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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 20, 2018Chris AshPiscataway, New Jersey Rutgers - 15, Northwestern - 18 HEAD COACH CHRIS ASH: We'll go ahead and start. Appreciate you guys coming. First I'd like to thank the fans that were there today for their continued support, their energy in the stadium. At times they were into it and helped our football team and can't thank those guys enough. I'd like to give credit to Northwestern. You know, they played the plays down the stretch to win the game. But I love our team. You know, and want to thank our players for showing up this week and having a great preparation, great practices. The attitude and the effort and the fight by this football team hopefully was evident today. You know, there's no quit. These guys continue TO work for each other. They love each other, love the game, and they are competing to be the best they can be and just love that about the guys. You know, the goods, I thought defensively, we played our best game this season. We had I think three sacks. We had a take away. Just our overall energy, you know, on defense I thought was where it needs to be, and wish it would have been, you know, earlier in the year. Just didn't make enough plays. In the special teams we got the opening kickoff return, muffed it, put us in a bad spot right away offensively. We just had plays there. We just didn't make them. A couple penalties in the second half put us in bad situations behind the sticks. Again, I love our team and they will keep fighting. So I'll open it up for questions. Q. Was the defense worn down? Is that why you think they got the one stop in the final six minutes? HEAD COACH CHRIS ASH: We had an opportunity to stop them and we made a mistake. On third down, we had the opportunity to make a play and we didn't. Q. So it wasn't anything about being gassed? HEAD COACH CHRIS ASH: We were tired but that's football. We still have to go out and stop them. It felt like we had the opportunity. We did a good job of getting the jump off side and made it third and five, and I felt really good about our opportunities there and could have made a punt. Got the ball back with a couple minutes to go and unfortunately didn't work. Q. Pacheco had such a solid first half. Why only one carry in the second half? HEAD COACH CHRIS ASH: That's a good question. I'm going to have to talk with the offensive staff about that. I know Blackshear came back and in the second half he was healthy and fresh. We weren't running the ball great. He had the one long run that made it look from a numbers standpoint really good. Isaih is doing a lot of things and he'll continue to get more and more carries. Q. The passer penalty -- what's your thoughts on that? HEAD COACH CHRIS ASH: They called it, you know, it's like anything else. Sometimes they call penalties you don't agree with and until I watch the film and look at it -- I saw the replay, but that didn't lose the game. Q. Do you think you deserved the penalty that followed? HEAD COACH CHRIS ASH: Honestly I don't care. I've been fighting for our football team and you know, when you see guys out there fighting and scratching and clawing and trying to do things right, you get caught up in the heat of the moment. But I'm going to fight for our team and our guys. Q. What did you think of the way Art played -- HEAD COACH CHRIS ASH: I'll have to watch the film. Again, you look at the stats and the stats aren't great from a passing yardage standpoint, but we're banged up on the offensive line today. We had a couple guys not play. Venesky got his first start. Again, I'll wait till I watch the film to make any judgments on how the O-Line played or how Art played. Q. The defensive effort, was that what you were looking for when you took the added responsibility and control? HEAD COACH CHRIS ASH: I was just trying to fix some issues that we were having. You know, just change it up. I think the players deserve the credit for the energy that they had out there today. I think the defensive staff did a good job with their players to continue to get those guys to fight, and that's what it's about. You know, it's not about me. Had nothing to do with me. Has everything to do with the players and them sticking together, continue to work. Q. But you feel that those mistakes sort of eliminated some -- HEAD COACH CHRIS ASH: Yeah, I think the players did a good job of executing the game plan. Q. How much was the wind a factor going in two different directions? HEAD COACH CHRIS ASH: You know, it was a little bit. There was some gust a little bit. It wasn't as windy as it has been in the past here, but yeah, it was a little bit of a factor. Q. Do you take solace in playing more competitively and keeping this a lot closer than some recent -- HEAD COACH CHRIS ASH: Yeah, again, we've talked about that before. You know, guys, we want to -- I feel for our players because they really want to be able to celebrate on a Saturday. I really want that for them. Disappointed. I am really happy about the competitive spirit that our team displayed today, and I'm disappointed that we weren't able to make the plays we needed to to let those guys celebrate in that locker room. That's a good football team we played today. They are well-coached. They compete and they have guys that can make plays, too. I'm just hurting for our guys. Q. Big picture going forward putting together an effort like, this do you feel confident maybe in November, despite what everyone thinks is going to be a terrible November, that maybe, you know -- HEAD COACH CHRIS ASH: You know, I can't control what everyone thinks -- the only thing I can control is my attitude and my effort and my actions to help our football team get better and that's it. You know, November is what it is. We've got some good teams coming up. That's the league and we've got a bye week coming up. We need this bye week to get some guys back, get some rest. I'm not worried about November. We'll worry about November after today. Right now I'm just worried about our players. Q. How much more do you need to see from the passing game to give yourself more of a chance in November? HEAD COACH CHRIS ASH: Well, we need to see a lot more offensively, period. They are trying. Some guys are getting better but we're just not getting better fast enough, but they are working hard at it and we've just got to make some plays. There are some guys that are open. We either hit them and it's a drop or we don't throw it properly. So just got to keep working on it and they have to keep getting better, but we have to get better. Q. I'm not sure we'll speak to you before we come back from the bye. What's the approach you have with the players this coming week? HEAD COACH CHRIS ASH: You know, we've got a plan. We have to go deal with some recruiting but we have to let these guys rest up. It's been an eight-week grind. We have some guys that are banged up. We have some guys that are hurt. We'll practice. We have some guys to develop and we'll keep some younger guys working to get them better. But our guys have been playing. They need some rest. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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