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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 28, 2015

Kyle Flood

Piscataway, New Jersey

Maryland - 46, Rutgers - 41

COACH FLOOD: I just left a really emotional, really heartbroken group of seniors and a football team, but I think the focus today, because of the finality of the situation, is really with that senior class in the locker room.

We're disappointed. We didn't get it done. At times during the game, we played well. 46-41 game, back and forth, took the lead, lost the lead in the fourth quarter, took the lead back in the fourth quarter. A lot of tremendous efforts out there.

A lot of credit to Maryland, the coaches and players alike. We knew it would be a tremendous challenge to be 1-0 today against them. They've got a talented football team. We're disappointed we didn't get it done today, and I'm disappointed for that group of seniors that this is their last game together. Questions?

Q. What did they do offensively in the second half that really gave you guys problems?
COACH FLOOD: They did a good job running the football, running the ball for 400 yards. They mixed in some quarterback runs, a little bit of option, explosive play by 45. He did that to us last year too, Ross, he's a good player.

I looked out at the field at one point, and I saw Jarius out there as a true freshman, I saw John Bateky out there as a true freshman, and Najee Clayton out there as a true freshman, and I saw an 81-yard touchdown. It's hard on those guys. I'm certainly not putting the blame on them. That's not where it goes. It's just really hard for true freshmen, when you get them out there in those kind of numbers, individual and football.

For those guys, it will be an experience they can build on, but as I told you, sometimes when you put freshmen out on the field, some interesting things happen.

Q. Any clarification from the university about your status as coach?
COACH FLOOD: I haven't spoken to anybody in the university. Nobody has given me any indication that I wouldn't be the football coach. I get those questions, Steve, and I think the shame of those type of questions is they lead other people to believe that there's some question about it. To my knowledge, there's no question about it. I'm the head football coach, been here for four years now.

We've won the only Conference Championship in the history of this program. We've won the only Lambert Cup in the history of this program, and we've gone to three Bowl games in four years, and I fully expect to be the head coach here for a long time.

Q. What do you make of the meeting between Julie and President Barchi tomorrow?
COACH FLOOD: I don't make anything of it. It's not something that I've been made aware of, and it's not something I'm involved in.

Q. Coach, you had leads of 17 and 21 in the first half. Was it just the running game that allowed them to crawl back into it? Was there anything you could point to?
COACH FLOOD: We've proven on the other side of this there's really very few leads in college football that are safe. We've been on the other side of a couple of these games. When we came in at halftime, I told the offense, we need to continue to be aggressive. I felt like we were going to need more points.

We came out in the second half and, unfortunately, turned the ball over on the first play. Again, that's not the reason. That's just part of the story.

But when you get leads in college football, you've got to keep playing because we've proven that we can come back. We've done it twice in the last year in a game that we can come back from 25-point deficits, and I had no doubt that Maryland had enough fire power to do it.

Q. You said the questions kind of fuel speculation. Don't you think it would help if someone came out publicly and said, "Kyle's going to be here" to end that speculation, no?
COACH FLOOD: I don't feel that way. Does your editor come out every day and say Dan Duggan is going to continue to work for NJ.com? No, I'm the head football coach. We've got an excellent recruiting class in place right now. We've got a lot of exciting things happening in our football program.

This has been a tough year. We're all disappointed. In no way. I'm in no way trying to move the focus off of it. We're disappointed. We're a 4-8 football team. We're not happy about it, but we're going to go back to work tomorrow.

Q. If you were talking to the fans right now, how would you tell them the program is headed in the right direction?
COACH FLOOD: I think, when you're talking about the direction of a program, you can't just look at one year. I think you've got to look at the body of the work, and you've got to look at the young players that are in the program. When you take a look at this football team and how many players are going to come back next year, you feel great.

I don't really want to feel great right now. I'm really disappointed in today. I'm unhappy about today. I don't want to feel great right now.

But your question is about the direction, and I look at all the young players that contributed this year and got a lot of great experience, and there's some growing pains when you do that, but we're going to reap the rewards of that.

Q. You said you don't want to blame the young players. When will you begin evaluating your assistant coaches?
COACH FLOOD: It's way too emotional right now to even think about that.

Q. Without making a Bowl game this year, what changes in terms of what you're going to be able to do this December?
COACH FLOOD: We're going to hit the road recruiting. I'm going to hit the road tomorrow. I'll be out at a Long Island championship game tomorrow to watch somebody play. We're going to hit the road immediately and spend the time we would spend practicing, we won't need to do that, so we're going to spend it on the road recruiting when we can.

Q. Coach, Tyler Kroft left early last year. Will you spend any time re-recruiting any underclassmen? Do you foresee any guys declaring for the NFL draft?
COACH FLOOD: It's not really about re-recruiting them. To me, it's about the best decision for their family. Tyler made a decision he thought was best for his family. It seemed to work out pretty well. He seems to be in a good place in Cincinnati.

Leonte made a decision that he thought was best for his family. I think ultimately, when we see where he is drafted and what the reports last year were of where he could have been drafted, I think ultimately that will be a good decision for him as well.

And any player that has an interest in pursuing that, I think it's important they get evaluated by the NFL. I think that's an excellent process. They've done a good job of fine tuning that process to make it really good. And then make the best decision for their family. We want to help them do that.

So my job, my role in that process is really just to provide them as much information as I can.

Q. And just to follow up with Leonte Caroo, he had a great day today. You think about the Rutgers legacy, Kenny Britt and Brandon Coleman, Mohamed Sanu, now Leonte Caroo, will you use that as a recruiting tool for other receivers?
COACH FLOOD: When you recruit a position, that part of the conversation always comes up, the players in the past that have come through your system and really what they've developed into on the other side.

Q. Is there any player moving forward that you think is going to take a leadership role next year?
COACH FLOOD: Certainly Darius. Darius will be back with us. We don't control that process. It's a conference process, but my experience tells me that that will go the way he wants it to go and that he'll get his redshirt year, and he'll be a three-time captain here. So it will begin with him.

We've had a lot of players that I think have stepped up this year as upper classmen now and are moving in that direction.

Q. You spoke about the youth on the team, a lot of freshmen playing. Obviously, injuries wore the depth thin. What would you say about the secondary's play, especially the younger players, throughout the course of the year?
COACH FLOOD: I think they played like a young secondary. At times I thought they made plays and they flashed and they did some really good things, but it's hard for young players to play at a high level of consistency consistently. It's just really hard for them. I'm pleased with how they've continued to work. They've never allowed themselves to get frustrated. They've continued to work. And now, as we go through the off-season, it's going to be important that they continue to do that as well.

Q. What was your reaction to the fans booing when Chris came back in after he got knocked out?
COACH FLOOD: I don't react to it. I thought Chris reacted to it, and I think, as he matures, he's not going to react to it.

But I don't think it affected his play at all, and that's the most important thing.

Q. What about his play? Chris' play?
COACH FLOOD: Without look at it on the film, just on the surface, 344 yards passing, four touchdowns. The interception at the beginning of the second half, he left the ball inside a little bit. You'd like to see Andre knock that down so it's not an interception, but I thought he played well today.

Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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