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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEJanuary 12, 2016Chris AshVince OkruchJay NiemannDrew MehringerPiscataway, New Jersey COACH ASH: I want to welcome you guys and thank you guys for coming. I wanted to give you guys this opportunity to meet and greet and sit down and talk to our assistant coaches that have been hired here at Rutgers. We have had a lot of requests and just thought this would be the best opportunity to give everybody a chance to sit down, if you choose to, face-to-face before signing day. Signing day, we want it to be about the players that come into this program and give them an opportunity to be showcased and give our coaches a chance to meet and greet with you people. A little bit about the coaches that have been hired here so far. When I accepted this job back in December, I had a very detailed plan of how I wanted to go about building this program really from A to Z. The number one thing at the top of the list was surround myself with great people that were great coaches, a great support staff, and really good players that we bring into this program. I think I've done a great job of doing that. Very excited about the group of men that I put together to help us do great things here at Rutgers. I want to talk a little bit about the hiring process and the things that I was looking for in some of the guys that I hired. I had a list of things that I was looking for. Didn't have to hit every single one of them with every single guy, but I wanted to make sure we were pretty spot on with most of the characteristics I was looking for. The number one thing I wanted were men of character, I wanted guys that could be trusted not only by me but most importantly by the players. I wanted guys that could build connection with the players and they could show the players that they cared about them. If we care about the players the right way, we help develop them to reach their full potential, we're going to have a chance for them to play extremely hard for us. The third thing was competence. I wanted to hire a group of men that were very knowledgeable in the position we were going to ask them to coach. They know and understand how to recruit players to this level. They know how to recruit the type of players we want here. A couple other things I was looking for was compatibility, I wanted a group of guys that were compatible, that I thought were compatible with each other. Coaching requires extreme sacrifices, a lot of commitment. When we work extremely long hours, it is more beneficial to have guys that enjoy coming to work every single day, enjoy getting into those staff rooms, foxholes and working together. I thought that was going to be an important trait with a lot of guys I hired. The other thing I was looking for were a group of guys that had come from successful experiences. Not all of them had to be that way, but I wanted a majority of the staff to have been part of winning programs. We all know winning is extremely hard at this level. If you haven't done it, you don't know how to make it happen. It requires an extreme amount of commitment, sacrifices by the coaches and their families if you want to reach the highest level. I wanted to assemble a group of coaches that have been there and done that. Other things I was looking for in the coaching staff was loyalty, loyalty to me. In this profession you're going to come across a lot of really good times and a lot of bad times, you're going to face a lot of adversity. When you hit those rough times you want to make sure you're surrounded with people that are loyal to you, stay positive, they believe in the plan, and they continue to move forward. The last thing was high energy. We talked about that at the press conference. We needed to change the culture here at Rutgers in the football program, needed to start with positive energy. It starts with myself and the coaches I bring into this program to try to instill the type of energy that we want in this program and in these players also. Where are these guys from? There's been a lot of talk about not a lot of connections to New Jersey. To be honest with you, it didn't matter where I got a job. I wasn't concerned with where they were from. Most of these coaches are guys that I have coached with at some point along my journey. As you look at their résumés, there are guys from Iowa State, from Wisconsin, from Arkansas, from Ohio State. There are eight individuals on the staff in some capacity, whether it's the support staff, coaching staff, that had been at Ohio State at some point in some capacity. That was really important to me because they're going to understand the expectations of the program, they're going to understand the day-to-day operations because a lot of the things I'm going to do are going to be modeled by what we did at Ohio State. So that was important to me. Lastly, I want to talk about my expectations. There are not a lot of them but they're going to be high expectations. One, it's to be involved in all aspects of our players' lives. That's our job as a coaching staff, to make sure we're on top of and develop them academically, socially as well as athletically. The only way you can do that is to have a very strong connection, have a very strong relationship built on trust, and make sure that you show you care about them, that you have open lines of communication not only with them but their family or guardian back home and they know we have their best interests in mind. The other thing is to bring in the right type of player here to Rutgers. There's certain characteristics we're going to look for in the recruits we bring into the program to help us change the program and help us be competitive on the football field and eventually win. It's important they not only develop the current players we have, but they go out and recruit the type of player we're looking for. I wanted to take this opportunity to say I'm excited about being the head coach here and I'm more excited about the type of men I've been able to surround myself with as we start this journey and get ready to hit the road for recruiting on Thursday. I'll take some questions at this time. Q. Chris, you mentioned the high energy and change of culture. There's three guys 28 years old or younger, four guys 32 or younger. Kind of the youth of this. We've seen it on Twitter a little bit, too. How does that help in terms of an advantage? COACH ASH: I don't want them wasting their time on Twitter. That was by design. I think we have a pretty good blend of youth and excitement and energy with experience and wisdom. That combination is really what I wanted on the staff. I didn't want a staff of all older, experienced guys that have been through the wars. I didn't want a staff that was completely filled with a bunch of young go-getters either. I wanted a nice little blend of that. I think I've been able to do that. I didn't want a staff of a bunch of 'yes' men either, but those that would get aligned with my vision and plan fairly easily. Q. Chris, obviously one spot left to fill. Can you give an update where that stands? COACH ASH: I'm taking my time with it. I have talked to several people. I'm not in any rush to do it. I want to make sure it's the right fit for the offensive staff, whatever needs I feel like we have left to address as a full staff. I hope to have it filled here fairly quickly. But there's no timetable. I want to make sure it's right more so than just hiring a guy by a certain date. Q. Would that be a runningback coach or is there flexibility? COACH ASH: There's flexibility, but right now runningbacks is the position I'm looking for. Q. You have a defensive backs background. Jay Niemann does, as well. You used two spots on defensive backs coaches. Was that an emphasis on purpose given the struggles? COACH ASH: No, to have four guys coaching the DBs would be crazy, to be honest with you. Jay has had tremendous experience both in coaching the secondary and the linebackers. He's been a back seven guy. So I'm very comfortable with him going to coach the linebackers. He played linebacker when he was a player. Not sure how many years ago that was, Jay, but it was awhile ago (laughter). He's a defensive coordinator. He and I believe in a lot of the same things. But my comfort level of him going to coach the linebackers is extremely high. That's why I hired him. Q. Chris, there is a perception that Rutgers wasn't maybe physically ready to compete with the rest in the Big Ten. Is that what you were looking for when you were looking to hire a strength and conditioning coach, improve that? COACH ASH: Well, there are a lot of things that the strength and conditioning coach is going to do here in this program. I've said this to a few people. If I didn't think I could get Kenny Parker with me, I might not have taken the job. It was that important of a hire for me. He's not going to be just a strength and conditioning coach. Is he going to physically develop the players? Absolutely. But the mental development and the confidence and the belief and the training we put these guys through is going to be probably more important than the physical development. The adversity that he's going to put them through to see how they respond, the competitive environment that he's going to create both in the weight room and in the off-season drills, on the practice field, is going to be extremely important for us. That was the biggest hire I could have made in Kenny Parker. Whatever perceptions there are out there about Rutgers, I really don't care. It's about moving forward. I needed to do it with a guy that was aligned with the vision of how I wanted the program developed. Kenny was a home run for me. Q. Coach, can you talk a little bit about the hiring of this fellow back here, Rick Mantz. There aren't a lot of connections to this area. He has those connections, well-respected in this area. COACH ASH: I didn't know Rick when I hired him. When I got this job, again, it didn't matter if it was at Rutgers or San Jose State, some school in California. Part of my plan of building a staff, I wanted to get somebody in the high school directors or high school relations, excuse me, position that could help build relations with the high school coaches in that state. As I started to make calls around or received calls or emails, there was one name that kept coming up. It was Rick. Calls, emails, text messages kept pouring in about Rick. I reached out to him and said, I'm not sure who you are, but I need to meet you. He came over. Told him what I was looking for before he came over. We had that initial meeting. He came in with a detailed plan of what we should do here at Rutgers to build relationships with high school coaches and promote the game of football here in the state of New Jersey. He had energy, passion. He has love for Rutgers. It didn't take me long to know that's the guy I wanted on my staff. We didn't have a previous relationship before, never met him, didn't know him. Just the outpouring of support for him in a position I had created here at Rutgers was unbelievable. I knew I needed to talk to him. When I did, it was real clear that's the guy I needed to hire. Q. Do you have to take a unique approach to close out this recruiting class? COACH ASH: Well, I think recruiting itself, you have to take a unique and creative approach regardless of what point it is. Right now we are playing catch-up to a lot of recruits. We're trying to hang on to kids that are committed to us. We're actively trying to find other prospects to go out and try to recruit. It's a challenge at this point in the game because we are late. It doesn't matter if it's right now in the middle of January or the middle of August, we are going to try to be creative and do things differently to try to build relationships and connections with recruits regardless of where they're from or what position they play. It's just a little bit more challenging because typically you're recruiting guys anywhere from one to two years and you have a very strong relationship with them. We don't have that luxury right now. We're trying to build relationships with guys in three or four weeks before signing date. That's difficult to do. Q. Now that you've been here and have your staff in place, you talked about changing the energy. What have you seen overall from where it is and what has to happen in the next coming months for this to change? COACH ASH: It's got to stay consistent. I think myself, I came in here extremely energetic and excited to get going. The coaching staff that has been assembled, the support staff that has been assembled is the same way. They're hungry, excited, eager to get going. It's about consistency. Can we sustain that energy, when the players get back here, when we hit a speed bump in the road and face a little adversity. That's going to be the challenge for us. It starts with me at the top, but I think I surrounded myself with guys that understand how to do their business, they understand the expectations. They understand there are going to be good times and bad times, and we're going to stay extremely positive through both of them. Q. With the players gone right now, have you been able to have any interaction with them recently? What can they expect when they come back for the spring semester? COACH ASH: We've had a lot of interaction with the players, more of the assistant coaches have than I have. We've had conversations over the phone. There have been several players that have come back early from break, have stopped in the office, I met with some of them. I bumped into some of them when they're going down to the training room to get rehab or treatment from previous injuries. We're doing the best we can in a short amount of time to not only recruit but connect with our current roster. We're excited to get them back here. They'll show up here Monday night with a team check-in, have their first workout Tuesday morning on the 19th at 5 a.m. We're going to have a little early morning boot camp deal to find out where we're at with our players. They're excited about that because of the unknown, what they've heard. We're excited to get a chance to be around them and see them. This will be the first time that most of the staff has had any face-to-face contact with any of the players. We're trying to do anything we can to connect with them early. That's going to be a big part of our success with them moving forward, how fast we can connect with them. Q. It's a day after the national championship. I think every Rutgers fan is sitting there going, Great game last night, when is Rutgers going to be there? COACH ASH: There are a lot of schools around the country asking that same question. We're not sitting here talking about championships. We're talking about getting better every single day. Does every coach in this profession have a dream of potentially playing in big games like that? Absolutely. Been there as an assistant. It's unbelievable, great feeling, unlike anything else when you reach that position. But our goal right now is to get better every single day. We have so many things we have to do to try to get this program going in the right direction, to compete in the division we're in. We're going to do that one step at a time. We're not going to be in any rush, take shortcuts, worry about two years, three years down the road. We're worried about being the best we can be today and get better tomorrow. Q. You mentioned signing day coming up. You have 12 commits right now. Is there a number that you're looking for? COACH ASH: No, actually we talk about that every day. I'm not concerned about the number of commits we get right now. Can we get up to 25? Yeah, we could. I'm not concerned about that. I'm concerned about getting the right guys right now. We're not going to take shortcuts and go out and grab somebody that maybe is not the right fit, whether it be character-wise or academically or athletically and take a lot of risk. It's not just the best way to build a program for the long-term. There's no number. It's all about the right guys. Q. Coach, you spoke earlier about your expectations for the players. How about your expectations for this team moving into next season? Is bowl eligibility enough? COACH ASH: I'm not worried about that. Bowl eligibility, that's for you guys to worry about. Like I said, I'm worried about getting better from one day to the next. If we build a highly competitive football team that's focused on being the best they can be, getting better every single day, focused on being a great teammate, the wins and bowl eligibility and all those things will come. I'm not worried about any of that right now. We're not even going to talk to the players about that right now. It's how do we come together, build strong relationships, build a team that will compete every single day in every facet that we want them to compete in. Eventually when we get on the field the wins will come because of that. We have to focus on the culture, the work ethic, the toughness, all the things that make you a successful football team. We have no idea where we're at right now. We have to find the baseline, a starting spot, and develop the plan to get where we want to be. The rest will take care of itself. Q. I know it's still very early, but have you had any thoughts about the quarterback competition going in? Is Chris still going to be the starter? COACH ASH: No thoughts to that at all. Not worried about it. Every spot is open. Everything is going to be a competition. From the day they show up on Monday night, we have our first workout Tuesday morning, it's about competition. We've sent this message already. If you're afraid to compete, you're not going to be welcome here at Rutgers, whether you're a current player, an incoming player, a recruit down the road. The program is going to be built on competition. There are not going to be any starters anointed because of what they've done in the past, where they're from, what age they are. The guys better come in ready to compete, they better buy into what we're doing, buy into our culture, do the things we want them to do or it's not going to be the right place for them. With that, guys, I would like to bring up the offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer. I knew him for quite some time. We crossed paths at Iowa State several years ago. He was at Ohio State going out as I was coming in at Ohio State. He has been mentored and groomed by one of my really good friends, Tom Herman, head coach at Houston. I think Drew is an outstanding coach, a rising star in his profession. He was one of the first targets I had in mind when I got this job. I'd like to introduce Drew Mehringer. COACH MEHRINGER: Good afternoon. I'm Drew Mehringer. First off, I'd like to say I'm very excited to be here for a number of reasons. First off, I can't imagine an opportunity coming about like the one that I have in front of me. More specifically being able to work for probably the most motivated, one of the most precise, best plan-building people I've ever been around in my life. He's extremely detail oriented. I can't thank Coach Ash enough for the opportunity to be here at Rutgers. I'm very excited to be in this conference and at this university. Every time you get to say you're at the birthplace of college football, it's a tremendous opportunity and one I'm really excited about. Coach Ash has done a phenomenal job of surrounding us as assistant coaches with great guys, whether they be in a support staff role or other assistants. The guys on offense I have are extremely motivated and intelligent football coaches that seem to have the same intensity and passion for the game that I know I have and that Coach Ash has, as well. We're going to be an offense that's exciting to watch. If you know anything about what Coach Ash just said about where I come from, the people that I've learned the game from, you'll have kind of an idea of what we're going to look like offensively. Like I said, I'm excited to work with these guys. They're all really good people. Good guys to be around, intense people that are competitive, and are not here to just be excited at Rutgers, they came here to win. This is an exciting time. So thank you to Coach Ash, President Barchi, our AD, Pat Hobbs, as well. With that, any questions. Q. How would you describe your ideal quarterback to run your system? What are you looking for? COACH MEHRINGER: I think the ideal quarterback in the system, everyone is going to wonder is he a dual threat guy, a pro style guy. I don't think that's necessarily important. There's no one system ever that has been the saving grace of football, whether it be at the professional level or college football level. You look at what Tom Brady has done, Russell Wilson, Vince Young did in college. The ideal quarterback for us is going to be a guy that is extremely competitive, an intelligent guy that's going to come in with a relentless passion to win. Really I think the intangibles of the position separate itself far from the measurables and the style of system that he fits in. Ideal quarterback-wise, extremely competitive and super intelligent. Q. Coach, as much as it may be a fun, exciting offense to watch, probably just as fun to play in, how much of a draw is that when you go out on the recruiting trail? COACH MEHRINGER: That's a good question. If you look at the lineage of this offense, where it's come from, the people that have coached it in the past, you take it all the way back to Coach Meyer being at Utah, there's been Alex Smith, he goes to Florida, then Chris Leak, Tim Tebow, it goes to Ohio State, Braxton Miller, Cardale Jones, J.T. Barrett. It goes to Houston and there's Greg Ward. They finished No. 8 in the country this past year. I think it's exciting. You look at all those quarterbacks that have played in this offense, that position specifically, they've all had a lot of success. You look at some of the skill position players like Percy Harvin that have come out of this offense. You look at the draft picks, Devin Smith is in the NFL, Corey Philly Brown is in the NFL. Some of those guys, the offensive linemen that have come out of this offense, Jeff Heuerman got drafted, James Casey got drafted when he played at Rice. Very exciting offense to play in whether you're a skill position player or offensive lineman. We're going to be an offense that spreads the ball around. We're not going to be isolated on a single receiver or back or on the quarterback specifically. We plan to use the entire field and all 11 people on it. Q. Have you had a chance to speak with Chris or Hayden? What was your first evaluation? COACH MEHRINGER: I've talked to all the quarterbacks. You reach out to Chris, being the starter from this past year. Very good conversation with him on the phone. I talked about the expectations we have. The same thing with Hayden, the expectations we have for that position. When you address Hayden, I hope you didn't come in here to be the backup. As Coach Ash said, there are no starters, backups right now, it's open competition. All the way back down to even Gio and those guys. It's open for all of those guys at every single position. If you didn't come here to compete and win, your position, or game for that matter, you don't really belong here. Q. Obviously 28 years old, first coordinator job in the Big Ten. How do you answer those concerns about maybe he doesn't have enough experience? COACH MEHRINGER: I think that's going to be one of those things that keeps recurring until we play some games and have some success. The only thing that I can tell you is Coach Ash is a smart man. I think that he probably did his research. I feel certainly very confident and I have a lot of belief in my ability to get the job done. I'm surrounded by great guys on the offensive staff that are intelligent football coaches. I think as an offensive staff we'll be more than ready. It's not one person that's going to get this job done. It's going to take all of us. We're very excited. Q. A lot of people have a lot of doubts about your youth, but they don't look at the positive side, you have a presence on Twitter. With this youth, do you think you will relate to these players better on the recruiting trail? COACH MEHRINGER: I do think I have the ability at this current age that I am right now to relate a little bit more to some of those high school players. I'm not that far removed from playing college football or being recruited, for that matter. Being able to allay some of the fears that parents and prospective student-athletes might have, I think I do have that relate-ability. I think that helps. There's also the flipside of that as well that you have to battle. Knowing the right hash tags, stuff like that, the emojis, the cool Twitter jokes, it's fun, I enjoy that. (Smiling). Q. Obviously there's a limit on how much time you can spend with players in spring ball. How will you get up to speed? COACH MEHRINGER: That's one of the things we have set in the calendar. We have dedicated time for that. I think at this point, though, the biggest concern for us is preparing ourselves as a team mentally. Coach Ash talked about the competitive drill work that we're going to do on the field. I think if we get over that hump, if we become a competitive, tough football team, the X's and O's will come. For good coaches, we can get that part done. If we don't have a tough, competitive football team, I don't think the X's and O's will matter much. Q. As a coordinator, do the players have to fit the offense or do you have to be able to tweak the offense to fit the players? COACH MEHRINGER: As a coordinator, if you have the gall to say you're going to make the players fit to your offense, you're not going to be a coordinator for very long. Our job as coaches is to put our guys in the best position to win and be successful and to utilize what they do best and put them in those positions to win. We're going to assess what we have on the field through winter conditioning and in spring ball, then adapt the principles we believe in to fit those guys and put them in the best positions we can to go help Rutgers win football games. Q. Janarion Grant has the ability to thrive in an offense like those you mentioned thus far today. Have you spoken to him? Do you have any kind of idea what role you'd like him to play in this offense? COACH MEHRINGER: Me and Coach (indiscernible), we were on a phone call with him the other day. Had a great conversation with him, talking about, We're going to ask you to do a couple things. If you open your heart up and allow us to coach you, we're going to put you in a position to be successful. It's not for you, the lack of ability obviously. We've seen that on the field. But for you it's going to be whether or not you're open and willing to give us your heart and be coached and become part of this program. If you're willing to do that, you look at the people that have played that position, they've all been very, very successful for six, seven eight years now. If you're willing to do that, if you're willing to be open to that, some really cool things are ahead of you. But if you're not, we're going to struggle a little bit from that standpoint. We all want the same things. We want Janarion Grant to be successful. We want him to have the success he dreams of on the field. For us to do that, first you have to be open to the coaching, the new culture, the things that Coach Ash is bringing into this program. Q. You mentioned something about tight ends a minute ago. Tight ends and fullback, do they still have a place here, but a different role? COACH MEHRINGER: Absolutely. I think the tight end is one of the most important positions in our offense. We have a stable of them here. They're talented players that we plan on utilizing. They provide a major avenue for us to do different things in the run game as well as the pass game as well, whether that be from a down-the-field perspective or whether in pass protection or whatever it may be. But absolutely, they are definitely a part of our offense. Thank you, guys. COACH ASH: One thing I learned after that interview is I have to add a couple other criteria to determine whether a guy is a good coach or not. Age limit is one of them and your ability to get on Twitter. I've been doing this for 20 years. I think I'm a decent coach. I don't do much on Twitter. I guess I probably can't coach. I felt like at a young age I was pretty knowledgeable and could do a good job, too. I have unbelievable faith and confidence in Drew's ability or I would not have hired him as the offensive coordinator. The next coach that I'd like to bring up, I have had a very long relationship with for the past 20 years. He actually was my coach in college. Didn't do a very good job because I sucked (smiling). But a guy when you look at the positions on staff that I needed to hire, this position was the hardest one for me to settle on because I'm a defensive coach. I know what I want on the defensive side of the ball. I know what I want it to look like. I know how I want it to be coached. I know the terminology that I want. Doesn't mean it's going to be exactly what I've done in the past. It will be a collaborative effort with the whole defensive staff. But I needed to have somebody in that position that I could work well with. When you talk about character, he's a man of very high character. When you talk about competence, he's an extremely competent football coach. When you talk about capability, Coach Niemann and I have similar defensive beliefs and philosophies and we've talked football darn near every week for a number of years. I thought it was very important for me to get an individual like this to work together on the defensive side of the ball. I will be involved on the defense. I'll be in the room some. I won't be in the room some. As head coach, a lot of other responsibilities you have to do. When I go in the room, I want to know it's a guy that's doing it the way I want it done, and when I leave I have trust and faith it continues that way. Really at the end of the day there was really only one guy I had really the utmost respect for and confidence in being able to work together with to move the defense in the direction we wanted to go. I'd like to introduce Jay Niemann. COACH NIEMANN: Appreciate that. It's great to be here. Chris and I, as he said, have a long-standing history. Dayton a few years back. To be able to coach a guy, to watch his career go as it has as an assistant, then a coordinator, to be able to stand back and admire his work, has been awesome to do. Now to be able to be on a staff and serve as an assistant coach with him being the head coach makes it even more special. It's a thrill to be here. It's a thrill to be here under Chris. He's assembled a great group of coaches in the short time that we've been here that have made a great impression on me. He's assembled a fantastic staff of guys, great coaches, great family men, great individuals. I couldn't be happier with the opportunity. I came here for that reason, but also because I believed in talking to Coach Ash that there was a tremendous upside in this program. We're in a very good location from a recruiting perspective. We're in a program that, in my opinion, isn't that far away from being able to turn the corner and get back to being successful again. A lot of things lined up. It's our job obviously to get the corner turned, to get back on track. I'm just super excited for the opportunity to be a part of that process, to contribute where I can, and to help this program go. With that being said, be happy to answer any questions. Q. Jay, you said you feel like you're in a very good location for a recruiting perspective. Are you talking about the talent in this state, keeping some of that home? COACH NIEMANN: Well, it's important to do. I think anywhere you're at, you need to be able to recruit your backyard successfully. That goes without being said. This whole area of the United States, New York, New Jersey, where we're at, we have a lot of players in this area that are within our reach from a geographical perspective. Not everybody in the country obviously has that luxury. Our job obviously is to go get the best players we can that fit the profile of what Coach Ash wants for our program. We're in a place from a population base where we have a good chance to do that. Q. Have you had a chance to look at this defense on film? It struggled in a lot of games last year. Where do you start when you're rebuilding a defense? COACH NIEMANN: The first answer is, no, I haven't seen a lot of film. We watched bits and pieces of a couple of games just to get an idea of some of the skill sets of our players. We haven't spent a great deal of time on that and probably won't, in all honesty, until we get through the signing date and have a chance to have that be a higher priority. Right now recruiting is front and center. You have to assess what your guys can do. Drew made reference to that talking about the offense. You can't fit square pegs in round holes. We have to see what our guys can do and hopefully we can build a defense around what they're capable of. That's the first thing we've got to do. Q. Last few years on defense specifically, the secondary has struggled, one of the worst in the country. Having looked at the film, what did you see that was the problem and what changes need to be made? COACH NIEMANN: I wasn't here obviously in the past, didn't know exactly what went on in terms of who played and what the reasons were for them playing. My understanding of the short-term is some guys got maybe pressed into duty a little quickly, maybe more quickly than what they were ready for. We have to go back and look at how many techniques were taught, were they being asked to do more than they were ready to do. That's all behind us. Moving forward, we have to see what their skill sets are, make sure we're teaching techniques and fundamentals they can do, coverages they can play, then we have to go ask them to execute those things to the best of their ability. Q. There's been times in the past where Rutgers' defense has struggled to find an identity. What do you want the identity to be of this defense? COACH NIEMANN: Well, first thing we want to be is tough, we want to be aggressive, we want to be physical. We want to be a defense that's fundamentally sound. We want to be a defense that doesn't give up big plays because we're fundamentally sound. Sound on our technique, we want to be a group that plays together with a lot of pride. Those are things that come to me. Q. Did Chris really suck as a football player? Then, seriously, how does your vision match with what he's going to be trying to teach? COACH NIEMANN: Well, no, first of all, he didn't suck. He was a typical coach that had a playing career probably like a lot of us coaches. Most of us were overachievers. He was an extremely hard worker. He did go through a knee injury which obviously made it tough for him at times until he rehabbed and got back. Student of the game, hard worker, great to coach. Just always hungry to get more knowledgeable about becoming a master of his position, all the things you would expect out of a guy that's gotten himself to where he is right now. He alluded to this earlier when he was up here talking. We have been in close contact over the years, just talking football, everything from scheme to philosophy. So while we've been in different programs, we at the same time have stayed pretty connected. No two people are ever identical, but I think we're really, really close on our beliefs. Q. Jay, you've been a head coach before, then you were a defensive coordinator at D-III. This is your first Big Ten caliber job. Something you wanted for a long time or something that kind of wasn't always a goal and just worked out because it's Chris and it's here? COACH NIEMANN: I never have a roadmap that says I needed to be at the BCS level. I spent five really good years at Northern Illinois before coming here. We played Ohio State. We played Iowa. We played Northwestern. We played Purdue. I think how we played defense in those games will speak for itself. If you want to go back and look, you're welcome to. I feel comfortable with this role. I am sure he wouldn't have hired me if he didn't feel like I could do a good job with it. I'm excited for that. Hopefully that answers your question. Q. North Illinois, one of the tenets was a lot of takeaways. Can you teach the mindset of that or is that something that happened to work out for that defense? COACH NIEMANN: I think absolutely you can teach it, coach it, demand it. Hopefully those things come to fruition on game day. I know this: if you don't work on it, it's not likely to happen. It's always an emphasis on the defensive practice field for us. Q. Have you had any conversations with Darius Hamilton at all? COACH NIEMANN: The only conversations I've had have been with the linebackers, the guys that I'm getting ready to coach. They've been pretty brief in nature. Just trying to make sure the guys are getting ready to come in and report next week, that they're set to go with the workouts. Beside that, we haven't gotten into great depth, I haven't, with any of the guys. We'll talk more about their roles and those types of things once they get here. First thing I wanted to do is get to know them as people, get to know what makes them tick. I think if you can build that trust, have that type of relationship up front, all the other things will come off of that eventually as we work our way through with them. Q. I think you're the only coach who was a head coach of the assistants. Do you think that will be an asset to Chris? COACH NIEMANN: We really haven't talked about that. It can be an asset. To sit in that chair is different, I will say that. Anybody who has been in that chair knows. Those who have been close to people in that chair have a pretty good idea of that. Chris is going to do a great job in that role. I can already see that. He's going to make that transition as smoothly and seamlessly as anyone can. It's up to him as to whether he wants to try to include me in any question-and-answer sessions of opinions or questions of that nature. That's his prerogative. I'll be available if that's what he wants to do. Q. You also are the dad of a Big Ten football player. Does that help at all, knowing the league that way? COACH NIEMANN: I don't think it helps at all from an X and O perspective or anything like that to say you have a son, I'm going to actually have two sons that are playing in the Big Ten. It just is what it is. My roots are in Iowa. That's where I grew up. That's where my kids grew up for a large portion of their life. That's where the majority of our family is at. Consequently that's where they chose to go to school. That's just how it worked out. I don't think there's really any advantage one way or the other going through the recruitment process as it relates to what I do. Q. This has historically been a 4-3 defense here. Is that the plan going forward? Also, what is it like being the elder statesman of such a young staff? COACH NIEMANN: What ever gave you that idea (smiling)? You have to have a starting point. Coach Ash's base is 4-3. That's what mine has been, too. Myself as a coach, when he was playing, he as a player, me as a coach, cut our teeth on 4-3. That's been a while ago. It does dovetail and go in different directions, different areas with your X's and O's. So that's where we'll start. As Drew said earlier, I think one of our big jobs is to decide what our players can do and make sure we're not stuck in our ways and set on things to the point that we can't make adjustments in the scheme to fit the people that are playing it. That needs to be the number one thing front and center, to put our guys in the position to do things they're capable of doing. Q. And being one of the older guys? COACH NIEMANN: Oh, that part (smiling). That's a perception. Age is a number. I still feel like I can go out there and run on the field with a lot of enthusiasm, keep up with everybody else. Experience plays a role in helping for us to try to do what we're doing as a staff. That's a plus. Beyond that, I don't think about it too much. Thank you. COACH ASH: We'll wrap-up this portion of the press conference here. Appreciate you coming. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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