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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 1, 2018

Chris Ash

Piscataway, New Jersey

CHRIS ASH: Thanks for coming, guys. Hope everyone's doing great. We'll start and just kind of recap last Saturday's game, go through some goods and bads and then talk about next week's opponent and questions.

Obviously we're on a streak that we've got to get stopped. We've lost four in a row, and disappointed in it. You know, in the last few weeks, it's gone from disappointment to frustration to this last Saturday evaluating the game to a little bit of disbelief with some of the issues that we've had in the game that have prevented us from winning games.

I've mentioned this before, but we won't win games around here until we have the mental discipline and toughness to execute our calls with great effort, great fundamentals, and play within the system and play within the call that's been made.

For us, the margin for error is very, very small, and your success or failures lie in the details of what you do and in everything you do. Those details matter in your ability to be successful and win games or not being successful, and we've got to clean up the details, and we've been trying to do that over the last few weeks, but we're not there yet. Obviously with the results that we're having.

In my opinion each coach has got to coach it better and each player has got to play it better. We've got to work together as a program to try to clean things up on game day. I've said it before and I'll say it again, our weeks of preparation have been good, and some of the things that happen on game day based off of what we've seen in practice, again, is a little bit disbelief right now.

Just some goods from the game. Like I said after the game, our second-half effort and execution was a lot better. We got a shutout in the second half. We ended up getting two takeaways, one at the end there on a fumble and interception with Damon Hayes.

Our special teams continues to improve. I think our coverage units are playing well right now. I think we had the best nut punt in a game we've had so far this year. Adam is doing a great job with his placements. The kickoff return unit was probably the best that we've performed in a while. That has not been a very productive unit for us, and I think we're blocking things up, and with Isaiah back there, he's running the ball hard, and we had some production, some bigger returns. And then the 52-yard field goal obviously was a high point for Justin's career so far.

I talked about the past game a little bit. We're still nowhere near where we need to be, but we did make some improvements, small improvements. Saturday we got more people involved in the pass game than what we've had in the past.

Some bads, again, it's the mental errors and penalties. The opening drive defensively is one that obviously we can't have happen, but it's a direct result of penalties and mental errors. We had two penalties on 3rd downs, and one of them we had a sack on the play, and we got called for holding on a running back. Again, to me when you have penalties like that, it's one of three things: Either a lack of focus, a lack of fundamentals, or just a poor choice. We've got to get those three things taken care of to stop beating ourselves with the penalties.

3rd down is an issue right now. We've worked a lot of 3rd down. We always do, all the way back to spring practice and training camp. We do it each week. We're not getting the production on 3rd down that we need. A lot of it has to stem from offensively we're in too many 3rd and longs. We've got to do a better job on 1st and 2nd down to get into more manageable 3rd downs. We're allowing guys to pressure us a lot because of that, and we're having issues with our pass protection with some different pressures.

Defensively we've got to get off the field. We had a lot of opportunities to stop drives and keep points from being put on the board Saturday, and 3rd down issues, again, like I mentioned with the opening drive, but there were several others, where it would be -- not having the quarterback contained on a pressure or zone drop, somebody not dropping to the right area or just not being able to get to the quarterback, there were a lot of things that caused us to be poor on 3rd downs Saturday.

But we've got to get it cleaned up, and we'll continue to work and strive to get that done. Again, we had practice yesterday. Our players showed up. We watched the film. We looked at the goods and the bads and we went out and we had what I think was a pretty good focused practice just like we did last Sunday, but we made changes to the practice schedule last week to try to help us in some certain areas, made some changes to our routine a little bit, but I've told the guys all along, just changing the practice schedule or changing the routine isn't going to guarantee different results necessarily. We were in a more competitive game, a game like I felt we had an opportunity to win, just didn't play clean enough and make the plays that were there when needed.

This week is another opportunity to do exactly what we wanted to do last week. We've got Illinois coming to town. They're a much-improved football team. They are coming off a bye week, so there's a lot of unknowns about a football team coming off a bye week, but I think, again, Lovie Smith has done a great job. They're a much improved football team. They've got a bunch of young players playing, also, and it's going to be another great challenge for us.

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

Q. I think this might be the first week where we're not pressing you on the quarterback as much, but I'm assuming that's not an evaluation week-to-week?
CHRIS ASH: No, obviously we played a little bit better this last week compared to what we had the two previous weeks. We evaluated everything offensively, personnel-wise and the quarterback position, and we feel right now that that's our best option.

Q. What are some of the things that Art can build on that you saw that you think he can build on and progress?
CHRIS ASH: Well, like I mentioned Saturday, I think Art has improved a ton in the first five games. He hasn't had a perfect game or a great game, so to speak, yet. Consistency is going to be something he's got to get better at. One throw is a great throw, another one is off the mark. That's part of football, but he's got to get better at that. We haven't hit some of the deep shots that we want. Saturday we had some guys open and behind Indiana's defenders, and we couldn't hit them.

We need to be able to complete those balls.

Going through his reads still, going through the progressions and doing it quickly and making a decision where he needs to go with the ball, those things all will continue to improve as he continues to go along.

Q. What did you think of the game that John McNulty called, and how improved is the rapport between John and Art, John learning his nuances and learning what works and what doesn't?
CHRIS ASH: I think John calls a very good game, and I think the rapport between John and Art has been great. Calling the game does start with the quarterback and what he's comfortable with and what he can do, but there are a lot of other factors that go into it, what can the O-line do, who do we have to get the ball to. But I think John is doing a great job trying to be creative and working with the personnel that we have, and as he gets more comfortable with that and increasing the volume of things that we can do, you're going to see more and more diversity with what we do on offense.

Q. In terms of the offensive line, what's your assessment of that, and are there any areas that stand out good or bad?
CHRIS ASH: Offensive line is not playing where I want it to play. I mean, it's simple as that. They know it, I know it. We all know it. We want this to be a line of scrimmage football team where we play well on the offensive and defensive lines and we can run the ball, stop the run, protect the quarterback, get after the quarterback, and on both sides of the ball, right now up front, we're not playing the way we need to. We're having too many mental errors in protection.

Some of our fundamentals have to get cleaned up in the run game for us to run the ball more consistently, but none of us here in the program are happy with where we're at on either side of the ball up front.

Q. I guess along those same lines, are you surprised by how much you guys have struggled in the run games, both offense and defense? It seems like it's been a major weak spot so far.
CHRIS ASH: Yeah, I mean, any time you go into the season, you want to be able to run the ball and stop the run, and if you can't do it, you're surprised by it. We didn't start the season saying, well, hey, we're not going to be able to run the ball, we can't stop the run, go have a lot of fun. We've got to improve that. We want to be able to run the ball and we've got to be able to stop the run.

Part of stopping the run isn't just the D-line, though. We've got to fit well. We've got to tackle better. We've got to pursue better. We've got to get off blocks better. We've got to make sure we leverage better. There's a lot that goes into stopping the run more so than just the D-line. Do we have to play better on the D-line to be more gap sound and have good gap integrity and get off blocks? Absolutely, but we've got to fit at linebacker better. We've got to fit in the secondary better, and we've got to tackle better.

Q. Art said on Saturday postgame that he felt like things were slowing down for him after four games and that things were getting easier. When you watch him in practice or even on film, would you agree that he's starting to look more comfortable and that things are slowing down?
CHRIS ASH: Yeah, absolutely. I made this analogy about driving a car. When he drives a car for the first time on the back roads, it's pretty easy. If you get on the freeway, it's not so easy. Things are moving fast and there's a lot of obstacles, and practice and games are no different for him.

He has been fairly confident in practices. That's why he's been named the starter. In games it's got to slow down, and it is starting to slow down. The more reps he gets, the more he plays, the more it slows down, you can see his comfort level starting to rise. I think everybody offensively can feel it and see it, and it will make a difference as we go forward.

You do something 100 times versus 1,000 times you're going to get a lot more comfortable with it, and Art needs 1,000 reps, and when we get to that point, he'll be a lot more comfortable.

Q. I know you evaluate everything, but my question is about the usage of time-outs. You had one time-out with four minutes to go in the game on that final drive. Are you okay with that, just the way that you used the time-outs? I think it was the 4th and 9 where Indiana looked like they might go for a field goal and they end up going for it instead, and Art on a 3rd and 16, if he doesn't call time out maybe boots you out of field goal range. My question is are you okay with that, and are time-outs more of an asset in your mind? Do you need to have more than one time-out going into the final drive?
CHRIS ASH: Well, I mean, the situation in the game dictates a lot of it. There are certain situations that come up with a game where you'd be more comfortable with a delay of game than taking a time-out. There's certain times that you would not. So there's always kind of different situations that come up. There's some things that happen on game day that need to be done cleaner, that force you to take a time-out so you don't lose yardage.

At the end of the game, every coach would like to have all of his time-outs available, but as you go through the game, there are situations that come up that you have to use them. That's why they're there. But if it's because of a personnel issue or substitution issue or miscommunication, those are the ones that frustrate you that you have to basically waste them on things like that that you can avoid. If they're things that come up in a game on a 4th down situation, sometimes you want to have more time to think about your call, and also maybe let the opponent have more time to think about what they're actually going to do, and they may change their mind. Those are strategic time-outs that you take. That's playing the game. It's the ones that you feel like you wasted because of some reason that frustrate you.

Q. You mentioned tackling was an issue and also mentioned the change in routine in practice a little bit. Is there anything different you do in practice to improve tackling? Do you do any different drills or other stuff to improve, make sure missed tackles don't happen on Saturdays?
CHRIS ASH: Well, you know, I've been doing this a long time. I've never been in a game where there's been no missed tackles on a Saturday. It doesn't matter the level. We tackle as much as we possibly can here in the program, and that's all year-round within the NCAA rules. Tuesday is a day we get live tackling in. I've just done that for a long time, and we do that here. A lot of the fundamentals that we need to improve on, again, come with just game reps because when you're tackling live in practice, you're not going to tackle the ones on the offense because you can't get anybody hurt. You're usually tackling guys on the look squad, and they're not playing at the same speed that the opponent is.

Saturday we had a couple missed tackles against their running back. Well, their running back is 230 pounds. Those tackles are very difficult for a defensive back to make at times. So a lot of tackling comes down to not only fundamentals but comes down to pursuit, also. But there's nothing that we could do differently in practice to emphasize tackling more. We do it all the time in everything that we do, whether it's, again, a live tackle or just pursuit or just how we finish in a good football position.

Q. Almost at mid season are you pleased with how you're using Blackshear? Does he need more touches, fewer touches, about right?
CHRIS ASH: We need a lot of people on offense to get touches, and Blackshear is being one of them. I think we've tried hard to get Blackshear touches, but if he's the only one touching the ball and having production, we're going to have some struggles on offense. I think we've really tried hard to identify other guys that can make plays for us. I think you saw that Saturday by some of the receivers that have gotten touches. We've targeted the tight ends more here recently.

So it's not a one-man show. We've got to have multiple people, and I'm perfectly fine with what we've done with Blackshear, but we need to get other guys involved more, and again, we're trying to do that, and it's easier said than done.

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