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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 2, 2015

Kyle Flood

Piscataway, New Jersey

An Interview With:

COACH KYLE FLOOD

COACH KYLE FLOOD: Good afternoon. Michigan season is upon us. An excellent football team. We'll be traveling to Ann Arbor to visit one of the top defenses in the country. Very well coached. Some dynamic players in the return game as well, and an offense with eight seniors, two juniors and one sophomore. They play a very physical brand of football, which is what you would think you would get here in the Big Ten. Questions.

Q. You beat Michigan last year. Obviously they overhauled their coaching staff. How different or how similar are they from what you remember last year?
COACH KYLE FLOOD: Schematically they're very different. Last year as we were going into the game I thought they were a very physical football team, very talented. But they play the game differently on offense now than they did last year, a little bit more of a pro-style offense. They do let Jake run around a little bit, some designed quarterback runs, but not a lot. So it's more of your traditional pro-style offense.

On defense they're a little bit more multiple in their fronts on first and second down. On third down last year Michigan was very multiple in what they did, very challenging package last year, and they have a very challenging package this year although we haven't completely game planned it yet, but I've seen enough to have an idea of what we're going to see on third down.

Q. What's the mood of the team, and do you guys sense that they're ready to bounce back?
COACH KYLE FLOOD: I don't feel -- I wouldn't use the word bounce back because I don't feel like they had anywhere to bounce back from. I feel like the team went back to work yesterday the way we do, and that's something you have to train yourself. It's a challenge. It's not easy. I'm not claiming that that's easy, but for us as coaches and players, we've got a lot of work to get done this week and it's critical that when we come back on Sunday we come back with a mindset ready to accept coaching, make the corrections and then move forward when we go to practice. I thought they moved around very well at practice last night.

Q. I now the focus is going on 1 and 0 each week, but does entering the last quarter of the season does bowl eligibility come up and what's the message?
COACH KYLE FLOOD: There can't be a but. If you really believe that the focus has to be 1 and 0, then that has to be the focus and that's the only way to ultimately achieve whatever the greater goals on. Those things are discussed in the off season and the preseason, but once we get to the season, the only way we can do it effectively is to put our entire focus on being 1 and 0 this week against Michigan.

Q. Jabrill Peppers was out last year during the Michigan game. Obviously a guy from New Jersey. He's been playing all year this year from Michigan. What have you seen from him?
COACH KYLE FLOOD: They've continued to increase his role as the season has gone on. Punt returns, kick returns, those are things he's done since the beginning of the year, playing on defense. They move him around. He plays corner; he plays on the slot. He's up on the line of scrimmage at times, and then the last two games now you're starting to see him on offense. So a very talented football player. So they're trying to put him in as many places as they can to make sure he affects the game.

Q. Leonte questionable again. How much did last week benefit him and do you have any sense or is it going to be as the week goes?
COACH KYLE FLOOD: Certainly when you don't play, it gives your body a better chance to heal. If we played today, he wouldn't play. What does that mean for Saturday? I don't know that we'll know that till a little bit later in the week.

Q. You used some crowd noise in practice last week to get ready for the trip to Camp Randall. Obviously you're talking about an extra 30,000 people that'll be there this week. Have you said anything to the team or are you preparing for anything during the week to make sure they can adapt to this environment?
COACH KYLE FLOOD: Every time we go on the road we're going to prepare with crowd noise during the week, we'll have all our silent cadences ready to go if we need them. There's a line of demarcation somewhere. I couldn't tell you exactly where it is, but once you get over 50, 60,000, if they want to be rowdy and loud, then you're going to need silent cadence. So I don't know if it's more of a challenge than last week. I think Camp Randall is a challenge, and I think Ann Arbor will be a challenge. But I don't know that it's more of a challenge, and once you get used to using silent cadence, I think the operation will run well.

Q. Just to go to clarification on Leonte, I think you had mentioned that he wasn't medically cleared to play, which was why he couldn't play on Saturday, so is it a matter of him being medically cleared to play or being ready to play having gone through practices and things like that, because he's played with being limited practice.
COACH KYLE FLOOD: A player with as much experience as Leonte has -- and this would be different for any player when you're talking about, okay, the player is medically cleared, will we play him. If you're talking about a player who's never played in the game before, I don't know that that would be the case, but somebody like Leonte who has played a lot of football, I'm not as concerned with him practicing the entire week to go out there. But he's gotta be medically cleared first or there's no conversation.

Q. (No microphone)?
COACH KYLE FLOOD: Correct.

Q. Kyle, from a pass-rush standpoint, we've talked about how the defensive line is one of the deeper positions on the team, but the bottom of the Big Ten with eleven sacks, how do you guys generate more pressure? What do you need to do there because obviously that's an area that's hurting is defense.
COACH KYLE FLOOD: Yeah. It's something we're focused on, and every week we're trying to find out the matchups and attack the schemes how we can to make sure we get to the quarterback. We had a couple of times last week we were able to get to him after he had thrown the ball, so we need to be maybe just a little bit more precise in what we're doing. That'll help us. And also keep them off balance. You don't want it to be all pressure because if it's all pressure every time and it's man coverage, the other team's got good players, too. It's going to make it very tough on those corners.

Q. How do you define a big play, 15, 20 yards per play?
COACH KYLE FLOOD: Different people do it in different ways. If you just talk about explosive plays in the game, it's 25 yards, but I've heard people use like 17 yards for a run or any run inside the 17 that scores. I've heard that used as a parameter at times, passes over 20 yards. Everybody kind of has their own way of doing it, but in general just an explosive play would be 25 yards.

Q. And are you satisfied with the number that you've had and is it something you could focus on or even improve on?
COACH KYLE FLOOD: Never satisfied. Always want more. It's one of the things to us that directly affects the outcome of the game is explosive plays. So we'll never be satisfied with the number. We're always going to want more.

Q. Kemoko Turay after last year expected big things. It's been kind of slow this year. Have injuries hurt him a little bit?
COACH KYLE FLOOD: It's the ability to practice as much. So yeah, if you're not completely healthy and you're not able to practice, it's maybe a great counter question to the one I answered a second ago. You talk about a younger player at the very beginning of his process who doesn't have a lot of experience to draw on, so it's tough to take those mental reps and apply it. You gotta physically take the reps and do it.

Kemoko is going to get there; there's no question about it, but would we like him to get there sooner than later, sure. We absolutely. But until his body is ready to go through the practices and do it, it's just hard to make it happen.

Q. From an offensive standpoint, obviously last year had a senior quarterback; this year two redshirt sophomore quarterbacks. Have you guys done anything to simplify the offense at all? I ask because I've read a couple of stories nationwide about coaches simplifying the offense to make it easier for their quarterbacks, Washington State, Mike Leach, that kind of thing. Have you done anything to simplify it for the two younger quarterbacks?
COACH KYLE FLOOD: I don't know if necessarily simplifying it for the two quarterbacks, but every week ultimately you can only do what your players can process. You know, Gary as a fourth-year senior and a fourth-year player, starter, however you want to classify it, certainly had a lot of experience to draw upon. But I would tell you the offense is not significantly different than it was last year.

Q. Turay has been mentioned obviously he had a big season last year and haven't seen nearly as much from him this year. As well as Janarion Grant after the first few games of the season. How do you make sure that you get those two players involved in making an impact this week?
COACH KYLE FLOOD: You give them opportunities. One thing I guess maybe I should have mentioned in the beginning, it's nice to congratulate Janarion Grant on becoming the all-time kickoff return leader in the history of our program, so I'm proud of him and excited for him.

In terms of getting him more touches, those have to come within the system. You know, you just can't force it out there. You've heard me say that about receivers in the past. You can't just force it to a particular receiver on a particular play or you're going to put yourself in danger of throwing interceptions. You can't do that.

And with Kemoko, as he plays more, he's going to have more production. I don't have any concerns about that for Kemoko, other than trying to get him to the point where we can play him on all three downs. We want to do that as soon as we can.

Q. You said yesterday you thought that we'd be seeing more Najee Clayton on the field as the season progresses. What capacity do you see him playing in?
COACH KYLE FLOOD: He's already playing on special teams for us. And then it'll be at safety. That's where ultimately you're going to see him, and he's another guy who's got a very bright future in the program. So we're trying to advance his progress, and a guy who wasn't with us in the summer. But he's making good progress. He's working really hard at it.

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