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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 15, 2018

Chris Ash

Piscataway, New Jersey

CHRIS ASH: We will go ahead and get started. As always, thanks for coming. We will just review the Maryland game and get into Northwestern and get into any questions you guys have.

Obviously disappointed about the loss last Saturday. I really feel bad for our players. These guys have worked really hard, and I feel like they deserve a win and we didn't get one. And we are going to keep working so hard to get that done. But I really feel bad for them, and all the effort that they have put in and the attitude that they continue to bring every single play.

Just a couple of things about the game obviously. I mentioned this after the game, we have got to really try to establish an identity of who we are and what we can do and get good at some thing. It been kind of a spin the dial a little bit with the O line and tight end lineup, we have to get consistent with our lineup. Barring injury, there is only so many things we can do but we have try to get consistent with what we do with the lineup, and consistent with the plays, so we can develop some guys and get better at some thing.

Too many turnovers again. We have to protect the football. It is not just the quarterback. I know a lot of people want to blame the quarterback. There are some things that the quarterback does need to do better - needs to make some better reads - but there are some other things within the offense that we have to do better also to help the quarterback out.

It starts with the running of the ball. To be able to help the quarterback out, we have got to establish the run game and run the ball better. We have not been able to do that consistently. Late in the game I know we had some run game production, and I'm very excited about Isaih Pacheco going out there and running like he did late in the game. But we needed to start the game off doing those things to help sustain drives get first downs, and help take some stress off the quarterback, and opens up play-actions and things down the field. We are not able to do that consistently enough.

Again, all eleven guys need to work together. With some issues on the O line, a block into the tight end, whether it's a block at the wide receiver position, we have got to get some things fixed, and we have to get them fixed in a hurry, so we can have more consistency on offense and sustain drives and score some points, because in college football if you can't score points, it's hard to win, and we need to do that.

Defensively, as you guys know I'm a defensive guy. I've always been somewhat involved with coaching meetings on the defensive side of the ball. Was much more involved last week and will continue to be so in terms of running player meetings and being involved with some of the game-day play-calling. Did that here last week and will continue do that in an effort to try to get us where we need to do defensively.

The biggest thing, we have had too many mistakes and again, I'm not in the player meetings, have not been until last week, and I want to know what the mistakes are, and try to get them fixed. I think we did solve some. We weren't great. We had a couple on Saturday that cost us 14 points, in my opinion. But I can tell you this from a defensive standpoint, I was really pleased with the attitude and effort of our players. It was evident in that game that we were going to struggle offensively after about the first quarter and it's easy human nature for guys to get down; they didn't. They really fought hard and had a great attitude every time they took the field. Unfortunately, we had three drives that started inside deep in our own territory, inside the 35 yard line and we gave up points on each of those drives.

We had two mistakes, in my opinion, that I wish we could take back. Outside of those two mistakes, I thought we played some pretty good defensive football. The first touchdown we had at the mistake, let the ball get out the gate. It was on a corner blitz, went through the B gap, and we had the B gap guy there, just hung up on the guard too much, and went through the B gap.

And then when they got the ball on the 35-yard line after an interception, we them third and 19, we called a pressure, we had a mistake, let the quarterback get out of the pocket, allowed receivers to scramble around to get open and went for a touchdown. So we basically gave 14 points up with mistakes that we can't have.

I thought overall we improved in a lot of snaps in that game. Our guys again had a great attitude, great effort, and there were a lot of positive things to build off.

Special teams-wise, I think Adam Korsak continues to do well in our punt game. Our young gunners, we're out there with two, sometimes three true freshman at gunner on our punt team. We have had some issues with those guys earlier in the season, but they've showed up and made some plays, especially Kessawn Abraham and Zihir Lacewell, on Saturday did some outstanding things that we can build on.

The biggest issues, we have lost possession on a kickoff return. You guys saw the play, the ball was kicked into the wind, it was held up, it hit the 20-yard line and got a great bounce for them - went right into one of their kickoff coverage guys and recovered it, and put us in a negative situation. Thankfully, defensively went out and held to a field goal in that situation, but we cannot lose a possession on special teams, no matter what the wind conditions are in that situation.

We have been on that end of it ourselves in the past. Last year at Penn State we were able to recover a kickoff in that game for the same similar reasons, but we have got to do a better job with that.

As we look forward to Northwestern, we were excited about Northwestern coming to town for homecoming. I haven't coached against Northwestern since 2010. I've coached against most teams in the Big Ten, but that's one I haven't for quite some time. Quarterback Clayton Thorson is playing at a very high level. I remember Clayton out of high school. I recruited him when I was in Wisconsin. Could tell then he was going to be a very good college football player. But they are throwing the ball around a lot and have a lot of success doing it.

Defensively, they are always sound. They are always tough. They've always had good fundamentals, and this is no different here this year. In special teams I think they are very well coached. I just think the program that Coach Pat Fitzgerald has built there, it's a model of consistency. They have got a consistent culture, consistent staff, and they do business pretty much the same way, when you look back through the years, it's pretty much the same style and that's why they have success.

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

Q. I asked you after the game about Art. Is he still the guy you have to evaluate at quarterback --
CHRIS ASH: Yeah, Art will still about our quarterback. He's got to play better -- in our offense he's got to play better, but like I mentioned before, Art is a guy that's got a tremendous amount of talent. The week before he threw for 270 yards or close to it. He had a bad outing. That doesn't necessarily mean we are going to change the quarterback. We need him to play like he did the week before.

Q. Are you disappointed by the staggering offensive numbers, how bad they are? I mean you, are struggling to find a offensive identity, it is mid-way through year 3. Are you disappointed with where you are?
CHRIS ASH: Absolutely. We have got to score points. Stats are one thing but we have got to score points, and we are not doing that. There is a lot of reasons for that but we are not doing it. We are young, we mentioned that a lot. At wide-out, again, everybody that plays is pretty much a first- or second-year player. When Jerome Washington is not in there, it is the same-way at the tight end. Jonah Jackson didn't play Saturday. Tariq Cole got taken out of the game at one point Saturday. So we are fairly young on the offensive line.

Those aren't excuses for some of the issues that is come up on the offense. But, yeah, absolutely disappointed, we are all are, about where we are at offensively.

Q. Chris, just to clarify, are you calling of the defensive plays or just some of them?
CHRIS ASH: I called some on Saturday. Just in an effort to try to help out and create some -- no different than I talked about before with Gio and Art at quarterback, just trying to help generate something different defensively.

Q. I guess why now?
CHRIS ASH: Because if you look at the struggles that we have had here in the last few weeks --

Q. But you've lost six straight games. You've struggled defensively in five of them. I just was wondering why it didn't happen a couple of weeks ago.
CHRIS ASH: Well, because, I think the performance of the defense get lost in the final outcome. We play a lot of really good snaps defensively. The issue is we have four or five plays that continue to jump up and bite us. The effort has been to try to eliminate those few plays and find out why they continue to happen. Well, it's one player here. It's one unit here. It is nothing consistent. It is something different.

So, you know, just trying to bring the whole group together and meet together, install together, try to have common language together that's really what it's about to try to find a way to limb name some of those few plays.

But since the Kansas game, I think -- and Buffalo, really since the Buffalo game, the Buffalo game we had a full blown coverages that really hurt us, we have played some great good snaps of defensive football, but it's the few plays that are explosive plays go for touchdown. Like I said, Illinois it was four plays for 200 yards. Saturday it was four plays that were 180-something yards. We have to eliminate those things. That what we are focusing on and trying to do.

Q. You mentioned Kansas and Buffalo, was there a game or an instance what finally compelled you to take over of the defensive stuff?
CHRIS ASH: No, I mean it's been a group effort to try to solve the problem. Some of it is we have talked about the guy's lack of depth. Guys get mentally fatigued and physically fatigued and obviously overly that contributes to guys potentially losing focus or having a mental error but it's just an effort to try to get something positive built and make sure we are all in the same page?

Q. You mentioned Pacheco, is there a chance he gets an even more upgraded role in the offense or earlier in the game?
CHRIS ASH: Absolutely. We tell players all the time, regardless of the position, when you do get an opportunity, if you take advantage of it, it creates more opportunities. Obviously Saturday, he got an opportunity. He took advantage of the opportunity, had some pretty good production. I'm really pleased with what he did and obviously that helps create more opportunities for him.

Q. With Jonathan working with the tight ends, do you at all consider his red shirt status when you're deciding to put him into a game? He had played two games and had you put him late in the fourth quarter. He's at three. He's got one left. Does that come into account whenever you're trying to --
CHRIS ASH: Absolutely. He's got another game he can still play. He's a red shirt, we will have to continue to have conversations about what his role is going to be, if it's a role that can help us, or if it's a role that we need to try to red shirt.

So absolutely we have those conversations about all those players that this that three to four-game area right now.

Q. Chris, looking back on the eight disciplined players during the summer, did you downplay the significance of it at the time? I understand that you are trying to put a positive spin saying that it is not going to happen, when, in fact, in reality you're talking about 10% of your scholarship players? Did you downplay it and can you look back and trace some of the troubles that you are having now defensively to not having those eight guys?
CHRIS ASH: Well, anytime you lose that number of guys it hurts. I felt like if it wasn't going to necessarily hurt us, a few things had to happen, one, we to stay healthy. Two, some really young players had to develop to help us out. Neither one of those necessarily has happened. We have had some injuries. There are some younger players that I think are going to be good players, that may not be able to help us win games right at this moment.

So you look back on it. I knew there was a chance it would hurt us if things go perfect. Things haven't gone perfect so yes, it's hurt us.

Q. You mentioned offensive identity, I understand every week you are doing everything you can to win the game, but at some point do you maybe just have to stick with what the offense you want to look like and try to just build off of that going forward, even if it might hinder you day to day, the rest of the season?
CHRIS ASH: Absolutely. When you are talking about an identity, that's exactly what you talk about. There is always going to be a base of what you do offensively, defensively, special teams-wise, then you branch off from there, as long as it fits into your overall philosophy and it fits with your personnel. That's really important that you do that. You try to get good at something. You say hey, this is what we hang our hat on. Then you've got your tricks, your gadgets, your extras, so to speak, that come off of it. That's what we need to make sure we do, is get good at some thing.

Q. You mentioned homecoming, a lot of important people here at Rutgers, a lot of fans here, is there pressure for you to guys to finally put it together and give a representative --
CHRIS ASH: There is pressure every week. There is pressure every day. What is it, week 8 we are going on now? There is pressure in week 1. There is pressure on the day of Spring Ball. That's the pressure we put on ourselves. There is nobody outside of this program. Putting more pressure on me anybody in this program to try to go out and perform and be the best that we can be.

Q. You've mentioned that it's all not Art's fault but you have young wide receivers, you have offensive line issues whatever, but does Art take too much the blame sometimes, from the fan or person that's watching it? I know it's nature to be blaming the quarterback, but does he take too much of the blame? How much can you pinpoint on him?
CHRIS ASH: Well, it is the nature of the position and it's like anything else, we have talked a lot about this together, Art and I have, like when you sign up to go to school here, everybody is excited, everybody is excited about the anticipation of your first start and playing and all that stuff, which is great. It feels good, but you also have to take the bad with that, too. If you don't know play, well, criticisms are going to come.

I get it from a fan perspective, the quarterback is a position that is highly scrutinized. When your offense doesn't play well or when you have turnovers, that's who everybody looks to, that's part of it. I think Art understands that. It is a little more difficult as a young player probably to handle it and deal with it, but he understands it.

Again, it is called team offense. All eleven players have to do their job consistently. We have got to find a way to get that done.

Q. (Inaudible) recruits during the week, do you talk to them a little more? Do you change your message? How do you change your message after these losses?
CHRIS ASH: I talk to recruits all the time. The message, like we have talked before, it's the same message. We are building a program. We have a plan, we have a vision, we have got young players that are going to play. It's going to take time for those young players to be developed.

I said this when I got here, guys, how do you build a program? It takes time for guys to be in your system for three to four or even five years to get the player development. We are not there. We have had some players now that are in their third year. Unfortunately, we don't have a ton of them, and we have got young players on offense that the more that they're doing the same thing, strength and conditioning-wise, fundamentally, schematically. We are on the third offensive coordinator here, unfortunately. I wish I could go back and change that but we cannot. It is what it is. Players need to be developed and we have talked to the recruits about that a bunch. Most of them get it.

Q. You talked about your frustration level the other day, and I'm sure you're not naive to the stuff that the fan base and everything else outside, but are you steadfast in your belief that you are going to be able to get this done? If so, why?
CHRIS ASH: Absolutely. I mean, guys, again, at the start of June I probably had a conversation about this before, if you remember. I'm not trying to answer your question with a question but, when I first got here we had a conversation probably, how many years did you say this would take?

Q. (No microphone).
CHRIS ASH: You know what I'm talking about. I'm completely -- I'm frustrated with some of the things that happen on game day right now. I don't have necessarily an answer for some of the things that continue to happen to us. I've mentioned a lot of about good -- we have had some really good practices. Maybe we should have some bad ones. It might change what Saturday looks like, I don't know.

For whatever reason, we have had some issues come up. Guys, we are trying to address everything that happens from turnovers to special teams to running the ball, stopping the run. We go out to practice with the plan to try to work on the things that we need to work on.

But I have nothing but 100% confidence and faith that our plan will work. Right now it may not look like that. It's faith without results, but we have got an bunch of young players. We have really have had two really solid recruiting classes. I think when you look at the guys that are playing, that's an indication of that because a lot of those guys are playing.

We need to get another win. We need to get another one. We need to have guys in the program for three or four years. That's the plan that I've had since I've been here.

Thank you, guys.

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