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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 27, 2018

Chris Ash

Piscataway, New Jersey

HEAD COACH CHRIS ASH: Well, season's finally here. We're excited for game week. Brings a new level of energy and enthusiasm to the building every time you get to this point in the season. Training camp, it's been a long training camp but a very productive one and we're ready to flip the page and get ready to go compete against somebody else.

As always, I appreciate your guy's coverage of our program. Looking forward to working with you guys throughout the season; getting a chance to see you guys every Monday and then every Saturday after a game, also.

Just our team really quickly. Really pleased with where our football team is at. As I mentioned, we had a very, very productive training camp in my opinion. Really pleased with the time and the effort and the commitment that our staff, our support staff and our players made to get better and improve this football team. We're healthy, not 100 percent, but we're fairly healthy, and in my opinion, we have improved in all areas of our football team here throughout training camp.

I know a lot of you guys are going to ask about the quarterback position. We haven't had a chance to talk since we named the quarterback, and I'll just touch base on that real quick: We obviously named Art Sitkowski our starting quarterback for this week, and there's a number of reasons why, and I'll just hit on a few of those.

First and foremost, he's a talented individual. He's got a lot of skill sets. He can make a lot of throws. But above and beyond that, he's a leader. People follow him. He's been able to galvanize the offense around him, not only for this training camp but in the summer and in the spring. We think he's got a very high ceiling and we're excited to let him get out there and take the keys to the offense and see what it produces.

He's had a really good training camp. He's done an outstanding job since he's been on campus going all the way back to January and he's ready for this opportunity and we're ready to give it to him and we're excited to see what he does with it.

Overall, I mentioned this before: Our quarterback position, the unit itself, has really been elevated through summer and training camp. I think overall, the unit is probably as strong as it's been, by far, since I've been here, and really excited to see how it continues to go.

The competition has been great. The chemistry has been great. Coach McNulty has done a great job with those guys, with the new offense, helping them understand the offense and execute the offense. But overall, it's been a really, really pleasant surprise and it's a very strong unit in my opinion right now.

Just a little bit about Texas State before we open up for questions. That's our opener. It's a very good football team in my opinion. Their record, you know, wasn't great last year but they are building their program similar to what we are.

I know Everett Withers is a very good football coach. He's got a good staff. Very familiar with a number of those guys on that staff, Zak Kuhr, offensive coordinator used to be here. A couple guys were graduate assistants at a couple stops along the way at Ohio State and Arkansas, so very familiar with them. They run an up-tempo offense. They want to run the ball. Going to use tempo to try to wear you out on defense.

There are some unknowns about their defense right now. They have got a new defensive coordinator, and we have been going back, studying a little about his past and where he's from and look at the different things we might see offensively from their defense.

But they are from the State of Texas; they do have speed. They have very good skill players that can make a lot of plays and do some things when the ball gets in their hands.

We have to be ready. We have got to play a really good football game on Saturday. We have got a lot of work to do here this week, but our guys are hungry. They are eager and fired up about the opportunity to go play and measure the improvement we've made in the program.

With that, I'll open up for any questions.

Q. I think your defensive coordinator was quoted down there as saying he plans to bring a lot of pressure; they want to be a very aggressive defense. How do you approach that, not knowing so much what their scheme will be and having a freshman quarterback?
HEAD COACH CHRIS ASH: It's a very good question and again, we've gone back to look at, you know, previous places that he's been. That's what you always do in an opening game.

College openers are a little bit unique. There are no preseason games like there are in a lot of high schools and the NFL, so it's a little bit different.

When there's a new coach, whether it's head coach or coordinator, you have to do your research and go back and look at their history and that's what we've had to do with this guy, with the new D-Coordinator.

We feel like we've done a lot to our offense from our defensive standpoint here in training camp, and we have thrown a lot at our offense, as well as the quarterback; and I think we have done a great job of preparing him for a lot of different things he's going to see throughout the season, and that's really what training camp is about.

You look at, one, how you develop the fundamentals and develop your system but also have to develop the rules that are going to need to be used based on the defensive fronts, the coverages and things like that. Coach McNulty has done a great job of helping our offense get prepared for a lot of things throughout training camp.

Q. What was the conversation like with Gio once you sat him down and told him what your decision was?
HEAD COACH CHRIS ASH: You know, the conversation between Gio and I is between Gio and I. I can tell but Gio himself, right now, he's playing his best football. He's a captain of the football team. He received the most votes of any player and it wasn't even close, on our football team. So that tells you a little bit about the respect that he has from his player.

But he has worked extremely hard to continue to improve himself as a quarterback. He's been leading the football team. He understands where it's at right now and he's going to work to continue to improve as a quarterback and he's going to work really hard to help Art prepare for his opportunity to go out and lead the football team. Gio is a selfless individual and really, really proud of him, his attitude and his outlook on the situation.

Q. Obviously a fair amount of excitement about Art around campus. Curious what you think is a fair baseline for expectations for him as a freshman?
HEAD COACH CHRIS ASH: He's just that. He's a freshman and regardless of the position, when a freshman starts his first college game, especially, there's going to be goods and bads. Probably even more so from the quarterback position, because they are asked to do a lot more.

We are excited about what Art can potentially bring to our football team but we also understand that he is a freshman. It's going to be his first start, and there are going to be mistakes that are going to be made. Our job is to limit those. Our job is to put together a game plan that he feels comfortable with and he can go out and execute, and try not to ask him to do too much.

We're not asking Art to go win games. We're asking him to protect the football and to get the football in the hands of other players that can make some plays that can put points on the board. That's what it is.

Q. He's not the only true freshman starting. There's three in the conference. Has something changed in the college game in your mind that makes it more easier for a true freshman to start at quarterback?
HEAD COACH CHRIS ASH: I don't know if it makes it easier but I think the development of the quarterback position overall, has changed a little bit. There are more quarterback coaches. There are more, you know, high school coaches that are quarterback coaches that have developed players to probably have an opportunity to compete to be a starter or to become a starter than you would have seen in the past, and that's only going to continue to happen and that trend is going to continue to go that way.

I think a lot of it comes from, again, the background, where he's been and how he's been trained and how he's coached and a lot of it is the individual; the characteristics the individual has. Just because Art is a talented individual, doesn't mean he could go out and do the job that we need him to do. There's a lot of other things that he has that shows us that we think he's going to be successful.

I just think it gets back to a lot of, it is the individual; but the way that they are trained and developed and coached at the high school level around the country right now, not only from the high school coach, but quarterback coaches that these guys work with year-round.

Q. Big picture question. I think I asked you at the beginning of training camp, too, but is a Bowl a realistic expectation for this team after going through training camp?
HEAD COACH CHRIS ASH: It should be a realistic goal and expectation every year that we're here. That's what we want to do. That is one of our goals with this football team. You know, we could say it every year, but I feel better about our chances of actually achieving that goal with this football team and it starts because of the senior class.

We don't have a big one, but we've got, in my opinion, a talented one. We have got tremendous leadership and the teams that I've been on, when you have success, it usually starts because of the core of that senior class. That would be no different with this football team.

If we are going to achieve our goals and have a chance to go to post-season play, our seniors are going to have to play their best football, our seniors are going to have to lead for us and going to have to stay healthy, and they are going to have to bring others along with them because we have a lot of young players on our football team, too. I think 70 percent of our football team is a first or second-year player.

So there's a lot that we are putting on the senior class, and I think that they can handle it and that's why I think it's a realistic goal.

Q. Media fans do this, but they look at the November schedule and look at four teams in the Top-12 of the country. Do you look at, you have to do your damage the first eight games; a lot of pressure, that you need to win X amount of games?
HEAD COACH CHRIS ASH: No. Our focus is on Texas State and that's it.

And really, when I say our focus is on Texas State, our focus is still on us. We still have to improve for us to go out and beat anybody on our schedule from Texas State to Ohio State, we have to go improve, and that's our focus is our daily improvement. I know a lot of guys think that's coach speak, but it really isn't. That's what we have to do. That's what our focus is. It's on our preparation, and you know, doing it the best that we can do so we can go out and perform to the best of our ability.

You know, the schedule, I know a lot of people around here talk about Rutgers schedule. It's going to be tough. Somebody made the decision to put Rutgers in the Big Ten. If you didn't want to do that, we shouldn't have done it, you know. It's always going to be a difficult schedule every year, and it's just part of it. If you didn't want to have that schedule, didn't want to play those teams, somebody shouldn't have put Rutgers in the Big Ten. You know, that's how I feel about it.

I don't look at it. I don't worry about it. You've got to go play the teams that you've got to play and we want to be invited to the big dance with the big boys, and we've got to go play them. That's all we're focused on.

Q. Getting back to the quarterback competition, how did Johnathan Lewis fair and does he have a potential role to come in and play some series?
HEAD COACH CHRIS ASH: Johnathan's kind of like Gio in my opinion. He's playing the best he's played at quarterback right now.

Johnathan has a chance to still play quarterback, whether it be this year or down the road. Right now, there is no set plan to say, hey, he is going to play this number of snaps or there's going to be this package.

Again, we are going to play the guys that we think give us a chance to win right now, today. Art has won that competition and that right, but Johnathan has had a great training camp. He's been playing exceptionally well, and it's the best that he has played. That's really what we want him to focus on is continue that improvement, and if he gets that opportunity to go in, take advantage of it, and that creates more opportunities.

Johnathan has done an unbelievable job of just studying, changing his body, working on his fundamentals and what you guys would have seen last year out of Johnathan Lewis as a true freshman, he is a different individual and different player right now today.

Q. Coach McNulty said during spring practice and he reiterated during training camp that he had an inkling of where this quarterback competition might go. Did you ever have that inkling, once Art got on campus in January, and you saw what he was, and then he went through spring ball, did you ever have that feeling that it would eventually lead to this?
HEAD COACH CHRIS ASH: You know, yeah, probably in spring, you saw some play out of Art that said, hey, you know what, this guy's got a chance.

But I can tell you this: When we got into training camp, no matter what we thought coming out of spring, when we got into training camp and you saw the improvement from Gio and Johnathan, both, it became a really, really close competition. Those two guys have really played well. I think Art, being in the quarterback room, has helped elevate the play of everybody and it was a really nip-and-tuck competition all the way until the day we announced it. I know a lot of people probably don't think that, but it was.

And again, because Gio and Johnathan are both in my opinion playing the best that they have played since they have been on campus -- and it's helped Art improve, also. Those three guys have had a great battle, and those three guys have had a great relationship where they are pushing each other.

Q. Before I ask about the offense, is Gio the clear No. 2, or is that an or situation? Is that flexible?
HEAD COACH CHRIS ASH: It's flexible based on the situation. Right now, if Art were to get hurt, you know, based on the situation, Gio would probably be the first to go in, but it's all situational. You know, what the situation is, who we're playing. There's a lot that would go into it.

But Art's our starter. Gio right now would be the most likely guy to go in if Art were to go down.

Q. You mentioned they like to run the ball. I think they bring back their top three rushers and they named Jones the quarterback this morning. He played last year. What do you see out of their running game? I think they bring back four linemen, too.
HEAD COACH CHRIS ASH: They have got a good running game, they really do. I think they will be much improved on the offensive line with the guys they have coming back.

Again, they have skill. The quarterback is a skilled runner. Running backs and wide receivers are skilled players. When you look at the State of Texas there's no shortage of skilled players that can run and they have them. And when you mix that with tempo, there's a chance for big plays.

Again, we've got to play really good football, really good defense and that's an area that we have to improve in our football team is our run defense. We made a huge stride from year one to year two.

We have to take another big jump, and it's going to start with stopping guys like Texas State have. Great preparation, because this first opponent, right now, the Big Ten is such a spread league, it's going to prepare us for the rest of the season, also.

Q. When you talked about expectations for Art, being a freshman, and you also mentioned last Tuesday when you said, whoever we pick, there's going to be some growing pains and part of that a new offense, as well. But what is the patience level that you, as a staff, have for Art to let him develop, particularly with this being his first game and then his second game is going to a daunting atmosphere at Ohio State? What's the patience level as a staff that you'll have with him?
HEAD COACH CHRIS ASH: I mean, he's our starting quarterback. That's it. We're not trying to create a revolving door, so to speak, at the quarterback position, and I know that's what it's been in the past, but if we are going to move forward, we have to stop that trend. You know, we're hoping that this is the direction that we can go and we can stop doing that.

But only time will tell. We're not looking to yank the quarterback out after the first interception or mistake that he makes. We don't want to do that to any position, let alone the quarterback position.

So he's our guy. We're going to work with him and it's going to be important that we develop a plan that he can go out and execute and build confidence and can help move the football team down the field and put points on the board. That's really what it is.

Q. Overall, how important is year three for this program to show what you're building here, especially given the first two seasons?
HEAD COACH CHRIS ASH: I think every year is important. This is a building process, not a building miracle. It's a process. From year one to year two, we improved. Year two to year three, we need to improve. Year three to year four, we need to improve. Every year, our goal is to continue to improve the program and move it forward.

That's really all that we're focused on. I think right now, today, after training camp, we have the best football team that we have had since I've been here.

What does that mean? We can discuss that in December, because there's a lot that can happen between now and then. But that's our goal is just to move the program forward and show improvement every single week and every single year that we go out.

Now, everybody has different ideas of what improvement means, and at the end of the day, winning games does measure improvement. That's not the end-all, be-all. There are things that happen in your program, in your building that people don't see on a daily basis that indicate improvement. But I do know -- I'm not naÃ¯ve to the fact that winning games, to the outside world, is where real improvement is measured and we have to win more games in year three than we have in year one or year two.

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