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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 17, 2016

Chris Ash

Piscataway, New Jersey

COACH ASH: Appreciate you guys coming as usual ask really appreciate you guys coming and following the program and doing what you guys do.

Week eight is here. It's amazing how fast the season is going. Feels like it's just yesterday we were getting on a plane and flying out to Washington but it's flying by.

Just a quick Illinois review. I know I made some comments after the game on Saturday; after Sunday film review, really feel about the same as what I said on Saturday after the game.

There were a lot of good things that happened in that game really on both sides of the ball. We ran the ball better. We threw and caught the ball better. We were better on third down on both sides of the ball than what we had been in the previous few weeks. Still, it gets back to ball security. When you turn the ball over five times in a game, you don't have an opportunity to win a game, and that's what we did.

And then we talk about critical situations, third down was a major point of emphasis. I thought we won third down but the two critical first down issues that we had killed us, also and when you can't snap and catch the ball correctly on first down, to even give yourself a chance to run a play, probably not going to have a chance for success.

What we'll do is we'll continue to build on the positive things that happened, like I mentioned before. We'll continue to work to make improvements on the things that need to be corrected. But we had a spirited practice yesterday. The guys showed up like they have been week-after-week, eager to be coached, eager to go back out to work and continue to build and continue our hunt, so to speak, that we've been on since we started.

I know there's a lot of conversation about the quarterback situation. Talked about that Saturday after the game; that it's a competition that will be opened after film study on Sunday and evaluating the game and after watching Sunday's practice, made a decision that Gio will be our starting quarterback moving forward. It's best to do it now, let the offense and the team know who the starting quarterback is going to be going forward for next week.

We tried obviously a lot of different quarterbacks. This is not to blame the quarterback position or to blame Chris. We have not produced on offense here in the last four weeks, when you've got four games, you've got 14 points, it's not good enough. It's not one individual. I've said it over and over and over: There's times that the quarterback drops back, and goes to throw and guys can't get open and drops back, goes to throw and the protection is not right, drops back and guys are open and the throw is not right, and that's happened way too much here in the last four weeks, and really throughout the course of the seven games so far this year.

We need to get a spark. We need to get something going offensively, and the quarterback position is where we'll make that change to try to provide that spark.

Watching the game on Saturday, Gio did a lot of good things in that game with limited reps throughout the course of the week. Just feel like if he has the whole week to prepare and get ready to play, he'll build on what he brought to the team in the second half of that game.

Watched yesterday's practice, he had a lot of energy. Other players around him fed off of that energy. We threw and caught the ball and did some things yesterday in practice better than what we've done on previous Sundays. Excited to see what Gio can do with the offense moving forward it.

Want to just talk about Chris Laviano. Again, this is not blaming anybody at all. Chris has done everything that he's been asked to do. He's changed his attitude. He's changed his work ethic, his commitment level to the football team has been sky high. He's provided tremendous leadership for the other members of the offense. He'll continue to get reps at quarterback and practice and will be on call if needed. He'll continue to provide leadership for not only the offense but for the quarterback room and for Gio as he prepares to go starting the game on Saturday.

I can't thank Chris enough and really appreciate what he's done, not only since we've been here, but before we got here, too, as the starting quarterback here at Rutgers.

So with that, I'll go ahead and open it up for questions.

Q. How important was it for to you make this decision with Gio early in the week to get him a full week's worth of reps with the ones?
COACH ASH: It was very important. That's why I wanted to do it. I wanted to be able to give the offense the piece of mind that they know who the quarterback is going to be. I wanted to be able to get him the reps that he needs to be able to prepare the right way to go out and try to perform on Saturday.

Q. Is this a week-to-week decision?
COACH ASH: No, he's the starting quarterback. You guys have seen it. We've tried a lot of different options at quarterback throughout the year, and if you've watched it closely, the results have not necessarily been any different.

Saturday in the second half, it was different. It just felt different. Didn't necessarily mean that we went out and scored a bunch of points, but we moved the ball. He made some exciting plays with his feet. Threw the ball well at times. There was just a different energy on offense. There was different energy on the sideline, different energy in the stadium when Gio was in there, especially after he did some of the things he did, and once he got comfortable and got moving a little bit.

So we're hoping that we can build on that. This isn't a deal I'm trying to make the quarterback position a revolving door and that's what it's been, as we try to continually search for the right fit, the right person, to give us the right production and the right type of leadership out on the field that we want. And hopefully Gio is the guy that can do that.

Q. What made that the right time to put him in, as opposed to earlier in the year, and what areas has he improved in?
COACH ASH: To be honest with you, we've talked about this before, too, with our quarterbacks. You put them all in a bag, shake them up, throw them on the floor, you're going to end up seeing a lot of the same things.

We talk about why did Chris earn the right to be the starting quarterback is because through the course of spring and summer and training camp, he was the most consistent guy that we had. He understood the offense the best. He could get us in and out of the right plays, make the right decisions. Players trusted him, coaches trusted him. For whatever reason, it's just not happening on Saturdays the way that it needs to.

Gio has quietly just worked and worked and worked and worked. He hasn't been consistent through that span of time like Chris had. But he's continued to work and last week I saw some things out of him at practice that I not seen, or none of us had seen so far this year.

We actually rotated him down to the scout team a little bit last week to simulate Illinois's quarterback, and just he went out and played. He wasn't worried about making decisions and making mistakes. He just went out and played when he was down there and he looked really good doing it.

So we had a conversation. He's comfortable, he's relaxed and when he's doing those things, he looks pretty good. He just hasn't looked like that at any point to be honest with you. Got into half-time, and we had the conversation throughout the week that Gio showed some things that we had not necessarily seen out of him or any of the other quarterbacks.

We got into half-time and I just made the decision, guys, we've got to go in a different direction. I liked what I saw in the kid out of practice, put him in there, see if he gets comfortable, see what he does. I felt like the results were somewhat positive and feel good about what he can bring moving forward.

Q. Quarterback gets a lot of attention, but are there other depth chart changes or anything you can do to jump start this offense?
COACH ASH: No, you look at the depth chart, the guys that are playing are the guys that we have. About the only position in my opinion that there's a viable option to try is the quarterback. There are no other receivers that we can put out there. The offensive line is the offensive line.

We already rotate the running backs the way that the running backs need to be rotated to be able to carry the workload that we want in the running game. Right now with the way the roster is and what we've got, there's really no other options at any other positions. We've just got to continue to coach them to get better and do their job more consistently so that we can have the type of results that we want on Saturday.

Q. You mentioned last week during your radio show that Josh Hicks is a playmaker and you wanted to get him on the field more and I don't think he played --
COACH ASH: No, he didn't.

Q. Is that just not having enough practice reps?
COACH ASH: It's a combination. We had him at safety, so he had not practiced on the offense last week. He missed a couple days of practice due to personal reasons this last week.

So he had not practiced on offense for a week and a half. We had done some new things on offense at the running back position in the running game that he had not practiced or even been in a meeting to know what he was doing. So it wouldn't have been fair to him or the rest of the offense to put him out there.

Moving forward, we need to get Josh back involved in the offense and get the ball in his hands when we can. But last Saturday, just because of the move to safety, the missed practice time that he had last week due to personal reasons, just would not have been fair to put him out there.

Q. You look around the Big Ten, I think 12 of the 14 teams have had byes at this point. What kind of impact has playing seven straight weeks had on your team overall?
COACH ASH: It's tough. Any time you go seven weeks, now we're going to go eight without some downtime, it's tough, especially when you don't have the type of depth that you really feel like you need to go out and play in a physical league like we do.

I mentioned it before. We got some guys in green jerseys that missed a lot of practice time but you see them playing on Saturdays. That's just where we're at. They have to do that.

But it's tough that you don't have some downtime to give guys, if they need three, four days, five days, whatever it is, to do nothing but recover and rest and get their bodies right. We'll get to a bye week after this week and hopefully get some guys back and get them completely healthy for the last three weeks. But it is a challenge without a doubt.

Q. Speaking of the bye week, is another challenge this week sometimes in college or pro, when the bye week has come, it's almost like senioritis, you're waiting for that bye and you maybe let things slip a little bit. Is there anything that you have to guard against in practice this week, maybe guys almost looking forward to the bye?
COACH ASH: There's been no conversation about the bye week inside this building other than right here. We're focused on going out and practicing and preparing every single day for the game that we've got coming up on Saturday.

When that game is over, I'm sure some people will be relieved that we're at a bye week and they can rest and recover a little bit.

But no, right now, this team has continued to stay focused on the day-to-day preparations of getting ready for a Saturday and I don't anticipate that changing whatsoever.

Q. What concerns you most about Minnesota?
COACH ASH: They are a big, physical football team. You look at their offensive line. They are big. They remind me a lot of a Wisconsin offensive line. Jerry Kill, and now Tracy Claeys, has done a nice job with that program building that thing up the way that they have. They have got a big offensive line. They have got good running backs. They have got a good quarterback. They play well on defense. Well-coached football team that has had success and they keep doing what they are doing, and you know, it's going to be a challenge.

Going to play Minnesota there, it's going to be a long road trip. You're going to go play a physical football team, a veteran team, a well-coached team. It's going to be a challenge.

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