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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 4, 2017

Chris Ash

Piscataway, New Jersey

COACH ASH: It's a beautiful day outside, looks like, so appreciate you guys coming and giving up your Labor Day. This is Labor Day, right? Labor Day afternoon, to come with us. So appreciate it.

Before I get starred just a couple of things. I did not do this Friday night and apologize, but just wanted to thank your fans and students for showing up and creating a very good environment in the stadium Friday night with the students not being back in school yet, it was a great sign of support and excitement for our program to have that many students show up. I thought it was a very well attended. The Scarlet Walk before the game was one of the best attended Scarlet Walks that we've had since we've been here, so very excited about that. It did create a lot of energy outside the stadium, inside the stadium, and tremendous enthusiasm from our players for that kind of support. So I just want to make sure that I thank those students and fans who came to spout our football team Friday night.

Just a reminder on injuries, you guys know this, but just a reminder, injuries on guys that are day-to-day or week to week, won't make comments on those, if a guy is out long-term I'll definitely update you guys on that situation and on those players.

But with that, just looking forward to the next game, week 2. Eastern Michigan comes to town, excited to see the improvement of our football team. We had 22 guys that played their first snap in a Rutgers uniform, whether it be transfer, freshman or a returning player that had not played here before, 22 guys played in their first game last Friday. And typically, it's coachspeak, but you do make a lot of improvement from week one to week two, and I'm excited to watch those players improvement from week one to week two.

Eastern Michigan, they're one and 0, coming off a bowl bid in 2016. Very well coached football team. Chris Creighton and his staff have done an outstanding job turning that program around and we expect to get their best shot here on Saturday afternoon.

With that I'll go ahead and open it up for questions.

Q. What specific areas are you looking for improvement from?
COACH ASH: The No. 1 thing is just mental errors, that's what cost us in the game. We just had too many. In all three phases. And we need to clean that up. It wasn't an effort deal, it wasn't a toughness deal, it wasn't fundamentals. Felt pretty good about all of that. We just had some mental errors in some critical situations that we can't have. And we've evaluated that as a staff, as a team, what they were, and there's a lot that goes into that. But that's the No. 1 area that we have to clean up to be able to go out and win games.

Q. Obviously the freshmen don't show up much in the box score, but when you saw them on film, the nine true freshmen that you saw in the game, what did you see from them handling their first day on the big stage?
COACH ASH: I saw a group of mature, young men. You start with the opening kickoff, very first play of the season, we had four true freshmen on the kickoff team. First kick was an outstanding kick by Justin Davidovicz, who is a freshman. Got great distance, great hang time. The opening tackle was made by a true freshmen linebacker, so that really excited me to be able to see them go out and handle that moment. That really did not know what they would do, especially if we were going to particular off to start the season. And was really pleased with what I saw.

Other freshmen that played in offense, again, showed good composure. Pretty good execution. They weren't perfect, they made some mistakes, but they're mistakes that we can definitely clean up and build on and move forward with.

Q. You said you felt you weren't out physical'd. I assume it looked the same way on tape. And how much of kind of a breakthrough is that? There were games last year where it seems that did happen. And how much can that help you going forward?
COACH ASH: Well, it helps a lot. But what we have to do is we've got to stay healthy. And we've got to try to stay fresh because what happens as the season goes on your bodies get more and more reps, they start to break down, and that physicality, that speed, that freshness you see on game one starts to dissipate and go away. And we've got to make sure that that doesn't happen.

So that was a big topic of conversation coming out of last year. If you watched our team last year, the first four or five games we played pretty fast, we're a pretty physical football team. But it went away. And we've got to make sure that that doesn't go away.

Q. You mentioned the D-line being a little gassed, is that the product of not playing enough guys or being on the field too much. How do you plan to address that going forward?
COACH ASH: It's a product of them going tempo, they got us with some tempo. When teams do go tempo you have to be able to rotate. They were going faster than what we have seen in a while and in that certain segment in the third quarter, and we couldn't get a rotation going. At one point I called a time out because of that. It was a critical situation down in the red zone. I wanted to be able to catch our breath, get our composure back. They were going some unbalanced formations and tempo. When you combine those two things together that's usually difficult on a defense. And those two things got us on our heels a little bit. And we had a bad stretch in the third quarter, worse stretch of the game, and it was because of those two games. When they're going fast, if the ball isn't getting out-of-bounds, it's tough to get a substitution rotation going, and that's what happened to us in that stretch.

Q. On the passing game, is the hope to get Johnathan in one of these next two games? Would you like to stretch the field more with the vertical passing game or are those opportunities not there with Washington?
COACH ASH: Yeah, start with Johnathan. Getting Johnathan in the game is going to be all situational. Did not feel in that type of game, against that opponent, that environment, that the right opportunity came up to put him in the game. But we are definitely hoping to get Johnathan Lewis in games, get him some opportunities to go out and play. But it's all situational. There's not a set script that says he's going to go in at this point, he's going to get this number of plays. It's just what's best for the football team at that moment.

In terms of being able to take shots down the field, absolutely, we want to be able to do that. Our concern going into this game against Washington, wanted a really good up front, could we hold up. It takes longer for play action and passes and shots down the field to develop, and you've got to be able to protect the quarterback. Going into the game we thought that would be a concern. Coming out of the game, we protected a lot better than what we anticipated or what we did at any point than last year.

Looking back on it, you say, we did pretty good, we would like to have taken more shots down the field. But we need to be able to do that as we move forward. And that's something that we've talked about. We worked a lot on it in training camp, in spring and in training camp. But just against Washington the way they played coverage with their cover three and the way their corners bale and keep everything in front of them and the pass rush they're able to generate. We didn't feel that it was the right team to try to do that to. It wasn't necessarily in the game plan.

Q. You look at the film, what stood out about Gus Edwards and the other two running backs you rep' d in there?
COACH ASH: Gus has obviously got tremendous side. What stood out is he had pretty good feet for his size. He can run with power. But he also has enough agility to make him miss. He can change direction in a small space. And great ball security. That's what stood out about Gus.

And the next part you talk about, the other once, Rob Martin probably ran as hard as Rob has since we have been here. And I think it's competition in the room. They're fighting for reps and opportunities. And when they go out there they've got to make the most of them. And I think both Gus and Rob did that.

We got Black shear in the game. And he did some nice things. It was limited reps but he had a really nice open field catch and run there, made a guy miss, and really excited about his potential for the future.

Did not get Josh Hicks in the game at running back, but Josh is another guy that we feel good about that if he goes in, he'll have a chance to make plays.

You look at that position group right now with the addition of Gus, in my opinion the improved Rob Martin and Adam Black shear in there and Josh Hicks, we've got a pretty good group in there. And it's going to be competition for reps, they're going to have to show up every day and practice and study and focus and fight for every opportunity to get out there. That's what you want. We should have that at every position. We don't have that yet. But that's one position we do.

Q. You look at Eastern Michigan, when you saw that film against Charlotte, can you tell they're an experienced team, experienced quarterback, experienced defensive line?
COACH ASH: Obviously spent a lot more time watching their offense. They go really fast. Quarterback is a good player, plays with a lot of poise and composure, understands their offense, executes exceptionally well. Got a lot of respect for what they've done. And I know Chris Creighton personally, he's a really good coach, done a great job with that program. But it starts with the quarterback. You're not going to win games without quarterback play, and they got that last year. And in the first game he's building off of what they did last year.

It's going to be a tremendous challenge for us because, again, they are a bowl team. They've got a lot of confidence right now. They do have enough experience back in the right spots that they can be a dangerous football team.

Q. Will Aswan Harris be back for this game?
COACH ASH: Yes.

Q. He's back in practice and all that?
COACH ASH: Yeah.

Q. Obviously you're playing a lot of wide receivers, what does he have to do to get in that mix?
COACH ASH: Just like any other ones, he's got to go out and practice. He's got to show up with a good attitude, give good effort, show us that he knows what he's doing and he can go out and execute consistently. Just no different than any other position. Just because he's back, so to speak, doesn't mean that he's guaranteed to go out and get reps and play over somebody else that's been there and proven through the course of training camp.

But we are excited to have him back, it was a small hiccup, but we'll move forward, and he'll have every opportunity to get back in the mix and earn playing time just like the other guys. But he'll have some work to do, because the other guys really had good training camps and have progressed and developed, there's competition at the wide receiver spot.

Q. Did he show you something from talking to Ron playing all three downs?
COACH ASH: Yeah, Kemoko, he had really a good game. One mental error that cost us down in the red zone, but outside of that, he showed tremendous effort. I mean we'd meet every Sunday after a game, we'd go through and show the team some effort plays. And we could have shown four or five from him alone, a tremendous effort.

I'm really pleased with what Kemoko did, really the first time playing first, second and third down. He really rushed the passer, obviously. He did a good job on the run. His effort was outstanding. So I'm fired up about what he can continue to do and how he can improve and the impact he can make on our football team if he keeps doing that.

Q. Jerry Kill, obviously he's been a head coach for so long, how much of an asset is it to have a guy like that on the sidelines?
COACH ASH: Well, it's great for the players, because he doesn't get flustered, he doesn't get rattled. He has composure. He's poised. There's no ups and downs. He's never too high, never too low, and that's what you need to be as a play caller. And when your play caller is like that, what do you think your players are going to be like? They're going to be that same way. We make a great play, people get excited, but as a play caller, you need to think about the next play, and you want your players to be in that same sort of mindset and special focus. And that's what Jerry brings to the player on the sideline. We had a negative play, the series doesn't go the way you want it to go, you can't get down and beat yourself up, you've got to move forward and keep going. And that's what Jerry brings for our offense and for our offensive staff and players, is that calmness, that poise, that ability to move forward and stay focused in the moment and not worry about the play or series before. And I think he did a great job of that.

You talk about Kyle, I mentioned this Friday after the game, he wasn't perfect, but the kid showed tremendous composure, and I think a lot of that has to do with the guy that's coaching him. When he's like it that, the players are going to be like that.

Q. There's a perception that Rutgers is favored in the next two games. Do you look at Liberty beating Baylor, Howard being UN LV and say is you can't take any games lightly?
COACH ASH: We don't take any games lightly, period. We haven't won a game in 11 tries. There's not one game that we're going to take lightly. Every game is a big game, preparation is going to be the same. We need to get better, that's what it is. Whatever happened with other teams around the country, I see it, I like to look at scores. But every situation is different. Every week is different. We've got our own issues. We need to keep developing and improving and working hard and staying focused on us and what we do. And that's it. That's what we talk about more than anything else.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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