10 things we learned from Nebraska's press conference

Nebraska head coach Scott Frost and several players met with reporters on Monday for their weekly press conference inside Memorial Stadium to preview this week's home game at Purdue.

Here are 10 of the most interesting things we learned from the day...

Like his former coach Tom Osborne, Frost has never been one to scream and curse at his players to get his point across.

But like his other former coaches like Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick, Frost also isn’t afraid to get after his guys when necessary.

That point finally came after the Huskers’ ugly loss to Indiana on Saturday. Frost said he “ripped into” his players in the locker room after the game about the lack of focus, execution, and accountability that had been going on for far too long.

"There comes a time and a place when you have to rip some tails, honestly," Frost said."That’s what we did. But I wanted our players to understand the reason we did that, why we did that and wanted them to know that it is never personal. The guys get it.

"Talking to the captains, they want some of that to make sure guys are conscientious to do their jobs better and more precisely. I still feel like that is what we are missing a little bit is just the guys caring enough to do their job perfect on Saturdays and practice all the time.

"Because it is close, but, we can’t do those little things and shoot ourselves in the foot. We are not a good enough team right now.”

Frost and his staff have tried about every approach possible to get through to their players the importance that preparing the right way has on a team’s play on game day.

At some point, though, it comes down to the players on the field taking that message to heart and locking in on all the “little things” that have been forgotten or ignored during NU’s 4-4 start to the year.

Team captains Darrion Daniels and Matt Farniok both stressed that the coaches could only do so much and that it was ultimately on the Husker players to hold up their end of the bargain on every practice rep and every game snap.

“It comes down to just being personal; take every rep personal," Farniok said. "In practice, you can’t ever relax. You can’t ever take a play off - 'I’m kind of tired, I’ll go 75 percent.' It needs to be 100 percent every time because those little things, they add up and they will show.

"Those little things, like easing off the gas, those show up in the game. Those lead to the lack of focus. That’s what leads to us making mistakes. I think everyone kind of took it personal. We know he’s right because we’ve hurt ourselves now. We’ve hurt ourselves to losing two games for sure."

We just shot ourselves in the foot when we needed it most. We lacked the focus to get it done. We’re finally kind of understanding how and why we need to be so intent and so focused on what we do.”

It’s rare for a true freshman to come in and have the level of impact that Wan’Dale Robinson has had during his first year at Nebraska.

But beyond his heavy workload on the field, though, Robinson has quickly emerged as a respected voice of what Frost wants his program to become.

Despite his age and inexperience, Robinson took the post-game podium following the Indiana loss and called out himself and his teammates for their lack of focus and attention to detail.

For veteran leaders like Farniok, it didn’t matter that Robinson was just a true freshman; his message hit home because it was the truth.

“He’s right," Farniok said. "If it’s not good enough, it’s not good enough. It doesn’t matter. If you feel that it’s not good enough, it’s not good enough. In my opinion, there should never really be a doubt. If there’s a doubt, it’s not good enough. He voices his thoughts and how he felt, and he’s not wrong."

The good news is that Nebraska has three quarterbacks it feels good about handing the keys of the offense to in Adrian Martinez, Noah Vedral, and now true freshman Luke McCaffrey.

The bad news is all three players are nursing injuries entering this week’s preparations for Purdue.

Martinez has missed the past two games with a knee injury he suffered against Northwestern on Oct. 5. He was a game-time decision for Indiana and even suited up and went through pre-game warmups before ultimately being held out.

Noah Vedral made his second start in place of Martinez vs. the Hoosiers, but for the second straight game had to leave the game with an injury. The sophomore was able to return in the fourth quarter after getting dinged up in the first half, but his status this week is unknown.

Then there’s McCaffrey, who made his true debut against Indiana after Vedral went down and played well in his first college experience. But he too left the game with an injury late in the fourth and did not return.

"Right now they are all three nicked up, so we are going to have to do the best we can in the short term," Frost said.

There was only one notable change to Nebraska’s depth chart this week, and it provided some reassuring news for the Huskers’ special teams.

Sophomore kicker Barret Pickering, who missed the first seven games of the season with a lingering injury before finally returning to action vs. Indiana, is now listed as the No. 1 placekicker for Purdue week.

Pickering, who started as a true freshman last season and made 40-of-41 extra-point and 14-of-18 field goals, made all four of his PATs and was 1-of-2 on field goals on Saturday.

He missed his first field goal try from 32 yards out in the second quarter but hit from 30 to tie the game at 24-24 with 2:53 left in the third.

Purdue needs all the help it can get at this point in the season, and there’s a chance that it could get a huge boost with the return of do-it-all sophomore Rondale Moore.

Moore, who has been out since suffering a hamstring injury against Minnesota on Sept. 28, could potentially return to action this week after missing the past four games.

A former Freshman All-American who ranked as one of the most productive all-around players in the country last season, Moore will continue to get work in practice over the course week.

Purdue head coach Jeff Brohm told reporters on Monday that the team won’t make an official decision on Moore’s status until closer to Saturday’s kickoff.

"Right now, when it comes to where we are at in the injury front, it’s probably better for me to wait toward the end of the week and tell you where we are at,” Brohm said. “There are quite a few (injuries)."

While Moore’s status remains to be seen, Nebraska does know which quarterback will be under center for Purdue on Saturday.

Brohm announced that redshirt freshman Jack Plummer, who has started the past four games since starter Elijah Sindelar was injured vs. Minnesota, would again get the nod this week against the Huskers.

That’s notable because Plummer was benched not once, but twice in Saturday’s loss to Illinois for walk-on Aiden O’Connell. Brohm hinted after the game that the starting QB job would be an open competition this week in practice, but it sounds like Plummer will be the guy now.

"Right now, Jack Plummer will start for us,” Brohm said. “We will get both quarterbacks ready to play. Like always, it’s never as good as you think after a game, it’s never as bad as you think. We need to make a few better decisions early on."

It should be noted that Purdue did not issue a depth chart this week for the first time all season.

There are plenty of natural comparisons between Robinson and Moore as two of the most versatile and dynamic players in the Big Ten.

But their relationship extends well beyond just being competitors on the field

Robinson said he and Moore had been close friends for years going back to when they first started training together back in high school in their hometown of Louisville, Ken.

The players still keep in touch regularly to this day and workout together whenever they are both back home during school breaks.

"Me and Rondale know each other pretty well," Robinson said. "We've trained together since I was a junior in high school. Training together we were always competing with each other and doing things like that.

"He was almost like a brother to me especially going through the recruiting process and asking him about what type of things he had to go through and things like that. He's just been a really, really big help with me."

Nebraska’s defense had plenty of issues against Indiana, and it certainly didn’t help that Daniels was hardly able to play after he, too, suffered an injury in the game.

Daniels said he only played five total snaps vs. the Hoosiers, which left a major void in the middle of the Huskers’ defensive line.

The senior nose guard said, "Yeah, I should be" OK this week against Purdue, but his status will be worth monitoring as the week goes on.

As if Frost didn’t have enough to deal with in the aftermath of the loss to Indiana, the Hoosiers added even more drama with some unexpected accusations regarding some things that were supposedly said by Nebraska leading up to the game.

According to IU head coach Tom Allen, athletic director Fred Glass, and several players, the Hoosiers had gotten wind of some comments allegedly made by Frost and his staff regarding Indiana’s program.

There was nothing said publicly during NU’s week of interviews, and the thought is Indiana was referring to something that may have been said on the recruiting trail.

Whatever it was, Frost said he had no clue what had Indiana so riled up.

“We’ve been scratching our heads wondering what that is about," Frost said. "We don’t have any ideas with it, but I’d be curious to know. I couldn’t have been nicer or more complimentary towards Coach (Allen) before and after the game. We had a ton of respect for their team and where they’ve gotten their team to.

"I told them that before the game and told them how good of a job they must be doing because of where their team had been playing. I told them that their offensive coordinator was doing a really good job and I told them after the game that I was really happy for them.

"I have no idea where it came from. If there’s something that we did, I’d like to know, but that’s a dead issue to me. We’re going to treat every opponent we play with respect. They’re certainly having a good year, so they deserve the success.”