|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 25, 2017Chris AshPiscataway, New Jersey COACH ASH: How you guys doing? Great. Thank you guys for coming. Appreciate you showing up every Monday as usual. Typical routine. Just brief recap of the game. Give any potential injury updates and then talk briefly about the next opponent and take questions. Just starting about wrapping up and watching the Nebraska game film, you know, again, typically after the game feelings, really are probably reinforced when you watch the video, and that's the same case now. You know, disappointed in the loss. Very happy and pleased with our effort. Our plan going into this game was to make it a four a quarter game and that's exactly what we did but unfortunately we didn't make the plays that we needed to to completely come out on the winning end. That's what's disappointing. There were a lot of plays there that were out there for us to potentially make or prevent them from making, and we didn't get that done. You know, it was very Washington-like, when we compare the games. In both games, we started out fast, and then we failed to sustain offensive drives the rest of the game. Defensively, we played well but in both of those games, we had lapses in the third quarter where they were able to run the ball in both of those games and in both of those games, obviously gave up a big return in the special teams phase of it that led to points on the board. So there were a lot of similarities. But the good part of both of those games, just like the negatives, again, I was very happy about our effort, our togetherness, our toughness. Going on the road in that environment and really not flinching when we started the game and some negative things came up throughout the game. I thought we handled adversity exceptionally well, and to take as many young players as we did into that environment and for them to be able to -- and not just young players, but new players with us, into that environment, and be able to handle themselves like they did makes us have some positive thoughts on the future moving forward. But again, any way you cut it, it's a disappointing loss. But our focus is building on the positives that we can take out of it and continue to work forward and try to improve in the areas that we're struggling at to completely finish a game and play four quarters. Just quick injury update. As most of you know, Blessuan Austin came out of that game. It was confirmed yesterday with an MRI that he has a torn ACL and will miss the rest of the season. Blow for our team, but opportunity for Damon Hayes to step up and be the full-time starter. He played in place of Blessuan and did some good things. Got to continue to improve and develop but really like Damon. Excited for him to go out and have this opportunity being a full-time starter. Moving on just to the next opponent. Another opportunity to play a Big Ten team. Got a good one coming to town Saturday night. Looking forward to a Saturday night game here. When you get a team like Ohio State coming into town, I am hoping that it will be an outstanding environment. A lot of people are going to want to come and watch Big Ten football, and an opportunity for us to go out and play a common opponent from last year and again measure improvement that we've made from last year to this year. Again, just constantly striving to go out and play the best that we can play. But it's a good football team. A lot of experience, a lot of talent. Playing very well here the last few weeks. I know they had the hiccup with Oklahoma but looks like they are back rolling and playing at a high level right now. So with that, I'll go ahead and open up for questions. Q. When you talk about late in the game, second half, not being able to make the plays that you need to make, not being able to sustain drives on offense and come up with the stops on defense, how much of that is depth, how much of that is youth? Is it a mix of that and other factors? To what do you attribute that? COACH ASH: There's a lot of it, and it's not just second half. I mean, when you talk about starting fast offensively, we were able to do that in both games. We have some drive killers. We have some mistakes that are made; speaking offensively right now. When you look at the game, we do down and we score on the opening drive -- the second drive, I believe it was, we had an errant snap on third and two in a critical situation. Then the next drives, we have two false starts. We're just our own worst enemy right now on offense in those situations, in games against some really good opponents. And we can't do that. We can't have those self-inflicted mistakes that we continue to have that doesn't allow us to sustain drives and create momentum that we want and need as we move forward. Defensively, you know, you mentioned the lack of depth. That's probably the one thing that is a glaring issue in the second half of games, and in both the Washington game and in the Nebraska game, when I felt like we did wear down a little bit; it was really the latter part of the third quarter that that happened in both games. But in the Nebraska game, after you watch the film, it wasn't so much wearing down as it was more of the self-inflicted issues like I just mentioned offensively. On the 97-yard touchdown drive, three third downs we had penalties that extended the drives, hands to the face and we got a holding at the end. We had a personal foul where Kiy Hester hit the guy after the incomplete pass. So we hurt ourselves and we kept extending that drive. And again, when I mentioned the other day, more games are lost than won, you know, we lost that game because of some mistakes like that, and just can't do that in this league and where we're at right now and expect to win football games. We've got to get that fixed. We've got to get that cleaned up and it's really in all three phases. Q. You mentioned the defense and depth, specifically at cornerback with Bless now out, just how much concern is there about the depth at that position? COACH ASH: It's a concern. There's no doubt about it. It's been a concern. We felt like going into the year that if we could stay healthy like we did last year that we would be fine if we got an injury. We're on pretty thin ice and that's where we're at. I still believe Isaiah and Damon Hayes are outstanding corners and can play winning football, but we're on thin ice. We've got to look at who our backup guys are going to be. We had Zane Campbell at corner earlier in the year. We'll move him back. We'll look also at Edwin Lopez, a true freshman and Kobe Marfo has been taking some reps. So between those three guys, you know, we're going to have to find our depth out of those three guys at the corner position. Q. You just mentioned those three guys. Is it the same idea when you go into sub packages where Damon was the third guy, and I guess now you'll look at these younger guys? COACH ASH: No. We're going to put the best 11 players that we can on the football field. You know, sub packages are great but if they are not your best 11 players, there's no use doing it. So we're doing those things today. You know, talking about personnel. Typically what we do on Mondays, you know, coming out from the game, where are you at from an injury standpoint; how does it impact not only your first team but what you do in certain situations with sub packages, and you mix-and-match to get what you need to have your best available players out on the field. So you know, if we don't feel like we can get into a certain type of sub package on third-down situations, we're not going to do it just to say we can do it. We've got to make sure that the players that go on the field are ones that give us a chance to be successful, and we're having those conversations, you know, on Mondays, all the time. Q. As far as the kicking game, it seems like Harte and Anderson are coming along each week. Has that been a surprise, and how much help has it been to you guys? COACH ASH: No, it hasn't been a surprise. That's what we saw in training camp. That's what we expected when we signed them and they agreed to come here. We expected them to be, you know, good players, good punter, good kicker. We saw that in training camp. You know, Ryan was probably further ahead than Andrew during training camp. But as Andrew has gotten game reps and game experience, I think his confidence has grown and he's gotten really good. It has helped our special teams. Again, it gets back to Justin Davidovicz has helped our kickoff team. Ryan is starting to punt the ball better and it's helping our punt team. Obviously we had the issue Saturday but it wasn't the punting situation. And then Andrew is helping us with field goals. We're gaining confidence to go out there and try to kick the ball from anywhere from a 25- to 30-yard line feeling like we have an opportunity to put points on the board. And last year, you guys know we were punting in those situations a lot, and at the beginning of this season, I probably would have thought about punting in those situations, too, but now I'm starting to gain more confidence because of what we see out of Andrew. It is helping the football team. Q. There have been a couple games, home and away, where you guys have had to burn a time-out because the play clock is running down in a key situation. Is there a common theme there? Has there been trouble getting the play in or Kyle, trouble getting it? COACH ASH: No, it's all situational. Some of those, you think we're burning a time-out. Some of them, you know, we want more time to think about the situation, the call. The other day, for an example, it's fourth and one, I took the time out because we wanted to talk about the play we were going to run. We wanted to continue to discuss going for it or punting it. When you've got the time outs to use, especially late in the half, there's no use to let them sit there and waste them. But there's all kinds of things: There are some times where calls get in late or players line up in the wrong formation or something didn't come out clear in a signal that force you to use the time out. You don't want to have to do that but that happens and then there are some other times where maybe a call was made and based on what the defense shows you, you're like, boy, this isn't a good call; let's get this thing set and reorganized. And then there's some, like I said, the situational calls that maybe we just need more time to think about what we're actually going to do. You don't want to waste a time-out but the other day in the fourth and one situation, that wasn't wasting a time-out. I thought that was the right thing to do so we can really make sure we're on the same page. Obviously we didn't get the fourth down conversion, but we had the time-outs, and where we were at in that half, it was the right thing to do. Q. Obviously you're involved on the play call there, like third, fourth and one? COACH ASH: Well, I'm involved in the decision to go. I make the ultimate decision whether we are going to go for it or not. I'm not getting involved, in, hey, let's run this play or that play. I'm not the offensive coordinator. I'm not an offensive coach. No, I don't -- I know when to get involved and when not to, and I'm not a guy that's going to get involved in calling offensive plays. It's just not what I do. Q. You talked about how Greg was helpful for you in that transitional period when you took the job, Greg Schiano of course. This will be his first trip back here. Have you maintained that relationship with him over the years? Do you still rely on him for advice and do you have a deeper appreciation after a second year of just when he was able to accomplish? COACH ASH: I would still consider Greg and I to be friends and have a relationship. Obviously the beginning of the season, you don't get a chance to talk to people. Honestly, other than the people this building and my wife, I don't talk to many people during the season. That's by design a lot of times. But I do have -- before I ever came to Rutgers and even since I've been here, I've always had a great appreciation for what Greg did here at Rutgers and what he accomplished and the way that he built the program up. And having been here and listening to all the stories and really getting a good feel for this place, you know, I do have a greater appreciation, but I've always had a pretty high appreciation of what he and his staff and players accomplished during his time here. It's remarkable what they were able to do, and you know, that's -- honestly that's one of the reasons that I made the decision to come here is because it's been done before. It takes a lot of time, effort and a lot of people to get it done but hoping to be able to rebuild it and get it back to where it was during his time here. Q. Any concern over Janarion's status for this Saturday? COACH ASH: As of right now, no. Q. From a football standpoint, what stands out when you watch the Ohio State defense? Greg has talked about the defensive line being better than any that he's ever coached. Are they aggressive? What stands out? COACH ASH: Well, at Ohio State, when you look at Ohio State over the years, there's one thing that's been pretty consistent, and it's been a pretty good defensive line. This year is no different. They have got an outstanding defense. What makes them outstanding; it's the depth. They have always had high-level players, players that are going to go on and be high draft picks or go to the NFL and obviously be great college players. But it's the depth that they have at the D-line that makes it such a special defensive line unit. It's the strength of their football team, by far. They have got a lot of good players on the football team but as a unit, you talk about all the units, the defensive line is definitely the strength. They have got size, they have got explosiveness and they have got depth and they have got experience. You put all those things together; it's a pretty good unit. Q. With regards to the National Anthem protest across the NFL on Sunday, have you discussed that issue over the past year? Will you revisit it this week? And I guess a general philosophy, where do you stand on that with regards to how your team handles it? COACH ASH: You know, we are a team that goes and takes the field for the National Anthem. Every coach, college, has that choice and last year we made that choice. That's been around for a while and wanted to be able to do that, and we did have those conversations, you know, last year. You know, we're a program that we do respect everybody's beliefs and opinions, and we are a team, and we want to act like a team. But we also -- these guys are also people and humans and they have got their own thoughts and beliefs; we respect those. We have not had any issues in regards to demonstrating, so to speak, during the National Anthem. Don't anticipate any. But again, it's not something -- we have talked about it, but it's not something we mandate; that if you're going to be on this team, this is the way it's going to be. Again because just -- we do value everyone's differences and everyone's beliefs. And same thing with social media. We don't police that, so to speak, and regulate what they can and can't say. They have the freedom to do what they want to do. Q. One thing I've gotten a lot already on Twitter, right now, instantaneously, is Bless Austin -- COACH ASH: Good for you (Laughter). Q. Do you expect, since it's the same time of year that Janarion got hurt, do you expect Bless will get a medical red-shirt? COACH ASH: I don't know About that. It's not the same, I mean, it's the same type -- or the same game, but Janarion's happened in the first half last year, and that was really the difference maker. You know, we haven't even gone to that conversation yet. We will but we haven't yet. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|