Um, I'll say something first. Um. You know, I, I just like to, I think in moments like this you you should you should, you should always start, start with gratitude and um. Very, very, very grateful to Troy Dannon. To President Gold. The board for their confidence in me. And us our staff. Very grateful to my wife and kids who Allow me to do this job and moved here very grateful to the fan base. I'm very grateful to the. The City of Lincoln and the state of Nebraska, this has become our home and uh we love it here. And um Most importantly I'm grateful for our players, you know, um. I was at *** 0.3 years ago when they hired me here, um. Or I've gone through something hard and I know people sometimes think well you're well compensated for it, but I can just tell you it's those things can break people and um. Um, you know, I've rediscovered my love of this game and coaching and all that with these guys that are here and so, you know, this, this process went on it was, I think I was very honest with you guys the first day, um, we wanted to be here and we expect to be here for *** long time and uh we have much, much, much more to do and uh we're not pleased with where we are but we are pleased with the direction we're headed and I think that's uh that's uh. That's uh hopefully *** message that we can send all the recruits, all the players that this is the place to be and um and we want to be here. With that I'll answer any questions you have. I had *** quote about alignment here. Just how big *** deal was that? Just the alignment you feel is in place, uh, at the I don't think you can do anything without great alignment, um. You know, Um, And you have to think about when I got here, like I came here thinking like wow we have great alignment, you know, it was like, hey, you know, the president, the Chancellor, the AD and then they all were gone. And um You know, the, the great thing about this for me is, you know, when you're *** head coach and they bring in another athletic director, you know, it's, he didn't hire you and so for Troy to come to me with this, um, I, I think he started talking to me like at week 3 and really maybe maybe you know we just say, hey, you know, let's talk about this, um. You know, it lets you know that he, you're his coach, you know, and, uh, the same way with Doctor Gold. I mean, lots of people, you know, they're there for those good moments, you know, after we lost to Minnesota, Doctor Gold, as I'm walking on the field, runs up to me, shakes my hand and says, you know, he came in the locker room. I mean, you don't find that very many places and so. For me, um, you know, I know everyone wants to win, but usually people have different ideas of how to do it and everyone wants to win until it gets really hard and then people have *** tendency to back away and what we have here is we have people that are willing to do the hard things. And um invest, you know, I think at the very first day I got here it was like, hey, I know the optics are gonna be why are you hiring this many people? Why are you doing this? Why do but you can't live in optics, you know, I mean you have to live in, you have to live in, hey, this is college football is changing and this is do this has been do or die time for universities and the alignment we have and the willingness to invest in the program to invest in the facilities and I think you're seeing uh *** great time in the Husker athletics like. You know, I, I, I, I couldn't imagine telling my daughters like, hey, guess what, we're not gonna go, we're not gonna go to the Husker women's volleyball games because we're gonna take another day. They would be like, what, you know, that we told them last night, like, hey, we, it wasn't signed to some people put some things out yesterday and it wasn't true, and I was hoping to get to today and have it be done. And my daughter's like, Oh, that's cool. Um, can you get us 4 tickets to the Huskers volleyball game on Sunday? Like just what what *** what *** like unparalleled. I mean, it maybe happened before, what I've never been *** part of so much athletic excellence to see wrestling. I can't wait to watch basketball. I can't wait to baseball and go, so, um, just to be *** small part of that, but that comes from the top, that comes from the board, that comes from the president that certainly comes from Troy and his team. You might have been *** candidate for many jobs in theory, but obviously it's natural that Penn State when that opened up, you would have been one for that. Was there *** moment of just reflection there and why ultimately do you feel like this is, this is *** better job than that job? I, I, I, I won't speak on any other jobs and, you know, just out of respect for everybody else and, and all I'll say is, um, you know, as I said to you guys that that one day this has happened every year where someone's called, right? Like, and so, um, and, and, um. But this is, this is our home. Like we love living here. Um, I, I just can't say that enough, right? Like I, I just, at the end of the day it's football's football, like, you know, I'm gonna get up and I'm gonna get in my car at whatever time in the morning, come in and work and then drive home. My kids are gonna go to school. They're gonna be in the community. My wife's gonna run her business. My wife's gonna be out in the community and like sometimes she, Julie goes into the office on Sunday after we beat Northwestern. She also went in the office in her business on Sunday after Minnesota and um people have just absolutely welcomed us and embraced us and I mean my goals, my goal is to win enough games here that someday I can retire here and people you know are nice to me in the gas station, you know, like. Who's that? Oh, here he is again. I'm that that's, that's all I've ever wanted. And so I see the like, I go out to practice yesterday. And Coach Darlington, so it was so cold on Tuesday, and everyone's standing watching practice inside the worst, so I said close the doors. If you wanna be at practice, you gotta stand outside. I looked out there yesterday. It was the coldest days I've ever coached, and I, I coach in shorts every day, right? George Darlington is sitting in *** chair outside the closed door. I said, Guys, open the door for Coach Darlington, please. But like I think about the life he's lived, right? You know, I know he left for *** little bit, came back, and so it's just, it's just home. And so for me it wasn't about necessarily even the job and I'll just tell you, Sam, um, I. I, I've left too many teams. I left too many players and the players always understood. They were always grateful to me. I could not leave these guys. I love this team and I love this group and I love where we're headed. I love the recruits. Every recruit that called me when this my name started, I said, I'm not going anywhere. There's been no like, so this was for, and I think people mis mis minimize like, like that woman right there, like she's moved all over creation for me and she's done everything for me like she loves it here. My kids love it here. I love it here, so. About the timing today this moment that made it right, that's really, you know, trying them and like I said, they, they, I mean. You know, I've representative and they kind of handle all those things. My thing was, hey, whenever it's done I wanna sign it, I wanna do it. I, I don't want, I don't want our team. Being like I know coach says he's here, but I don't want the, I wanna send *** message to the recruits. I wanna send *** message to our players. You know, um, Like, uh, sometimes people go other places and then they're like, oh, I, yeah, I can't tell you coaches that have left have called me and said, Gosh, I wish I wouldn't have left. So it's like it's just, it's just I wanted to get it over with and done with, and, uh, but, but this is like this didn't start two weeks ago. This was, you know, kind of they start talking to me about this weeks and weeks and earlier and I from the whole time it's always been the we wanna be there. That's it. I, I, I, I, I wanna, I want to, I want to, want to, want to give this team everything I have and not be distracted with anything else. So when they were able to get it done, you know, we were able to get it done. *** couple weeks ago you talked about the investment that you wanna see from Nebraska. What have you seen since that and, and what's your continued hope about investment into the roster? Yeah, since, since the, since the day that Troy got here, there's nothing that he hasn't done, and, um, you know, I just think that that was an opportunity for me to make sure everybody out there knows like, you know, hey, this is the future of college football, and I want us to be just at the forefront so it's more philosophical they came to me hey we're gonna do this, this they've already been doing those hey we're gonna do this, this and this. I just think like Um, I think when you look at our legacy and our history at Nebraska, who we are that we're the first to do so many things and so um that was an opportunity like this isn't like, oh hey, you know, I mean. The contract goes to what years? 2032. The chances I'm alive in 2032, honestly, like I mean like, like this was the two years I pre this is this is about the program and it's about stability and it's about investing, you know, and so I, I, Troy's been amazing. Doctor Gold's been amazing, the board, I mean, you know, there's things that have to be done, and these are really, really uncertain times like, you know, um, I'm signing *** contract extension today and I know that there's. There's people that are cold and hungry, right? And so, um, so you know we, we, we understand, we understand how hard some of this is at the same time, you know, Nebraska football needs stability. They need, they need, they need investment and they've been doing it nonstop, so I'm grateful. I signed this morning, yep. I literally sat there and just kept hitting refresh on my because you know you don't wanna sign anymore, you know, you DocuSign. I can refresh, refresh. I did you change your mind, refresh, refresh. So I told them out here, yeah, I was just really disappointed last night that some reports came out that were wrong because, you know, I wanted to be the one to tell the players, you know what I mean? Like I feel like I've earned that that right, um, I, I wanted Julie to be there, um. You know, I, uh, You know, all week I've been sharing like times in my life that seemed dark and then the good things that came out of it and so I, I read to them today like like *** little journal I did when I got fired and like looking at my daughter, you know, and just how. How in the midst of dark moments, I like if you if you great moments will come and so this is *** great moment for us and I wouldn't share that with the players and I'm glad I got to, you know, um, that they're just *** great group. Congrats, you know, I mean, um, um, you know, they, uh. They, uh, yeah, just congrats you. I got, I, I mean I might have gotten just *** little bit emotional, so some of them called me some choice words, but, uh, you know, I hope they're, I hope they're happy. You, when it, when you talk, you, you did talk about the investment stuff. What is it gonna take to compete? You're gonna have salary escalator related to college football life, so the design is to is to make the CFP here. How, how close do you feel like you guys are competing at that level, not just from an on the field perspective of the program. Yeah, I, I, I always believe, you know, champions behave like champions before they're champions. They have *** winning standard of performance. That's, that's Bill Walsh, and so, you know, like so often. I remember when I was back at Temple and I was like, well, you know, should we build *** stadium on campus, not build *** stadium on campus like, well, you know, if we get the ACC, then we'll build the state. Well, you gotta do this to do this, right? And so, um, it's just, it's hard to invest when like you're in you're in dreary times, right, um. So, so I feel like we have everything now in place to move forward, right? I think we have an amazing coaching staff. We have the build, you know, like you think about it, this 2026 class and only 2027, this is the first recruiting class that didn't have to wear hard hats at some point to walk through the building, like, you know, so I know it was all, you have *** great building, but like we unveiled it to really this summer to most people like the, the, the, uh. The 7 on 7, that was the first time people really saw it. So now all of *** sudden you're starting to like you see our 2027 class is gonna be killer, and it's like, yeah, because they, they've, they've seen this now they've been raised in it. So I, I think we're, we're poised to go compete at the highest levels and the thing is the mark's gonna keep changing, Sam, like everything the rules are gonna change, everything's gonna change, and it's just gonna be like, you know, it's, it's my it's my belief in Troy, my belief in, in the, you know, his vision and Haven's vision and all the people that I work with that. No matter what the as the mark moves it we'll keep being the ones trying to chase it, not waiting to see how everybody else chases it and then say, OK, let's go do it. Um, you know, I, I, I, I would be remiss if I didn't take this time to thank. Tom and Sean Peed, um, because I just, you know. If they, if they don't do 1890 when they did, and, and if they don't invest and you know, and then people that work for them, you know, Joe Sel like, Matt Davis and all these guys like if, if they don't do what they did. We we're, we're dead. I mean, like, like, like, like, you know, to be we're sitting here at 6 and 2 with *** cool game on Saturday, like because of *** lot of people, but certainly because of them and so you know you chase that and you get people like that stepping in and so I just think it's more about like where's the mark move but I feel like we're really well positioned right now and that's why, you know, this extension hopefully tells recruits that way, hey, hey, don't have to worry about it like we, we, we could have gone somewhere else probably and we want to be here, not like, hey. All right, we gotta be here. We want to be here and so. on preparing for USC. Uh, it's been *** great week. um, you know, it's been freezing cold, and we've been outside the whole time, and the guys have attacked it and embraced it, you know, sometimes I think people think like, you know, well, coach, you're from the north you're not, we're all just as cold, but the guys are showing toughness and resilience and, um, you know, they've worked on the fundamentals and techniques as you get late in the year. Um, you know, there's ***, there's *** great guy if you guys don't follow Dan Case, coach Dan Casey, on, on, on, on Twitter, you should. He's one of the best people in terms of football follows, and he had *** great thing about late, you know, reteaching scheme, reteaching fundamentals. I don't I keep talking to our guys but don't let the creek come in of like, you know, you're just used to be like this low and now you're *** little bit higher because you're tired late in the year. And I feel like the guys have embraced this week of just getting back to fundamentals. You know, you're playing *** team this week coming off *** buy, so you know you're *** little banged up. They're fresh. You better be dialed in and they've been dialed in all week. My relationship with Dr. Gold has been amazing, I mean, um. Um, you know, he's, he's always there, he's always supportive. Um, it meant *** lot to me that he would be there, like I said, that it's one thing to be there in the good times, but, you know, also be there when you're, when you're struggling, that that's when you really find out about people and um. You know he's been awesome. I, I, Troy probably has more day to day obviously interactions with him, but, um, you know, he, he, he's *** guy that when I see him I love being around him. I love being around his wife. I love being around his son and daughter like, you know, they, they treat my family great and, um, um, you know, but I, I'll be honest, I, I haven't met ***, I haven't met *** bad person since I've been here in the state, you know, so. I've just, uh, had an amazing experience, but Doctor Gold's been absolutely awesome. You mentioned banged up. Are there any updates there and I guess right tackle would be first up? Yeah, that's Turner will play *** right tackle this week. Um, uh, Pritchard will play left, um, and, uh, um, other than that I think we're, you know, we're, we're healthy. 2 recruiting and I mean this weekend, I mean what, what kind of an opportunity is this for continuing that? Yeah, I mean, and, and for me my my focus is on 2026s. My focus is on 2 we're still trying to go more guys in 206. We're trying to get some 2027. We're trying to get some 2028s, you know, it's *** night game. There'll be all kinds of guys end up in the portal that watch this. There's gonna be kids in the 7th grade that see this game and say like, oh, you know what, that's *** cool place. And so, um. You know, it's ***, it's ***, it's an awesome week to show off everything that we have here. I think it's an awesome week for students in general, like, you know what I mean, like, uh, like why would you not come, why would you not come to the University of Nebraska from wherever we live? It's, it's safe, it's cheap, it's easy living, it's awesome, uh, there's cool things happening on campus like, oh by the way, you can go watch, uh, *** great football game with 90,000 people and then go over and watch an amazing, uh, volleyball game if you can get tickets to it and then. I, I, I still don't have 4 tickets for for Sunday. That's how good they are, and I mean like I got extension and all these things. I, I don't have 4 tickets for Sunday, and I don't send me tickets. I'll get them. I'm just joking like that's how good they are, right? So we just, so I just think it's, it's ***, it's ***, it's *** great moment to show off our university, um, and but you know you better play well too, but I think they just all the stuff like the crowd and all the stuff. I don't know that people recognize have recognized what it is. I didn't recognize what it was I got here and so now it's like I will show it off. And you talked about it earlier. Uh, you also joked that Julie picks where you guys live how critical I didn't joke that. She's mad at me. I didn't, so I'm sorry, answer your question how critical, critical was that component that your family was on this too, yeah, um. Yeah, I'm ***, I'm ***. Father first from *** coach and um you know Bryant, I talk *** lot about my wife and my daughters, but my son moved *** lot and you know it's not like he doesn't have like this huge friend group of guys you all went to grew up together with, right? He's got *** friend here and *** friend here and *** friend here and *** friend here and so you know like I'll walk out there on Saturday, my son will be on the sideline working handing out iPads to guys and my father will be over there and my wife and daughters, my mom and we're upstairs it's, it's, uh, it's grateful, uh, it, it's ***, it's an amazing moment. So, but yeah, I mean like. Um They, they, they love it here. I mean like that's they, they did not, there was not *** lot of talk about hey, what should we do here just on the same page. All good. Thank you guys.