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OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

December 17, 2015

Chris Ash

Columbus, Ohio

THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for Coach Ash. Start over here to the right.

Q. Congratulations on your new job.
COACH ASH: Thank you.

Q. One of your predecessors there is now in this building, I asked him if it's odd, how is it, how has that dynamic worked for you for these next couple weeks?
COACH ASH: It's been fine. It's been great, to be honest with you. I was fortunate enough to be able to build a relationship with Greg during my two years here, he's had a great relationship with Coach Meyer, he's been around here several times, I picked up the phone and called him on a lot of things and he's been a great resource for me. I think it will work out great here having him on staff. And from an outsider looking in, having Greg and I standing here together and me going out to go to Rutgers and him coming in to take my job here at Ohio State looks odd and looks a little challenging, but it's been fine.

Q. How much right now as you prepare for a bowl game here and to hire a staff and everything that goes along with Rutgers, how do you divide up your time and manage that and are you spending any time asking coach for some of that advice now?
COACH ASH: All of the above I'm doing, yes. I get here early in the morning, I return phone calls, e-mails, take notes on some things that I need to try to get done in the next day or two. When we take a break from game planning over the noon hour, I again make calls, return e-mails, I do things that I need to get done. And then when we're done during the, at the end of the day, I'm here late and I go home and I just continue to do work. So the balance of time management of getting stuff done here for game planning and the preparation for the bowl game and doing the things I need to do, both talking to coaches that I'm trying to hire, talking to recruits that we're trying to recruit, commits that we're trying to keep committed, all of that stuff is managed throughout the day. And it's a challenge, but it's fun. I've really enjoyed it. And then, like you mentioned, I've had a chance to sit down with Greg a couple times and just talk about Rutgers and his experience there and he's been very helpful.

Q. You talked about this before, but we Urban reiterated begin today that Luke is the defensive coordinator and how did that work out with you guys and stuff? Were you surprised by the way it worked out and how do you think you will mesh with Greg?
COACH ASH: I'm not surprised by the way it worked out. When I came here there was a really crystal clear directive from how the head coach wanted it to look and what he wanted us to do and Luke and I were both professionals and understood that if we were going to have success here and be able to reach our professional goals and have success with these players here at Ohio State, that we had a job to do and we had no hidden agendas, except to come together and work for a common goal and that's what we were able to do. I don't anticipate that being any different with Greg and Luke working together.

Q. What do you think Greg will bring to the table? You've known him for awhile and stuff. He kind of has your same mentality, attack, etcetera, what do you think he will bring to the table.
COACH ASH: Well, Luke, or, Greg's a very intelligent football coach and very intelligent person. He's going to come in and he's going to look at what we have been doing and fit in and try to find ways that he can potentially enhance it and make it better. Whether it be some fundamentals, some techniques, maybe a change up call or two, he's had various different experiences both in the NFL and at the college level. He has a maybe a different way of looking at things or calling things differently, but what he's going to do, we played very well on defense here, he's going to come in and try to fit in and just find ways he can make it better.

Q. One other thing, is it -- getting a head coaching job, obviously Tom Harmon got the Houston job, but that's way down there in another league. You're not only in the Big-Ten, but you're in the Big-Ten East.
COACH ASH: Thanks for reminding me.

(Laughter.) No, it's, it's, honestly, it's been a very seamless transition right now. It's been great, Coach Meyer has been great, even though that we are going to be competitors on the field down the road, right now we're still a staff together trying to make sure we finish this thing out the right way. Again, it doesn't feel really any different right now because this week I've been here when I leave here it might feel different, but right now it's been pretty easy to manage.

Q. A few phones in your pocket at all times?
COACH ASH: No, just one. Right now.

Q. You mentioned that you guys are all one staff together preparing to win a game. But when you go home at night you make those recruiting calls, there are times where you're recruiting guys that Ohio State wants, so you're a opponent. What's about than like? Is it interesting to just be on the other side of the equation right now while also working at the other place?
COACH ASH: Yeah, I got to take one hat off and put another one on. That's really what you have to do. But for me I'm not going to try to recruit kids that are committed to Ohio State. That is just not professional and I'm not going to do that. Are there some kids out there that maybe have had some interest from Ohio State and interest from Rutgers that I would actively call? Yeah, I would. But it's professional courtesy for me not to try to contact anybody that would be committed to Ohio State. I'm just not going to do that.

Q. The first time we talked to you when you got here you sort of talked about that you had a desire to be ahead coach. How did the plan work?
COACH ASH: So far so good. I've been here for two years. If I sat back and reflected on the time that I came to Ohio State and I listed the things that I would hope to accomplish during my time here, I can tell you I've hit every one of them. I came here, I learned a lot under Coach Meyer, on how he does business, how he runs his program, how to develop players, how to develop leadership, build chemistry. We were able to win a Big-Ten championship. We won a National Championship. And at the end of the day I've been fortunate enough to be rewarded with getting a head coaching job. So all of the things that I hoped to accomplish by coming here I've been able to do it. I've been surrounded by some really good people and some really good players that have allowed that to happen.

Q. The question about the team, before we have you head off, how do you think this defense played this year? Obviously there's one more game yet to be played, the team as a whole didn't quite reach the same level of making the playoff, but I think the defensive numbers are even better than last year.
COACH ASH: Very happy with the way we played this year. Could we have played even better at times? Yeah, absolutely. As a coach I don't think you're ever really, truly satisfied. You probably never want to say that you've reached your full potential, I think we have played extremely well at times and there's some times especially earlier in the season we probably would have liked to have played a little bit better. But when you look at the stats, they tell a pretty good story and I think we have played pretty well this year.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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