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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 24, 2015

Kyle Flood

Piscataway, New Jersey

Ohio State - 49 Rutgers - 7

COACH FLOOD: Good evening. Let me start by thanking everyone that came to High Points Solution Stadium. I think the crowd at kickoff was exactly what I had said during the week: It is the best primetime crowd and primetime atmosphere in college football, there's no question about it.

With didn't perform very well as a program tonight, and that begins with me. And really, filters through the entire program. We'll get back to work tomorrow. We've got another very tough opponent on the road in our conference that we'll play next week and we'll get back to work tomorrow.

Questions.

Q. The first drive, you went 64 yards, 12 plays. What changed from there that you guys ended up punting five times after that?
COACH FLOOD: We weren't effective enough running the ball. In the first half we were one of eight on third down and we couldn't keep drives going.

Q. Were there any positives you can glean from this defeat?
COACH FLOOD: We'll watch the film and we'll see if there's some individual performances and players that performed well.

But you know, other than that, we've got to turn the page. We've got a another game coming in less than seven days. We've got to learn from this, see what applies next week and then put our eyes forward. No different than we did last week when we were really excited about the outcome.

Q. Do you have any update on Leonte?
COACH FLOOD: No.

Q. Just didn't go out for the second half due to --
COACH FLOOD: Physically not able to play in the second half.

Q. I know the drive ended with Federico missed the field goal, did that suck some of the life out of the sideline and suck some of the life out of the team?
COACH FLOOD: It's not that -- it's not the result you want. When we put Kyle out there, have confidence that he'll make that kick. We would have liked for him to have made that kick. But is that the reason? I don't think so.

Q. Gause and Longa combined for 34 tackles between the two of them. Obviously they had a lot of opportunity. What can you say about their performance and the heart they might have shown?
COACH FLOOD: Those two guys are seasoned performers and guys that we count on. Quentin is the captain and Steve has played a lot of football here and he's always at the top of the tackle list. We always count on those guys to make a lot of plays.

Q. How do you begin to close the gap on a program like that has so much talent and successful for so long?
COACH FLOOD: We come back and go to work tomorrow. I don't know that there's any other way to do it. I think similar questions could have been asked when we played Michigan State last year. And then you come back a year later and it's a different kind of game.

I remember being here in 2005 and we played Cincinnati and we had a pretty good day. And then the next year, they beat us. And then I remember in 2005 playing Louisville, and they had a pretty good day against us in 2005 and then in 2006, we beat them.

So year-to-year, the people change. For us as a program, we just got to get back to work tomorrow.

Q. Can you talk about why you put Hayden in when you did and what you saw from him?
COACH FLOOD: I thought it was an opportunity to get him some experience, to let him operate the offense. At times, I thought he did a good job. But the most important thing he got tonight was experience, and now he's got something that he can build on as he goes forward.

Q. Did you think about going to him at all before the game was that at score?
COACH FLOOD: No.

Q. What did you think of Chris's performance?
COACH FLOOD: I don't think it was one of Chris's better performances and I don't think Chris got a lot of help. As you guys have heard me say before, when we don't run the ball effectively, it makes the third downs very uphill. When the third downs get very uphill, it's hard on every quarterback. One of eight in the first half pretty much sums that up.

Chris will be better for it. We'll get better. We'll learn from this. But Chris isn't the only one that's got to play better. There's a lot of guys that are out there that have to play better.

Q. With how physical Ohio State is on offense, did the defense get worn down with having to get on the field so much in the first half?
COACH FLOOD: I didn't feel like that. I didn't feel that way. They are a very talented football team. They have got tremendous playmakers. There's a reason why I think they have won 27 straight regular-season Big Ten football games. They have got a good scheme and they have got very talented players in the scheme.

I didn't feel like anybody got worn down, but I thought we had opportunities to make plays and we didn't make them.

Q. Seemed to be shutting down the passing game early in the first half, and then in the second half, the running game just really opened up. What was your scheme going in, and kind of what did you see during the course of the game that forced to you make adjustments?
COACH FLOOD: You've got to give me a little bit more specifics when you ask me about the scheme part of it.

Q. You seemed to be trying to stop the pass in the first half, early in the first half. They didn't make much progress in the run game, but the second half, they really opened up the run game. What adjustments do you see that they made?
COACH FLOOD: Adjustments that they made? Well, I think they were running their offense. You have to ask them exactly what their adjustments were. I wouldn't want to speak to what they did without having seen it on film.

We went into the game knowing that they have a lot of playmakers and a lot of stops, so you're trying to keep them off balance. You want to have a mix of coverage and a mix of pressure. But when you pressure, you're going to put stress on the corners.

Now you're playing man coverage, and there was a couple balls that got away from us while we played man coverage, and then now you're playing a little bit more zone as the game goes on. But above and beyond that, I don't know how much more specific I can get with you.

Q. What makes Barrett so tough? I think in the last two games against you guys, he's accounted for like ten touchdowns?
COACH FLOOD: Here's what makes him so difficult to defend as a football player: You look at him in the run game, 13 carries for 104 yards, you say, all right, there is a really athletic, running quarterback. But then, as a passer, he's 14-of-18.

I mean, he is the prototype dual-threat quarterback and he puts a tremendous amount of stress on your defense whenever he has the football, because he can run it like a running back and he throws it very well like a quarterback.

Q. Can you share what you told them after the game and just what their mood is right now?
COACH FLOOD: My message does not change a lot based on the result. Because we're going to come back in tomorrow, and we're going to evaluate this performance. Everybody in the room is going to be evaluated. And then we're going to make the corrections, and then we're going to put our eyes forward.

Because some of the corrections we need to make are going to apply next week. Some of the corrections that we need to make aren't going to apply next week; they may not apply for two or three weeks.

But next week is going to be a different opponent, different schemes, different matchups, and the clock is already ticking.

Q. What did you see from Jarius Adams?
COACH FLOOD: He's competing. He's competing. You know we've got some young guys out there in the secondary, and all I can ask of them is to come out every day and compete and get better, and I feel like Jarius is doing that. I feel like Isaiah is doing that and I think they have got bright futures.

Q. Patton gets a touchdown at the end, his first of the year. After being on the field a fair amount and contributing to the team, were you happy to see him get into the end zone there?
COACH FLOOD: Certainly happy that the play was executed and that it ended up in the end zone. I don't go into it thinking about whether or not Andre has scored a touchdown or not. If it happens within the scope of the offense, I think that's a good thing.

Andre is a very valuable guy to us. He does a lot of different things. The third down catch he made early in the game last week was huge. Andre is having a good year for us. I don't think there's any significance to the fact that this might have been his first touchdown. I think there will be a lot more in his future. Thank you.

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