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OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

December 17, 2015

Greg Schiano

Columbus, Ohio

COACH SCHIANO: It's great to be here, great to be a part of the Ohio State family, to be on Coach Meyer's staff. Look forward to eventually getting actively part of the coaching staff after the bowl game. And really excited about the opportunity. Have a history with Coach Meyer that goes back pretty far and really closely aligned in our beliefs. So I think it's going to be a great situation, so.

Q. Welcome to central Ohio. What enticed you, what, what was the deciding factor for you that -- and was work with the NFL more of a priority for you or did it matter?
COACH SCHIANO: Well it was a process. I had been a head coach for 13 years. And then after the NFL, had done some TV work with ESPN and with NFL Network. So, going through different scenarios, different situations, I wanted to get back on the field. And I wanted to do it in college. So to do it in college, I wanted to do it with someone that I really aligned closely with.

And to me, when you're coaching college football, it's a great opportunity to influence young men. And you have to be around young men of character and a program that insists on that character and Ohio State and coach Meyer certainly represent that. So it was a natural fit.

Q. What is coach Meyer -- what is it that coach Meyer's told you he wants you to bring to the table?
COACH SCHIANO: Well, it's really just be a member of the staff and a member of the team. So, hopefully my experiences as a coach over the years -- coach and I have, I don't know, we met back when I was at Chicago, I believe, when I was with the Bears and he was at Notre Dame. And we stayed in touch. And then as we both game head coaches at a young age, we visited each other and became very close.

So I know to a great deal what this program is about and I think he knows what my programs were about. And I'm going to come in and be a part of something bigger than myself, part of the staff that certainly has great tradition and history and has won a lot of games and a lot of games under coach Meyer as well. So just try to in any way, come in an and enhance what they have already done.

Q. And he left no doubt he says, Luke Fickell is the defensive coordinator. What you've been around Luke so far and stuff, how have y'all sort of meshed, in your mind?
COACH SCHIANO: I had a chance to meet with Luke before I took the opportunity. So he and I talked through a lot of different scenarios, and I'm very comfortable with what I'm here to do and it's going to be a great situation. Again, playing great defense. So just anyway that I can enhance and help, that's what I'm here for.

Q. It just seems like it's a really fascinating scenario with Chris Ash going to Rutgers, you coming here. Does it seem odd to you, at all, as you get here and that dynamic is playing out for a couple weeks?
COACH SCHIANO: Oh, I guess it's odd in that Rutgers being involved and Chris at Ohio State. But nothing in this business is really surprises you. It's about relationships. It's about being in the place that you feel you can make the biggest impact. And at this stage of my career, I've done a lot of different things.

At this stage of my career, this is what's best for me and my family and I'm glad it's been a fit with coach Meyer and Ohio State. So that's really how I look at it.

I've the gotten to know Coach Ash because I've come here to visit in the last couple years, and he's an excellent football coach. And I'll try to help him anyway I can with him going to Rutgers, because he'll do a great job.

Q. Are you guys like sharing an office back there or anything?
COACH SCHIANO: No, no, I'm in a different office. But we have seen a lot of each other in the past six days. And again, anyway I can help him, I've tried to. And he's done the same. I'm going to be coaching guys that he coached and he's helped me try to get up to speed with them. So it's been really, really a good thing.

Q. You mentioned visiting here. You've been here a couple times in spring of 2014, I think. Did getting to see Ohio State and what Urban did and just this whole environment play into your decision at all? Did it make it more comfortable knowing what you were getting into, what practice is, what the facilities are like, that type of thing?
COACH SCHIANO: Maybe subconsciously. At least when I'm talking to Urban about the opportunity, I can picture where I'll be doing it and who I'll be doing it with. I got to know the staff.

So there maybe was some of the uncertainty that in other situations you would have. But, really, it boils down to what I feel about Coach Meyer and I feel about what he's done here at Ohio State and how I can contribute that led me to make the decision.

Q. There's been a lot of talk around here about rugby-style tackling the last two years, something Chris Ash really believes in. Is that something you guys will continue to adopt, the rugby-style tackling?
COACH SCHIANO: Again, everything is up to the head football coach, so whatever Coach Meyer feels is best is what we're going to do.

But I was here the day that those rugby coaches were here. I think it was the first time they were here. So I got to sit in on that whole thing just by chance. And there's a lot of good points. There's a lot of things that they talk about that we have employed other places I've coached and coached defense.

So, tackling is the heart of playing defense. There's no doubt about it. Your job as a defender is to get the guy down before he gets into the end zone. So, it's a critical part and one that I think, really as you watch college and pro football, it's an art and it's maybe a lost art in a lot of ways.

So, critical that you look at -- every year you evaluate your tackling and if there's little tweaks you can make here and there, you do. But I think this rugby-style tackling, there's several teams that are using it, it's been very effective.

Q. There's been some talk that Coach Meyer asks for a two-year commitment from his assistant coaches. Is that something you guys broached?
COACH SCHIANO: Coach and I really just talked about coming up here and doing the best I can. I don't know what the future holds, I really don't. I know that I'm all about Ohio State right now and trying to coach -- or when I get to coach, but trying to help recruit right now. And then when I get into the coaching staff, trying to coach and doing everything that I can to help Ohio State and help Coach Meyer.

Q. You spent a lot of time in the NFL, where there's no recruiting. What is it like now to maybe get back into that and what is your view on recruiting? Was it nice to not have to do it in the NFL, do you enjoy it? What is that to you?
COACH SCHIANO: Well, I did spend time in the NFL, you're right. But I've spent probably like four times as much in college football. So, recruiting to me, is the great part about college football.

Number one, the relationships you bond with your players before you ever coach them. You get to meet their families, you get to meet everybody that's important to them. The decision makers that helped them make that decision are people that are going to influence their lives down the road. So you get to actually know them, where in the NFL you don't. Very rarely do you get to know them.

So that, to me, is important because I think it helps you understand your players better, what makes them tick. And the other part of it, you get to accumulate more, better players, right? So the better you recruit, the better players you have, the better, effectively, a better team, as long as you develop them the right way, the better team you can have. Where the National Football League limits you to the number of people you can select.

Q. What you did at Rutgers has been well documented in the New Jersey area and stuff. Have you discussed with Urban your recruiting territories at this point, like where you're going to focus?
COACH SCHIANO: Really haven't. I've been here six days and I just dove in and helped wherever I can. And that's really going to be -- whatever coach asks me to do, I'm here to serve and do that. Help wherever I can help. And that will work out fine.

They have a really good recruiting strategy. One thing that I've been able to witness is how they do it, their philosophy in recruiting and I think it's really, really good.

Q. What do you think your players' experience will be with you? What would you describe as your personality?
COACH SCHIANO: Oh, very passionate about coaching football, about young people. Have four kids of my own, that are now getting older. And I have a son who is a freshman in college. So I think that I even better understand college-age students now than I did when I was last in college.

But passionate about what we do. Care about the players. And I'm going to demand of them probably a little more than they demand of themselves and that's what a coach is for.

Q. How tough, too, is it to be the guy who had to the final say at a very successful program to being a coordinator now?
COACH SCHIANO: Well, when you make that decision, you know exactly -- I think I'll be able to be a better assistant coach. I haven't been an assistant coach in a long time. 1999 or 2000 was the last time.

Having been a head coach for so long, I think I can better serve our head coach now. Knowing what he needs, knowing what I needed as a head coach, and maybe keep some things off his plate that can slow him down. So my job is to serve the staff and serve Coach Meyer and that's what I'm here to do.

Q. Your name was mentioned for some head coaching vacancies this off season. When you approached the idea of getting back on the field, how open were you, initially, to the idea of being an assistant somewhere? Were you very open to that or would it have only maybe been a circumstance where you had a relationship like this with a head coach?
COACH SCHIANO: Truthfully as an assistant, it would have really been with only very few people. And Coach Meyer being at the head of the list. So, it ended up working out that way, so I'm very excited about it. And looking forward to, like I said, just said, serving the staff, serving Coach Meyer, most importantly, serving our players.

Q. With the experience you have as a head coach, what do you think it's like for someone like urban Meyer to be able to hire somebody that he's known for this long, with the kind of experience you have. When Urban was at Florida I think some things maybe got difficult for him because he lost some assistants and he had to hire new guys. Being able to bring in someone like you, what's that going to do for him given that you've been friends for so long?
COACH SCHIANO: Probably a better question for him. Because I don't know exactly how he sees it but I'm going to just again try to do everything I can to serve him. I think as an assistant coach that's your job is to do everything you can to meet the expectations of the head coach. And if you can do that, that's why the head coach is the visionary of the program and if you can fulfill his expectations, then the whole program's going to be moving forward and certainly Urban's proved that he knows how to run a program, that he's very successful at it, so I'm looking forward to serving him and learning some things as we go.

Q. You said you want to get back on the field and you want it to be college. I guess the question is why. Not that it's rare for NFL guys to come back but it's not common. Did you get enough taste of the NFL that maybe that's not what you wanted or just if you can flesh that out as to why college.
COACH SCHIANO: Sure. I enjoy the relationships with the young people. And again I mentioned it, when you start off recruiting them, you know, and the reality is if you're doing a good job recruiting you know them when they're 14 and 15, forget when they're 17 and 18. So you track them through their high school experience, you know people that are close to them and their coaches and then as you eventually are allowed to contact them, you get to know their families. So it really is more of a seven or eight year relationship when you're done coaching these guys and then for life. Whereas the NFL's it's a little different. And I enjoy that part. Some guys don't enjoy that part. Somebody asked the question about not liking recruiting, I've always enjoyed recruiting, I've enjoyed the competitiveness of recruiting and like I said I've enjoyed being able to acquire really good people and really good players to make your team whole. So, that part of it, you know, some people that scares them off, I actually enjoy that part.

Q. I asked Urban this, so I'll ask you, what, what does being in the NFL, what does that bring to this program, it's a little cache I guess a little you were at the next level and guys here kids here want to get to that level. Would that be a perk or a positive or what do you see as the positive with that NFL experience here?
COACH SCHIANO: Hopefully I can help the players, right? Because there's this vision of what it is, and then there's reality. And hopefully along the way, because, look, if you're recruiting the right players, they want to play in the NFL, right? That's the talent level that we recruit here at Ohio State. So I can hopefully give them the true picture of what it is. And again, as they're preparing, the guys that are leaving now to go out after the bowl game, right, what it's going to be like at the combine, what it's going to be like in their draft visits, all those things. I've sat in the draft room, in those combine interviews, so hopefully I can help them a little bit with that. And if there's questions, I'll be there to answer them. But this is college football and that's exciting to me. All right. Thank you guys.

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