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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 19, 2015

Kyle Flood

Piscataway, New Jersey

COACH FLOOD: Good afternoon. It's an exciting week for our program. We really enjoy being back in High Point Solutions Stadium. Our nighttime environment is one of the best in the country. We're looking forward to that.

And then looking forward to welcoming an excellent Ohio State team, No. 1 in the country, and No. 1 for a reason. They have got a lot of very talented football players, very well-coached, physical football team that runs really well, and a team I believe that's won 27 straight Big Ten regular-season games.

So we've got a tremendous challenge. We're looking forward to it. Questions.

Q. How do you go about preparing for the quarterback? Obviously Jones has started every game, but J.T. Barrett has played a lot more successful in the second half of the most recent game.
COACH FLOOD: I think it's become very evident you'd better prepare for both of them. J.T. runs around a little bit more. I know they have brought him in in the red zone. And he's played a little more as the season's gone on. But they are certainly both excellent players with a little bit different skill sets. But when they come in the game, you'd better be ready to defend what they do.

Q. What have you seen from Anthony Cioffi thus far this season, not only getting his hands on the football but also mentoring the younger DBs?
COACH FLOOD: One of the reasons we moved him to the safety position was to give him the opportunity to make more plays on the ball. He's got excellent range. He's always a guy who seems to be around the ball, whether it's special teams or on defense. And he's done a good job of that. He's been productive this year.

He's also done a good job mentoring those younger guys and when, really, doing it in the times when you don't see it. He's doing it in practice when he might be whispering in a guy's ear, or doing it in the meeting room when they are watching film; and setting a great example the way he goes about his business.

Q. How about the third former quarterback, Braxton Miller, what are they doing with him and how unique is he in that position with his athleticism?
COACH FLOOD: That does not surprise me how well he's adapted. He's a really, really fine athlete. Excellent hands. They are doing a great job of finding ways to get him the ball.

This offensive system, I've heard Coach Meyer speak about it and he visited with us here when Coach Schiano was still here and always predicated on getting the ball to your playmakers in space and winning the one-on-ones. And for us, we've got to make sure when we get some of those one-on-ones, we make tackles but. We try as much as we can trying to make sure they are not one-on-ones by getting guys swarmed to the football the way we do.

Q. With three receivers on injury report, does that artificially put some other guys up?
COACH FLOOD: Absolutely. We won't really know about those guys until we get into the week here a little bit. It's a little bit early in the week. There's no question. Everybody at every position had better be ready every week because you're only one play away from being in the game; we saw that with Carlton; a guy like Vance Matthews; a guy like Jawuan Harris.

We have some guys that have been practicing and practicing well who had not have a lot of opportunities yet and those opportunities could be coming quick.

Q. You said last Saturday, this past Saturday, that Chris took a big step in that game against Indiana. How big of a test is this for him coming out?
COACH FLOOD: Sure, I think these kind of games are a big test for everybody in the program.

This is life in the Big Ten. Every week there's going to be a really, really talented opponent that you're going to be playing. We played one last week. We're going to play one this week and when this game is over, we're going to have to get ready for another one.

Every time Chris gets an opportunity to handle the situations that come up in a game, backed up coming out, third down, two-minute, four-minute, all those situations, you get better with them as you gain experience and I think that showed last week, and I'm sure there will be some new ones this week.

Q. How much have you seen in terms of his progression since he first started preseason up until now?
COACH FLOOD: I think he's making progress. He's making progress every week. We've seen that. Sometimes the progress is more visible to the naked eye or to the public than others. But we really have seen progress and we're pleased with how he's working.

And now he's got to go back to work because everything this week, that we do on Saturday, we've got to earn that during the week. There's no carryover in football. It's a new week.

Q. For Kyle at right tackle, how critical has this growth period been? Obviously seeing a lot of Calhoun and 56 on Indiana and obviously he'll see a lot of Joey Bosa on Saturday.
COACH FLOOD: Yeah, Bosa, generally plays on the right side, on our right side on first and second down. Sometimes they bring his backup in and he goes over and on third down they move him around a little bit.

But J.J. got better last week, and that was part of why we had the success offensively that we did. He knew what he needed to improve on. I thought he worked hard with it with Coach Browning during the week, and I think it showed up on Saturday. And now he's going to play against what might possibly be the best player in college football.

He's a tremendous player. As live a body on film as I've seen. Everything he does is explosive. So if you're just a little bit off from a technique standpoint, you're going to be in trouble.

Q. Going back to Chris, it seems like with most quarterbacks, when throws out of his back foot is when he gets in trouble. Is that something you've noticed and you guys have focused on trying to eliminate?
COACH FLOOD: What I would say is when the pocket is not clean, it's hard to throw off the correct base or the correct platform, depending which quarterback coach you talk to. So I don't think that would be unusual for any quarterback.

Q. You talked about Carlton Agudosi, and Coach Wilson brought it up after the Michigan State game so that Leonte could get a chance to play. Could you talk about the maturity level of a guy like that as an example of someone who is ready to play when called upon, and if he has to sit, he has to sit?
COACH FLOOD: Maturity is a good word. Mentally tough is another expression I would use for a guy like that to be able to stay in the game when you're not necessarily playing every play in the game. And understanding also that No. 4 is a pretty good player.

So there's no shame in the fact that No. 4 is out there. He's one of the best players in college football, as well. So Carlton did a good job. He did exactly what we tell every player to do: You have to be ready when your number is called and you have to be not just ready to go in; you have to be ready to go in and perform like a starter. And Carlton did that on Saturday.

And it's one of the maybe best examples that I've been around of a guy being ready and going in and performing at a high level and making an explosive play and giving us an opportunity to kick a field goal on the last drive. So I think there's a lot to build on there, not just for Carlton but for a lot of players in our program.

Q. What does Steve Longa mean to this team? And if it turns out it is Barrett at quarterback and if you choose to have a spy on him, would that be Longa?
COACH FLOOD: Well, I can't tell you that (laughing) I mean, goodness, gracious. Want me to give away the game plan on Monday; we're still putting it together.

What does he mean to our team? He's a very productive player and he's been a very productive player for a long time and as I tell the players: There's nothing more valuable in life than consistency. And when you look at every post game and you look at the stats, he's consistently at the top of that tackle list.

So why does he do that? Well, he does that because he prepares the right way and he does that because he's been blessed athletically. He runs very well, and he puts in the work during the week to make sure he can have the right reactions on game day.

Q. When you put the tape on for Ohio State, does their talent jump out, like this is the No. 1 team in the country, defending national champions?
COACH FLOOD: There's no question that they look like the No. 1 team in the country. It's not about the defending national champions, because some of the pieces are different. But, their talent level absolutely jumps out.

The other thing that jumps out, you look at their starting offensive line, and four of their five starters up front on offense have over 20 career starts. So they have got a very experienced group up front on offense, and that always helps you perform well.

Q. Two strong safeties go down on Saturday; some of those guys further down, Clayton, would he be ready, or Greg Jones? Is he someone who is getting to a point where he can contribute?
COACH FLOOD: I think Najee is getting close. Najee is a guy that I think at some point this season, we're going to see him on the field and see him play. Andre Hunt is another guy who plays in that spot. I think those would probably be the next two places we would go, but we won't know more about that until a bit later in the week.

Q. What did you see in Greg to move him over there?
COACH FLOOD: He wanted to try and go over there. He actually had asked us if he could go over there and work out in the secondary. We had a numbers issue so we said, sure, we'll give you an opportunity to go over there. He did some good things for us at running back in the preseason and he's a good athlete, and he's still learning the system.

Q. A couple of Rutgers newcomers so to speak, Isaiah Johnson and Jarius Adams could be in line for bigger roles with those injuries. How have they progressed since you have gotten them into the locker room?
COACH FLOOD: Isaiah has done an excellent job of contributing on special teams, one of the best kickoff coverage guys we have on the team. Those are important snaps every time.

He's doing a good job in practice, and if we need him to, we have a lot of confidence in him. We've invested a lot in him since he got here through spring practice and the preseason.

Jarius played for us on Saturday. He's a guy that unfortunately missed a little bit of time this year or he would have a little bit more experience than he does right now, but we've got confidence in him, as well. And I think next week he'll be a better player than he was last week, just like a lot of young guys.

Q. How about beyond -- we talked about Warren on the injury report, Adams, Ronny James, Verbitski, could those guys play in this? Game or what do you do if they go three, four wide and you need more corners?
COACH FLOOD: Oh, absolutely. Those are guys you could definitely see in the game, and all those decisions get made through the game planning process, deciding what personnel groups we think they are going to use, what personnel groups we ant to use to match up. Sometimes you match up in base personnel because of what they are doing. Sometimes you put nickel out there; you put dime, etc.

So those are all things, and similar to what I've said about the receiver question in the past, everything is on the table every week and then we've got to make the decisions in game planning and go forward.

Q. You spent the first couple weeks harping on the penalties and trying to cut down on them. One penalty against Indiana; is that a product of emphasizing limiting the penalties?
COACH FLOOD: I don't harp on them. To me what I emphasize to the team is we have got to eliminate the unforced errors. That's what critical.

I'm probably most pleased with the fact that we eliminated them on the road. That's generally where it's tougher because the environment is a little tougher in terms of communication.

Q. I know this won't have an effect on game day, but for the program, recruiting, spotlight, whatever, the idea that you are on ABC national television primetime for the first time in school history, what does that mean?
COACH FLOOD: It's another great sign of what life will be like in the Big Ten. Every week in the Big Ten, you're going to play against really high quality football teams. And when high quality football teams get together on Saturday, national TV wants to put those games on air.

So we are excited about it. It's a great showcase for our program. The environment is going to be electric. I know the fans are going to do their part and we are excited for it.

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