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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 10, 2016

Chris Ash

Piscataway, New Jersey

Howard - 14, Rutgers - 52

COACH ASH: I'd like to first thank our fans for showing up and supporting the football team and creating an environment out there that our players were excited to go out and play. I thought our student section did a great job today. I was really pleased to see the turnout from them.

We are just going to continue to try to build and create the type of environment that a lot of people want to be a part of every single Saturday, but really appreciate the fans that showed up.

I want to give my hats off to Howard. They are a well-coached football team, played hard today. Had a couple injuries there, and I hope they are going to be okay; Marquese Blanchard, I believe was the defensive lineman that got carted off. Our thoughts and prayers are with him for a speedy recovery and hopefully he's going to be okay.

Really a tale of two halves. Did not start the game the way we wanted to start it, touchdown on defense, turnover on offense, another touchdown, we're down 14-0 before the game even really got started. It's the not way we can start football games. We recovered, rebounded and hung in there in the first half.

Got into halftime, made some corrections, adjustments, really just motivated the guys to go out and play the way that we need to be playing. And we came out in the second half, and I think we controlled the line of scrimmage in the second half the way we want to be able to do that, and the way we should have done it from the start in this game.

We went into half-time, I believe we had about 63 yards rushing and ended up with 375 yards rushing. That's the type of stat that we'd like to have with this offense. I thought O-line played well in the second half, our running backs ran hard in the second half.

Can't say enough about Janarion Grant and what he brings to the offense and to special teams. He's right now our most electric player and we can't get the ball in his hands enough. Obviously the big kickoff return helped us generate some momentum there in the first half when things were bleak. Second half defensively, we did a better job of getting off the field.

First half, our issues were third down, couldn't get off the field, lost leverage a couple times on the run and laud the quarterback and the quarterback zone read to make some plays a little bit with his feet, we just can't do those things.

Really give my hats off to our players. It was not a good first half. It was not a half-time that we want to have here, but they responded the right way and came out, continued to play, continued to fight and the result was what we wanted the way this game ended up.

So with that, go ahead and open it up to questions.

Q. What was the locker room like? Was it encouragement or was it a lot of fire and brimstone, so to speak?
COACH ASH: A little bit of both. A little bit of both. Some groups needed to have a fire lit under them and some of them didn't. It was all situational based on how they played in the first half. But we needed to get a fire lit under this football team and get them motivated to go the second half. They were down by half-time with the way they played.

Q. You said second half -- first half, you guys was losing gap integrity in the first half. Second half, like you said, it was I half of two different halves. What are some of the corrections you made the second half, the guys playing better leverage and so forth?
COACH ASH: The issues in the first half, defensively, again they ran a lot of outside stretch plays, pulling our guards to center. We lost leverage on the outside a couple times. We did not control the quarterback run game very well in the first half. He was able to pull it down on the read and get outside or in, and we didn't have an overhang player the way we have it structured in our defense to have.

We just made those corrections. It wasn't about changing calls or anything like that. Just making sure that guys were assignment sound with what they were supposed to do within the calls that we were making, and we needed to being tackle better. First half we didn't tackle very well. We were tackling high. We weren't tackling the way we teach tackling to be made, and we were missing some tackles and we were getting knocked back at times, too.

We need to go back and really re-emphasize to do the fundamentals the way that we want them to be done and play within the structure of the defense. I think we did that in the second half.

Q. What was your assessment of Laviano's play?
COACH ASH: Well, started off a little poor with the turnover there in the first drive. It's not what we want. Again ball security is something he needs to continue to improve on.

Again, I'll give the kid credit. He battled back and held it together, held the offense together to come back and play the way they did in the second half but ball security continues to be something we've got to improve on this offense.

Q. Was it the plan all along to use other quarterbacks and how would you assess?
COACH ASH: The plan was to play our offense, our starters, like we did and rotate certain guys like we normally would. You know, when you play a game like this and score that many points and get up that many points, obviously you're going to put other guys in the game. That's no different this game or any other game that we get into this situation, if we're lucky to. So we are going to put guys in as the game allows us to do.

Q. What do you like about the two quarterbacks?
COACH ASH: Well, Gio came in for a series and scored a touchdown, so liked him pretty good. He did a nice job. Pretty good ratio, one drive, one touchdown.

Tylin did some good things running the ball, also. We didn't ask them to do a whole lot but what we asked them to do we did and I was happy for those two individuals to get out there and have some success.

Q. Can you describe maybe for you what the emotional journey is like a little bit, you're down 14-0, you have to be a little bit taken aback on your sideline and then carrying it through to the end where you do get your first win as a college head coach, just what that was like for you this afternoon?
COACH ASH: Yeah, I mean, any time you win a college football game, you've got to be relieved, because they are hard to do.

I don't care who you play, who you are; winning games is hard. I've learned in my career that you've got to celebrate the victories. Do I want us to play better? Absolutely.

Again, I talked after the first game, we didn't play to our full potential. I didn't think we did this game, either. But we lot a lot closer in the second half. The second half was more the type of football team and the style of football I want us to be able to play and that's what we envision.

Yeah, it was emotional to say the least to start the game the way we started down 14-0 really fast. You do what you want the players to do; you can't panic. You can't flip out. You've got to stay with the plan, stay with the course and keep coaching, keep adjusting and that's what we did and that's what our players did and the end result is what we wanted.

Q. What did you think when you saw Laviano make that block on that wildcat run?
COACH ASH: Chris is a tough kid. He's going to throw his body in there to help his teammates. Never questioned that about him at all. Was really happy that he did that. That shows he's unselfish. He wants to do well and he wants his teammates to do well and he knows he has a role to help spring big runs like that. That's not a surprise to me that he did it.

Q. You never said you were going to red-shirt Tylin, but to play him now and take the red shirt off him this early in the season in a blowout came, can we expect to see more of him now?
COACH ASH: We hope so. He's still got a long way to go but we needed to get him in there to see what he could do. We've seen him in practice do certain things and obviously we ran him while he was in there. We wanted to see how he could run.

Yeah, I never said we would red-shirt him. Never told you we would play him, either. Just happened that the score got that way. And we had conversations throughout training camp, what are we going to do with Tylin and as he's continued to improve and progress, he's a guy that fits our offense and when we get the opportunity to get him in there, we're going to get him in there.

Q. Towards the second half, they were so gassed, obviously, Howard was. Do you think is that an upside of the spread offense when it's doing what it's supposed to do, and does it have more chances to do that when you mix it up like that?
COACH ASH: Well, yeah, I hope so. I mean, depth is an issue in college football. It really is. There are very few coaches that have the depth that they want. We don't have the depth that we want. Obviously Howard probably doesn't have the depth that they want.

For us, we talk about our conditioning, we talk about our physicality at the line of scrimmage and our ability to run the football, the tempo that we use; if you put all those things together, hopefully you're going to wear teams down as the game go on. We did that today and that's what we want to be able to do as we move forward. We have to do it better; we have to do it earlier. But that's what we're hopefully designed to do and working towards being able to do consistently.

Q. How hot was it out there and how did you manage to keep that wind breaker on for the entire game?
COACH ASH: I don't know how hot it was. You know, if you saw my gut, you'd know I've got a windbreaker on (laughter). Trying to sweat it out a little bit.

Q. Obviously you scored 52 points, but can you quantify how big the Janarion Grant kickoff return was at that point?
COACH ASH: It was huge. We were down and we were struggling, and you know, special teams is a big part of what we do. We obviously talked about negative special teams plays after last week, and we made some positive ones today that changed the momentum in the football game and created a little energy in the stadium and sideline.

Janarion is an outstanding player and he does a lot of things for us. And the fact that it's not just him, but the guys on that kickoff return team, the way that they blocked and executed their assignments on that particular play to allow them to break it says a lot about those guys. So really happy for him and that whole unit.

Q. Particularly on defense, because that's where your past is and what you've worked with so much; the two quick touchdowns, is it hard for you not just to be ticked off, not to be angry with them and try to get them playing better? What's that like for you?
COACH ASH: It's hard not to be ticked off but I was ticked off, you know. It's hard not to be. I failed that one. But we kept coaching and coaching and coaching, and you know, got a few things adjusted as we went through the game and played much better.

But yeah, not happy with the way we started that football game. And again, just leveraging the ball, tackling, and third down, those were our issues early in the game.

Q. Did you let them know that?
COACH ASH: Maybe a little bit. But that's part of coaching.

Q. Just off the top of your head going into next week's game, what is the point of emphasis that you think you need to make adjustment in your game plan going to New Mexico?
COACH ASH: Well, each week is different. Each week is a new week. We have a system on offense, defense, and special teams; that we are who we are. But we'll make adjustments based on an opponent's defense or offense or special teams or what they do.

But we have a real game next weekend. If you guys don't know much about New Mexico, it's a real team coming in here. They run the option. They have good skill players. Coach Bob Davie is an outstanding football coach. They have been able to run the ball on anybody. They do a lot of exotic things on defense that create problems. So this is a real football team and a real test for us next week and we have to have a great week of preparation, because if you don't, that option will kill you.

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