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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 9, 2015

Kyle Flood

Piscataway, New Jersey

An Interview With:

COACH KYLE FLOOD

COACH KYLE FLOOD: Good afternoon. We're looking forward to this Saturday's matchup with Nebraska, an opportunity for us to not only play a Big Ten football game here back at High Point Solutions Stadium, but also a day to honor our veterans in our Military Appreciation Day. Questions.

Q. Are you closer to us than normal?
COACH KYLE FLOOD: They set the podium up before I come in.

Q. I know the 1 and 0 focus, but obviously there's no room for error with a bowl eligibility. How do you manage those two things, 1 and 0 versus you are so win all three?
COACH KYLE FLOOD: I think we manage the 1 and 0 part, and that's what we do. I'm sure that the players are aware, just like I am, of what's on the line, but in terms of your day-to-day operation and your routine, that can't be part of it. So I like the way the week has started. I think they're going to get our best effort on Saturday, and we're looking forward to it.

Q. Kyle, we talked a lot about Grant over the course of the weekend and the plays he made on special teams. Now getting Special Teams Player of the Week for the second time, what does that mean to this program to kind of define you guys in the scheme of the Big Ten?
COACH KYLE FLOOD: It's exciting for Janarion, and it's exciting for our team. I think it's really exciting for the other ten players that are on those units. I think they all share in that award. As spectacular a returner as Janarion is and as much of a weapon as he is, it's not just him. There's a lot of great blocks on that kickoff return. There's some tremendous efforts on that punt return that got us in position to kick a field goal before the half. So I think even though it is an individual award, we're going to celebrate it with more than just Janarion, that's for sure. And it's just one more way that he continues to show that he can be a difference maker.

Q. What's the challenge with Tommy Armstrong is a dual-threat guy?
COACH KYLE FLOOD: He really is. Yeah, I think the challenge is he's an excellent athlete, but he's really doing a nice job as a quarterback. They're playing at just about 50/50 on first and second down in terms of run pass. You know, you got a guy who has started 29 games in his career there, thrown for over 2000 yards already, two-to-one touchdown to interception. So he's a good decisionmaker, very good passer, and if you don't contain him, he can really make a difference in the run game.

Q. How much difference is their offense this year than last year obviously with the coaching change?
COACH KYLE FLOOD: It's a little bit different. It's a little bit more traditional, a little bit less maybe quarterback run centric than they've been in the past.

Q. Kyle, is there a degree to which you feel like your job security is tied to bowl eligibility?
COACH KYLE FLOOD: I don't think of it. I would tell you, and this is after 22 years of coaching, if you're looking for job security, being a college football coach is probably not the profession you should be looking for. This is a high-performance industry. I think everybody gets into it with open eyes, and I don't feel that way. I feel fully supported by the administration here at Rutgers.

Q. Is Nebraska better -- I know you are what your record says you are, but do you think Nebraska is better than their record? I think they have four losses by like 20 points or something like that.
COACH KYLE FLOOD: I don't know if I can answer that question, but what I can tell you is they're a really talented football team, and not just a talented football team, they play a lot of players. They play a multiple personnel groups on offense, so they're playing probably 11 personnel is probably the number one personnel group. But they play a significant amount in 21 and 12.

On defense, they probably got 18 players on defense that play a lot and have significant statistics. So they're playing a lot of players. I think in a lot of places they're playing at a high level. I think they got a really talented football team. I think that showed up last week in the win they had.

Q. You talked obviously after the game the pass protection wasn't what you wanted to see the other night. What showed up, because it didn't seem like they blitzed a ton, so was it just communication errors or they not physically making the blocks?
COACH KYLE FLOOD: No. I think they did blitz. I think there were a fair number of blitzes in that game, and they're a team that not just blitzes, they give you multiple looks.

Now, we've talked about that game enough. We've moved on already. But everything comes down ultimately to winning your one-on-one. Now you gotta win your one-on-one within the scheme and sometimes that involves bumping off blitzes, bumping off twists, the back fitting in a certain spot, but ultimately it comes down to winning your one-on-ones.

Q. I imagine you saw the game winning touchdown play by Nebraska over Michigan State. What was your assessment of the call by the officials in that circumstance?
COACH KYLE FLOOD: I wouldn't comment on that. I don't even think the coaches involved commented on it. But anytime -- if I ever had an issue with a call, I would address it with the league. I wouldn't address it in public.

Q. Coach, you playing Dante Owens this late in the season, what did you see from him in practice to want to play a true freshman this late in the year? What has he shown you since he got here?
COACH KYLE FLOOD: I think as a football program, it's important that we're always putting the players on the field that give us the best chance to win, and we felt like Dante did that. And we like the way he's progressing. He hasn't been healthy the whole year, but we felt at this point with our depth situation and a third of the season left to play it was important that we start the process of playing him, and I think his career as he goes forward is going to be better for it just like other true freshmen who have played.

Q. Similar to Dan's question before, but how much are you able to look at last year's game tape and actually use it given it's a new coach, new scheme, both offensively and defensively?
COACH KYLE FLOOD: Other than looking at personnel, very little. Yeah, different staff, different schemes. So we really at this point in the year we've got enough of a body of work this year that this is the tape we really need to be looking at.

Q. Are you willing to commit to Kiy Hester at strong safety for the rest of the year?
COACH KYLE FLOOD: What do you mean by commit?

Q. Davon Jacobs has been injured recently on the injury report, missed the last few games. Don't know what his status is, but are you comfortable with Kiy if it should be him every week for the rest of the year?
COACH KYLE FLOOD: I feel like Kiy is doing what a lot of learning on the run. They're learning in practice; they're learning in game environments, and players at that stage of their career, a lot of times when they're seeing something, they're seeing it for the first time. So I'm pleased with how hard he's working at it, just like I am the rest of that secondary.

Q. Kyle, you've been here since '05. Do you remember the depth ever getting tested quite this much?
COACH KYLE FLOOD: That's a good question. I haven't tried to put that in perspective. Not to my knowledge, no. I don't think we've had a health situation maybe the way we've had this year.

Q. Any association with Mike Bradley, know him through the years? He's been around awhile.
COACH KYLE FLOOD: I've known of him, but no, I didn't have any interaction with him until media day was the first time I met him.

Q. Five straight games with fumbled snap on the offense, how concerning is that trend for you right now?
COACH KYLE FLOOD: It's disappointing. It is. On the field when I saw it, I thought that Chris had pulled out, but after talking to the players, it sounds like the ball came up a little bit late. Ultimately it's always on both of them and it's we gotta get fixed, something that going forward -- we can't afford to put ourselves behind schedule because of an unforced error, just like a false start, just like a lining offsides. Those are unforced errors. Those are the things we gotta eliminate.

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