Obviously you can tell by this FaceTime, whatever we call this, Zoom, I'm looking forward to eating. I enjoy eating. I know the restaurants and all those things are great.

I'm actually really looking forward to seeing Yankee Stadium. I'm looking forward to Radio City Music Hall. I think New York City is obviously one of the greatest cities in the world. To be able to take our team there, the staff, the support staff, the administration, I think it's going to be a cool four or five days, whatever it is, in New York City.

I'm looking forward to the whole thing.

MATT RHULE: Yeah, I think first of all I'm excited to take my daughters. My daughters are nine and 12. My son is 20. They've never been to where I grew up. I'm excited to take them on the tram, take them back to where I went to school, where I did things. That will be fun for me.

I'm excited to find a nice Christmas Eve feast of seven fishes type deal. Where else can you do that other than New York? I'm sure my wife has some reservations. I'm excited to see the bill every night for my wife and daughters when they go out shopping every night.

Maybe we should play this game, coach, where the other guy has to pay for whatever the bill is.

BILL O'BRIEN: Split the bill. Split the shopping bill (laughter). I forgot about that.

MATT RHULE: The American (indiscernible) store has seeing nothing like Vivienne and Leona (laughter).

Q. Matt alluded to this, Troy and Coach Rhule. It's been a while since Nebraska's fans have been to a bowl game. From the alumni and donor side, how much excitement have you guys kind of heard about not just getting to a bowl game but to play in this bowl game specifically?

TROY DANNEN: We put tickets out. We haven't gotten outside of our donor base, just the first tier of donors. I think we sold about three thousand tickets in the first day. There is a lot of energy and enthusiasm.

It goes back, we said this over and over again on this call, but there is something special about the holidays in New York City. We've got enough natives, we have enough folks who spent time in New York, that are spreading the word throughout our fan base.

We've talked a lot. There's a lot of options for them, whether it's Midtown Manhattan or whether they want to go across the river, which probably is even closer to Yankee Stadium. Just so many options, so many things to experience.

I've had people whose bucket list is to get to the Garden on Christmas Day. They have watched that basketball game year after year after year. Now they have a chance to go to the Garden and watch a basketball game.

My daughter lives on 80th Street in Manhattan. There are things you take for granted when you're there that the people that don't get to be there regularly just can't wait to take part in.

Q. Matt, you mentioned talking about the son of Bob Devaney about the 1962 Gotham Bowl. Can you talk about that bowl, how that helped propel the program forward?

MATT RHULE: Bob's son Mike has been a tremendous supporter just personally, a guy with a message, a good word, telling stories about his dad. He actually told a story that there was a newspaper strike at the time, so word maybe wasn't out. People didn't know about the game. They got there and it was really, really, really cold. Coach Devaney said, Knock them down on the first play, make these guys not want to play this game.

I knew that when I first took the job. I knew that was the first bowl game that he played. For me, as I've said, since I was at Temple, this is a bowl game, what an experience for my team, me. Even being on the YES Network, one of the people that hired me and was a great supporter at Temple was a guy named Lewis Katz. And his son Drew Katz I call one of my best friends to this day, part owners of the Yankees, owned the Nets and Devils, started the YES Network.

There's a lot of full-circle moments. To tie that in with Coach Devaney was really cool. We believe we're here for something really special at Nebraska. We are trying to kind of -- had to dig our way of this drought. To have it start and be the same place that Coach Devaney started is really cool. Look forward to following in his footsteps with some other things moving forward.

Q. I wanted to ask both coaches about Yankee Stadium itself. Coach O'Brien, you said you were looking forward to coming here. Have you ever been here before? Coach Rhule, you've kind of alluded to the fact that you came here as a youngster. What memories do you have of Yankee Stadium from back in the day?

BILL O'BRIEN: I have not been to Yankee Stadium ever. We have a guy on the staff who's one of my closest friends named Doug Marrone, who grew up in the Bronx, one of the top five biggest Yankee fans of all time. Nobody is more excited than him for me to be able to come and see this stadium, where so many legendary players, legendary games have been played... I have a little bit of a baseball family. My youngest son plays baseball at Tufts. He's a lefty pitcher across the city here in Medford.

He's so excited to be in Yankee Stadium and watch this game. I think there's a reception at Yankee Stadium when we first get here, things like that.

I'm just thrilled to be able to be in this stadium, to be able to coach a football game in this stadium. I can't wait. I've never seen it. I've driven by it several times but never been in it. Just really looking forward to it.

MATT RHULE: Part of my upbringing growing up on Roosevelt Island, like I said, was saying the subway up to Yankee Stadium and watching games, watching Dave Winfield, watching Don Mattingly. Watching the iconic heroes.

Yeah, this will be something. I grew up going to old Yankee Stadium. When I was an assistant coach with the Giants, had a chance to go over and see new Yankee Stadium, go to a game there.

I've had many opportunities to be there in my life. It's really a special part of me growing up. I just can't wait to share it with my kids and my team.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. We want to thank one more time from Nebraska Troy Dannen and Matt Rhule, and from Boston College Bill O'Brien and Blake James.

The game will air on ABC Saturday, December 28th, at noon.