Quotes: Nebraska 40, Colorado 31
November 28, 2008 | Football
Colorado Coach Dan Hawkins
On what he tells his team after the game
"Proud of them. I was really proud of them. I don't think I've ever been more proud of one of our teams. Our guys battled, scrapped, they gave it everything they had, not an inch left. (Safety Patrick) Manhke played most of the second half with a separated shoulder. Those guys, nothing but guts. They laid it out there. You've got to tip your hat to Nebraska. The kid (Alex Henery) stepped up and made a huge kick, and that's the nature of it. You've got to tip your hat to a guy like that. He made a big play. Our guys battled."
On if it was his team's best game of the season
"Well, it's hard to say. We'll go back and look at the film. Clearly, just in terms of where we're at and all that, I think again they just continue to show tremendous resolve. I'm really proud of our coaches and our guys for how positive they stayed, and continue to coach and teach and our guys to hang in there and scrap. Even when no one give you a chance, you've got a chance."
On if he thought it would be a close game after CU's fast start
"You know they're very explosive, so it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to hold up forever. I thought our guys handled it good too. I don't think they got ahead and said "Alright great, we're good to go." We knew we wanted to get a fast start, and we talked about that the last couple weeks. I think it's important obviously when you play on the road to get that going and get that momentum happening."
On how much the coaches stressed to watch for NU's fake field goal
"Coach (Kent) Riddle was all over that. That was all Coach Riddle right there, and he did a great job. Down here a couple years ago, we gave up a few plays on special teams, but I thought Coach Riddle did a great job of preparing our guys, and they did a good job paying attention, and Jimmy (Smith) was right where he was supposed to be."
On what the young guys learned from the game
"It's never easy. I think clearly we're on the right path, and our guys are doing the right things, and they've got a great future ahead of them.I thought we got a little more aggressive last week against (Oklahoma) State, and got more aggressive this week, and got more confidence, so I think the guys have a little belief going into the offseason that if we get all healed up and and grow up we're going to be fine."
Quarterback Cody Hawkins
On the mood in the locker room
“There are a lot of upset guys, including myself. I know everyone in there put their heart and soul in this game over the last two weeks and unfortunately at the end it didn't go our way."
On how this can be used as a springboard for next year
"It's going to be tough but I think we have a lot of young guys who have learned how it is going into a hostile environment to fight hard to try and get that win. Their guy made a great play at the end which put us in a tough situation. They did an awesome job but we have very few seniors, so a lot of the young guys can use this as motivation going into next year. Guys will find that fire inside, we will get the guys missing this year healthy, and hopefully have a great spring."
Safety Patrick Mahnke
On what it feels like to play with a separated shoulder and a broken rib
"It hurts but you have to do what you have to do."
On if he thought Nebraska would attempt the late field goal
"No, I didn't think they were going to try that because it was 57 yards."
On what the team can take from this for the future
"Playing here gives you a lot of experience. It gives you a feel for everything and our effort gives us a lot to build on."
Nebraska Coach Bo Pelini
On Pelini's decision to have Alex Henery kick the game-winning field goal
"I just wanted him (Alex Henery) to look me in the face and tell me he felt he had it in him. He kind of looked at it. Normally his range is around 52 (yards). He looked at me and said, 'I made it in warmups. I've been hitting it good.' And I said, 'All right let's go.' He cleared it pretty good. Obviously he hit it well. It doesn't surprise me, the guy's a stud. He's been doing it since he got here. He's just made kick after kick, and I'm glad he's on our team."
On Henery's 57-yard field goal
"Obviously, it's a feeling of relief. We didn't play our best football today. We started off defensively and had a couple of busted assignments. We let them jump on us. Then our team fought back like they have all year. They came back and they tied the football game. I felt like we were in control and then I made the bone-headed call (the field goal fake). I would have been kicking myself for a long time because if we didn't win the football game, I would have taken responsibility because I felt the game changed when I made that call. I'm a grown man, and I made a mistake. I made a bad call. I got greedy at that point. I wanted to jump on them, and I would have been really upset if we would have lost. I felt if we would have lost that football game had we not made that kick, obviously it would have been all on my shoulders. It would have been hard for me to live with that. Especially after all these seniors have done, the character they've shown and the things they've done. I would have hated for that to happen to them, especially if I'm the centerpiece for screwing it up for them. I tried to, but they bailed me out."
On Ndamukong Suh's interception
"He thinks he's Walter Payton, so I said do your thing."
On the win
"You take them any way you can get them. I give Colorado a lot of credit. They played hard, they made some plays and it was a hard-fought football game. It was a wild game. I know one thing, the fans got their money's worth today. You have to give them credit. It was fun. I'll take them any way I can get them. I thought there were a couple we left out there early in the year and we could've should've won the football game and today kind of made up for it. We made enough plays at the end to win, but we definitely made it hard on ourselves but we made enough plays to screw it up. We had a couple of turnovers, not executing in the right areas, some dropped balls, some things that weren't so good. I think they ended up with 291 yards (Colorado) and I think they had about 150 after the first five plays. They made the plays, but we just had busts. We just did not execute in the first five or six plays in the football game. We gave them a big jump out on us. I told the team after the game it was fitting that we won that way. They've showed resolve all year. They showed character. They look adversity in the eye and they keep coming back. They did it again today, so it doesn't surprise me."
On heading into a bowl game
"We've come a long way. We're 8-4 and I wish we were better than that, but we've done a lot of good things. I don't know where we're going to end up - which bowl game - but I know it will be a good one. We want to finish it out well. Play well in the final game. It's going to be important for our program because it gives us a number of more practices to work with the young guys and that's big. We want to do that, but we want to win the game wherever we end up going."
On the message he wants to give to recruits
"I think we're a better football team now than what we were when I got here in January. I think we've progressed a lot, and I think there's momentum. We're hungry. We are by no means where we want to be. We're not going to be satisfied around here at Nebraska until we win them all. That's what I'm about, that's what everybody in this program and Coach Osborne is about. It starts with him. He set the table with what the expectations should be in this program, and I took over this program fully knowing what this program expectations are, and I share those expectations. As do the players and everybody associated with the University of Nebraska football program. That's the message we give to recruits. If you want to come be a part of something special then come on. We're going to be out there and hitting the road and get all the best players possible that are going to represent this program the right way and play great football.
