10 things we learned from NU's weekly press conference

As much as Nebraska wanted to preach messages of “hitting the reset button” on the season and turning the page to Purdue, the reality of its 0-3 start is unavoidable.

Senior linebacker Luke Gifford said watching the film of Saturday’s 56-10 loss at Michigan “makes you want to throw up,” and senior safety Tre Neal said the loss was even more frustrating to look back on because of how many little mistakes resulted in major breakdowns.

The players said Monday’s practice was another good start to the week, one you would expect from a team that had just lost the embarrassing way it did to the Wolverines. But the Huskers know that it is going to take much more than a few good practices to fix their laundry list of issues.

“It’s one of those things where you kind of have to look yourself in the mirror," Neal said. "Nobody wants to start 0-3. A lot of people, when things go bad in their life ... a lot of people like to quit. They tend to just give up on things, and you know, that’s when the love thing comes into play.

"If you love it, of course you’re playing to win. It should kill you so badly that you’re losing games that you want to win, so you want to keep fighting and keep doing that."

Head coach Scott Frost said his message this week was that things obviously needed to get better in a hurry, but he also is making sure not to a bad start didn't bury his team for the rest of the year.

“Nobody’s more frustrated than me, but I’m also never going to panic," Frost said. "I know what we’re asking guys to do works, maybe this is a little bigger fix or it’s taking longer than what I expected. There’s no question in my mind that we’re going to get it fixed.

"I came here for a reason. I had other opportunities, came here for a reason, because I want to be here. This is the team I want to coach. We’re doing the same things that we’ve done with other teams to turn them into winners. In fact, we’re working harder at it. It’s going to come."

The one advantage Nebraska has had compared to the previous two weeks is that it knows with certainty that true freshman Adrian Martinez will be the starting quarterback against Purdue.

With Martinez’s availability in doubt leading up to NU’s games vs. Troy and Michigan, the Huskers spent those two weeks of practices preparing for either Martinez or sophomore Andrew Bunch to lead the offense.

While Bunch will continue to get work given Martinez’s still-recovering injured right knee, Frost said the offense would benefit from building its game plan around Martinez being the guy.

“More than anything (it will help) having just one guy getting the reps with the first group," Frost said. "Other than going into Colorado, we haven’t played a game where we have one guy getting the reps that was going to play in the game, and that only lasted for three quarters.

"Both those guys I think have done a good job. They were under duress on Saturday, but Bunchy did a good job, Adrian battled. And experiences like those are great for them to get even though the outcome was very bad.”

Frost and defensive coordinator Erik Chinander made it clear that the Blackshirts were not automatically a season-long honor, and players who earned them would have to continue to play up that standard to keep them.

It’s hard to say any of the eight current Blackshirts – aside from maybe linebacker Mohamed Barry and cornerback Dicaprio Bootle – lived up to that billing at Michigan.

But Gifford said no Blackshirts were revoked prior to Monday’s practice, and the players took that as a second chance to make sure they got back to earning the coveted practice jerseys once again.

"Honestly, at first, I was kind of conflicted with that," Gifford said. "But I think at the end of the day we still have to play with the same confidence and swagger a Blackshirt would, and what happened on Saturday is never acceptable.

"We still have to be Blackshirts come Saturday, and we can’t let a game like that completely alter the way we play think of ourselves.”

After Saturday’s game, a couple of Michigan players called out the Huskers for seemingly quitting on the game.

"We knew they ain't want to play," UM junior safety Josh Metellus said. "You could just tell the intensity, it was kind of flat. I just knew personally that they didn't want to play with us."

Said senior defensive end Chase Winovich:

"It seemed like they didn't really want to be out there at some points… You just feel it. There's something about this game; there's an energy to it. You look at the person across from you.

"Whether it's their play calling, how they operate, how they move about -- I just didn't feel like they wanted it as bad as we did. And we wanted it bad, so I don't blame them."

Asked to respond to the Wolverines’ comments, Nebraska’s players said they disagreed but didn’t exactly fault their opponents for those opinions given how lopsided the game was.

“Obviously they beat us by 50, so they can say what they want to say, but I didn’t feel that way,” Gifford said. “A lot of guys on our defense didn’t feel that way.”

For the third week in a row, Nebraska got back to work on Monday with a strong first practice to start the week.

Given how each of those following Saturday’s ended up, the Huskers aren’t putting too much stock into Monday’s effort.

"Today was a good practice, but the last three Mondays have been good practices," Gifford said. "It’s not Monday that’s been killing us; it’s Wednesday and Thursday, when the grind is tough and we’ve been working hard all week, so those are the days that are really going to make the difference up.”

Frost even admitted after the Michigan game that his team had one of its worst practices that previous Thursday, and the same mistakes that happened during that session showed up on game day.

"We started off the week really well last week and then it got progressively worse on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday," Frost said. "I’m not sure why. Hopefully it doesn’t happen this week. Our best week of preparation was the Colorado game week as a whole.

"I talk about being better every single day, we weren’t better in preparation the last two weeks. There’s a lot of circumstances with new quarterbacks and things of that nature, but there’s no excuse if you’re going to get ready to play well. It doesn’t just happen on Saturday it has to happen on the field at practice.”

Of all Nebraska’s woes through the first three games, the plethora of special teams miscues might be some of the most pressing areas to address.

The Huskers haven’t been good in any element on special teams, and while coordinator Jovan Dewitt might be the face of the unit, Neal said it was just as much on the players.

“Sometimes we think, 'No, they aren’t running it my way this time. We can cruise a little bit for a few seconds,'" Neal said. "Then it breaks and you’re like, 'Oh crap,' and you’re getting blocked and that’s when big things happen.

"We’ve got to treat it as if the ball is coming to my side every time... We can’t take for granted the reps you’re getting. We have to treat every rep like it’s the last one we’re going to get.”

Frost wouldn’t say whether there would be any further personnel changes on special teams this week, he was very blunt about what NU had to do the most to improve its third element.

“Well, fielding punts and not giving up touchdowns on punt returns would be a good start,” Frost said.

Anyone who watched Saturday’s loss could see that Nebraska’s offensive line stood no chance against the Wolverine’s dominant defensive front.

It got so bad that Frost opted to pull Martinez out of the game at halftime to keep him healthy, only to have to put him right back in the game after Bunch got hurt on his first snap.

That marked the second straight game where NU’s offensive line struggled mightily, but Frost refused to put the Huskers’ problems solely on the unit’s shoulders.

However, Frost didn’t rule out some younger linemen seeing more snaps in the rotation going forward. Nebraska played 10 different guys on the o-line on Saturday, including a completely new group in the second half.

"We've got a couple young guys that I think are getting close to being ready to play at guard," Frost said. "Other than that, we are playing the guys that give us the best chance to win, and we've just got to make sure we keep working and coaching and trying to make the guys we've got better.”

If the Michigan loss showed Frost anything, it was that he still had a whole lot of work to do to get his roster up to par with the Big Ten’s best.

Frost said it wasn’t just one or two specific position groups that needed an influx of talent, but that the Huskers needed to revamp across the board with new players and more depth.

“Recruiting is big for us all over," Frost said. "We didn’t look like Michigan looked on Saturday and that’s the part that recruiting gets you. We've got to continue to recruit well.

"A great thing for us right now in recruiting is I think we’re going to be able to go out and tell people that this is a big-time place and an unbelievable environment to play, and there’s going to be an opportunity to come in and compete to play early because of our holes and lack of depth in some places.”

Some bit of good news was that Martinez said he actually didn’t feel all that bad despite getting knocked around at Michigan.

“My knee felt great out there,” Martinez said. “I felt in good physical shape. I’ll be even better going into this week.”

That’s especially encouraging for the Huskers because they’re going to need him not only to stay on the field this season but to continue to be a weapon as a runner.

Martinez said he was ready and willing to take on whatever role his coaches asked of him, even if it meant picking up his workload in the running game.

Frost said that while they had to be careful not to wear Martinez down and put him at risk for further injury, he was big and strong enough to handle more wear and tear than most players his age.

“Adrian weighs about as much as I did when I was playing here,” Frost said. “And I think, in the future, he’ll be about durable enough to do whatever we want to. The situation we’re in, we’ll be a little careful, but we have to call whatever play we think is going to work.”

During his postgame press conference on Saturday, Frost said his team needed to turn the page on the Michigan loss and focus on next week’s game vs. Purdue.

In doing so, he also raised a few eyebrows in talking about his team’s chances vs. the Boilermakers.

“We get a game we can win next week,” Frost said. “We got to find a way to get better.”

That comment certainly wasn’t lost on Purdue, and head coach Jeff Brohm said his team had been made well aware of what Frost had to say.

“Well, you're correct,” Brohm said when asked if he told his players about Frost’s quote. “I think that obviously he was talking after a loss that he didn't like very much, so I get it.

“But no, I think everything that's said is heard, and our team needs to respond and understand that we've got to show up ready to play and this team will be licking their chops trying to get us.”