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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 16, 2017Chris AshPiscataway, New Jersey CHRIS ASH: We'll go ahead and get started. Thanks for coming, as usual, on a Monday. Really appreciate it. I know you guys have a job to do, and I think you guys do a great job of giving us the coverage that we want here in our program so, again, I thank you guys for that. As normal here on Monday I review the game quickly, kind of preview the upcoming opponent and answer any questions. Going back and taking a look at the Illinois review, obviously it was a great win for our program, for our players, everyone really involved, coaches, support staff, everybody in the organization. It was a great feeling in the locker room, fun plane ride home for everybody. It was really cool to see those players get a chance to celebrate the way that they did, so it was fun. When you can go on the road and win, we got three new starters in the secondary; we're missing one of our starting offensive linemen. To be able to pull off that win is great. The challenge now for us now, though, is to be able to reset our focus and get ready for the next opportunity, the next challenge and be able to go play with that same energy, same passion, same physicality and just execute better in certain situations and certain calls, but that's our challenge. When a team is really on the hunt and really chasing to try to improve and be the best they can be, that's what good teams do. That's what good players do. They have that ability to reset and refocus and get up for the next challenges. I thought we had two really good weeks of preparation for that Illinois game and that obviously helped us have success. We had focused preparation, and we need to get that again as we move on to play Purdue here this next week. Defensively, I thought our D-line played very well against Illinois, especially in the run game. They were physical in the run game, did a great job of using our hands and getting off blocks. I thought we applied pressure to the quarterbacks, got a couple of sacks but we were close to hitting the quarterback and getting hands in his face several times in that game. Jawuan Harris was our player of the game. Very happy for Jawuan to be able to get his first start on defense, really his first game playing as a DB, and to go out and have the production that he had was outstanding. Things we've got to continue to clean up are some penalty on defense, and we didn't finish the game the right way. I think they had not around 250 yards or under 250 yards within nine minutes to go in the game, and we gave up two drives in the last nine minutes of that game and we definite finish it right, so we're not very happy about that. Up to that point I thought we were playing an outstanding defensive game. You look at the pass yards, disappointed in the total, but I think there were 144 yards passing with nine minutes to go in the fourth quarter, and we've got to learn to finish the games and we will, just a few technique things here and there and a couple of calls here and there that we can do different in those situations that will help our players. We need to do that. Offensively, our whole line was the unit of the game. I thought outside of the Washington game that was the best that our offensive line had played so far this season. Outstanding in the run game, pad level was better, footwork was better, stayed on blocks better. Still have to clean up some of the penalties on the O-line, just like we do on the D-line, with foolish presnap false starts or holding calls. We gotta get that cleaned. The other thing, offensively, three fumbles were unacceptable. We have invested a lot of time in ball security and from a fumble standpoint we've done a pretty good job this year, and Saturday was the worst that we have had in that department so far this year. Special teams, we had some big plays that helped us in that game. We had some big punts in the second half that changed field position. Obviously one punt turnover occurred and we got the take away that gave us good field position. We had some pin-'ems on our kickoff coverage team inside the 20 yard line that helped us with field position, but just like with offense and defense some things we've gotta get better. Could have had a punt blocked. They were in hold-up mode most of the day. Late in the game, we assumed they were going to hold us up, and we took off and they came. Could have had a punt blocked, and then we mishandled the onside kick at the end, didn't execute in that situation. So there are things we have to do better there, but, again, overall, pleased with the victory and, again, we know when you go in but can learn from that, that's a good situation. So we will move on and get those things not cleaned up. Talking about Purdue here for this week, it's homecoming. Excited to be back here at our stadium, hopefully have a great crowd, great turnout by the student section, the Riot Squad to create a great environment on Saturday. We're going to need it. Purdue is a much-improved football team. Their new coaching staff has done an outstanding job with this team. They're very multiple on both sides of the ball. Quarterback is playing well, good skilled players on the offensive side of the ball. But we've got to continue to play like we did last week. We've got to play physical, we gotta play with tremendous effort, and we've got to execute better and be a little bit better in situational football to have a chance to win this game. Excited for the next challenge, and our players are, too. With that, I will go ahead and open it up for questions. Q. Chris, quarterback, how did Gio come out? You said after the game you would check on his knee. How did he come out of that? CHRIS ASH: He's day-to-day. Q. Do you expect him to start? CHRIS ASH: Day-to-day. Q. Couple times -- I know he only threw 10 passes but a couple times he rolled out, whether designed or because of pressure and made a nice throw on the run. Can you talk about how he's able to do that and what element that brings to your offense? CHRIS ASH: Yeah, I mean, it's a different element. It's one that we really felt like we need he had as we evaluated ourselves in a bye week, with where we were at offensively, with the way our O-line was playing, our wide receivers were playing, the way we weren't protecting the quarterback as good as we want. We wanted a more mobile quarterback, and that's really what went into the decision to play Gio. We got that. We got exactly that in that game. Protection broke down a couple times, Gio pulled it down, scrambled, extended the play with his feet and was able to keep his eyes down field and made throws, and we moved the sticks because of that. And later in the game Kyle was able to do that same thing on a huge third down play. That's been a big point of emphasis by Coach Kill to do that, and that showed up Saturday, finally. Q. Does anything change with the tight end dynamic now that you've put Travis Vokolek into that mix on the field? CHRIS ASH: No. Our tight ends are playing well. I think Travis has done a great job in practice making plays, and he's earned the opportunity to go out and help us make plays on Saturday. Q. The way you guys were able to run the ball on Saturday against a run defense that statistically was not good, do you envision that same possibility coming against Purdue, another run defense who statistically is not quite there? CHRIS ASH: Every week is different, and we were clicking on all cylinders last week in the run game. We played pretty physical up not front on the offensive line, but every week is different. Again, you go back to the Washington game, our O-line played pretty good, pretty physical, protected the quarterback. We ran the ball in that game. Didn't happen the next week. Nothing is guaranteed. Our guys have to show up, they gotta grind, and they gotta work and they gotta keep trying to get better every week, and that's what I talked about, every good unit, good players, good teams are able to reset their focus and go out and prepare for that next opponent. If you don't, the performance isn't going to look the same. I don't care about the opponent stats, doesn't matter to me. Purdue's got good players. We gotta go play, and we're going to have to prepare exceptionally well this week to go out and be able to even come close to doing what we did this last week. Q. This Purdue team seems a lot improved from last year. What concerns you most about them? CHRIS ASH: Everything. I'm more concerned about us being able to recapture the focus and the energy and the passion and the physicality we played with last Saturday. That's our challenge. Purdue is a much-improved football team. They've got big physical guys on both sides, up front on both sides. They've got skilled players in the right positions. Their quarterbacks are playing well, very multiple, create some schematic problems on both sides of the ball. But I'm not worried about that. I'm more worried about our team being able to, again, refocus and prepare the way that they did for that Illinois game, if we're going to have a chance in this game. That's what we have to be able to do. Q. Chris, at safety, what's the update on Kiy Hester? CHRIS ASH: No update. Q. What are the plans at safety? CHRIS ASH: Exactly what we did for Illinois. That's it. That's all we've got. I know at times you guys think I'm hiding guys on the depth chart, but we're putting the guys out there that we have. If we get some guys back from injury, you know, that's obviously an added bonus, but right now there is no change in our depth chart or our plans moving forward. Q. Coach, how do you recapture that physicality, that emotion that you had in the Illinois game for this week? CHRIS ASH: Get our guys to forget about it and remember about the process to create that and what they did, how they practiced, how they prepared. The last 48 hours of the week, how they really locked in to their assignments and what we needed to do and our plan to win. We've got to be able to do that each week, and that's a measure of a consistent head coach and a coaching staff to be able to get that done. It's a measure of a consistent player to be able to get that done. That's really what it is. There is no magic formula to it. We have to all, myself included, that win over Illinois, it's gone. It's behind us; it doesn't affect the next week. We have to reset. We had some really good focused preparation. We have to be able to recapture that and do that again. It's just constant communication with the players about it, education on why it's important and motivation to get it done. It's as simple as that, and we have not been able to do that here yet since I've been here, and that's the challenge right now to be able to get that done. Q. Chris, building off Bobby's question on Purdue, do you have an appreciation for how quickly they've been able to, I guess, you know -- they were in a similar position that you were in, and how quickly they've been able to be competitive, and does that, I don't know, say something about how teams like Rutgers, Illinois, Purdue can actually come up from the bottom of this conference? CHRIS ASH: You know what, only thing I can worry about is our program here and our situation. I don't know what their situation is. You say the situation is similar, all situations are different, and nobody really knows what the situations are until you're on the inside. All I know is Jeff Brohm has done an outstanding job. He's been a successful head coach at Western Kentucky. I got a ton of respect for him and his staff. They won games there, they built an outstanding program there. They've shown up on Purdue's campus and they've done a nice job in the short time they've been there. To even come close to comparing and contrasting and talking about the situation they took over, that wouldn't be the right thing to do. Q. Jawuan Harris, player of the week, when you are recruiting a guy, how much do you factor in his ability to play on both sides of the ball at one of those skill spots? CHRIS ASH: At this level it's hard to do. We're doing it out of necessity. It's not something that a lot of guys have the ability to do, nor do we want to have a bunch of guys that can do that. We want to recruit guys that can play wide out and guys that can play DB. Myles Nash has been doing it for the majority of the year. He's been playing tight end and he's been playing defensive end. So Jawuan is not the first one to do that, but we're doing that out of necessity. That's where we are with our roster, and that's what we have to do to give ourselves a chance to win. We are concerned in our recruiting about guys that play multiple sports, and if a guy that we recruit has some flexibility in his position to play one side or go over to the other side, that's obviously an added bonus. But it's not like we're out -- we're not any different than anyone else. We're not out looking to recruit a bunch of two-way players. It's not what you necessarily do. Q. Coach, when you guys have the injuries that you've had, the depth issues, and then you see guys that step up just like this past weekend, Jawuan is a good example, how much confidence does this give the locker room knowing that there are guys that are going to step up and fill those voids? CHRIS ASH: Yeah, really what it does is speaks volumes of the character of the players, and the selflessness of the players. Jawuan didn't just step up to fill a void, he changed positions, and sometimes that's hard to do especially if you feel like you're pretty good and you add value at your natural position. To ask you to go on the other side of the ball and play a position that's not your natural position you've never played, that says a lot about an individual. We talked about this victory against Illinois, it wasn't just about the victory. We didn't outexecute Illinois. I thought we outtoughed them, in my opinion, and honestly it was more about the brotherhood of our football team that won that game. We had guys that were selfless, guys that did step up, guys that were hurting and we didn't know if they could play when the foot hit the ball on Saturday and they did play, and they played every rep, guys that were going down and running a lot, taking a lot of reps on special teams and on offense and defense that just didn't want to come out of the game, even though they were tired and hurting and they felt like they might start to cramp. That speaks a lot about our brotherhood and this team and in the locker room as much as it does anything else. Q. Obviously the way you guys ran the ball is the way you wanted to play, talking about toughness up front and whatnot, but do you guys need to get more out of the passing game, and to that regard how much did Janarion give you guys a lift? CHRIS ASH: Everyone talks about run the ball, pass the ball, balance. All those things are important but at the end of the day we have to do what we've got to do to be able to win football games. Is there going to be a game down the road on our schedule at some point that we need to have balance and be able to throw, absolutely. To be able to go out there and do what we did every Saturday, would be awesome, it would be great if we could, but we're also realistic, and that's probably not going to be the case. We would love to have balance in our offense. Saturday we didn't need it, and if you don't need it, you don't use it, but we didn't need it. Janarion gave the whole football team a spark. He was back there as a returner, didn't get a lot of opportunities to return on kickoffs and on punts with the nature of the way they punted the ball, but anytime Janarion is back there, our football team's confidence is elevated because we know a big play could potentially happen. With him out there as wide receiver, it's the same thing. We got him a bubble screen that he had a nice screen on, we got called for holding. But whenever he's out there, again, he is just one of those players that makes the others around him elevate their play, because they're so confident in what he can do, and that's what he brings to our football team as much as anything. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach. CHRIS ASH: Thank you guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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