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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 17, 2018

Chris Ash

Piscataway, New Jersey

Penn State - 20, Rutgers - 7

CHRIS ASH: Appreciate you guys being here. Thanks for your coverage this year in the home games. First, I'd just like to take an opportunity to thank the fans and the students. Students showed up and looked like there was a lot of energy in the student section. I really appreciate that at this time of year. It means a lot. Hopefully, we can continue to build on that as we go further.

Just thank our players. Our players played with a lot of fight and effort and toughness today. It's what we needed to do to continue to try to close the gap, and our players did that. The game is about taking care of the football, and some missed opportunities. That was the difference in the game.

Our players continue to show up and work and fight. They care about each other, care about getting better, and that's why we have improved. With that, I'll go ahead and open it up for questions.

Q. Safe to say you benched Art. What was the thought process behind that? And your assessment of Gio's playing?
CHRIS ASH: Art was struggling, and this is also Senior Day, wanted to give Gio a chance to lead the team.

Q. Do you think Gio could start next week?
CHRIS ASH: Too early to discuss that. We'll discuss that as we watch film and get ready for next week.

Q. What happened on the second interception? Was someone supposed to be there for Art?
CHRIS ASH: It was a screen. He was trying to throw it away and just didn't get it away.

Q. The process that ended the first half, two minutes left to get the ball back. You put in Gio. You decided to run the ball, and Penn State called the time-out, and then he went down. What was the thought process?
CHRIS ASH: We didn't play very well on offense. We were trying to get to the locker room, and unfortunately, we didn't. They were able to put three points on the board. The way we had thrown the ball and played in the first half, we were just trying to get into the locker room at halftime, regather our thoughts, and come back out in the second half.

Q. How do you think the defense performed? It seemed like they held a dynamic Penn State offense.
CHRIS ASH: I've been really pleased with the performance of the defense as of late. I thought today was another outstanding performance. There were a couple of opportunities to make some plays that we missed. Gave up a touchdown because of a mistake.

But I can't say enough good things about the way our defensive guys have continued to work and the improvement that they've made. It's obvious we didn't start the season off like we wanted to. In my opinion, we made drastic improvements. The guys continue to fight and work. Really pleased with what I saw out there today with them.

Q. On that same token, do you feel like it's a wasted opportunity, given how well the defense played, that you could potentially pull of this upset?
CHRIS ASH: No. Like I said, we've got to take care of the football. You talk about the plan to win, we've got to take care of the football. With three turnovers in the game, and we had some missed opportunities. Well executed play on fourth down that we didn't finish. You score there, who knows? It changes everything. I think the sideline in the stadium was ready to explode if we finished that. That was a tough one.

Q. On the third and one before the trick play, any thought to on the 1 yard line to give the ball to Gio and have him go to the top of the seam?
CHRIS ASH: No. We've been pretty good with our backs in short yardage situations, whether it be on the goal line or out in the middle of the field. Our backs with Hilliman and Pacheco, those are our bigger guys. We just believe in our O-line and our running backs in that situation.

Q. What did you say to your seniors after the last game?
CHRIS ASH: First, just the whole team, love them. The attitude that they've continued to go through this season with is why we've improved. The seniors have not checked out at all, and they've continued to work and lead the football team, and they've helped the younger players get better.

That's really their legacy they're going to leave. Disappointed that we didn't finish it today and give them an opportunity to celebrate here in the last home game, but can't thank them enough for the way they've continued to work and the effort they've put in, the attitude they've come to work with every single day. That's allowed our football team to get better.

Q. Chris, this is the third season the team has really struggled to score points. How are you optimistic that will change for next season?
CHRIS ASH: We've got a lot of young players that are playing. We're going to have a returning quarterback coming back. We've got four of our five offensive linemen that started the game coming back. We're going to have the same offensive coordinator coming back. We're going to be able to work a lot of the same concepts offensively in the off-season instead of installing another new offense, and that's invaluable.

To be able to rep the same things over and over and over, that's how you develop players. And if you're constantly changing offenses, changing schemes, it's hard to improve. That's where it starts right there. And just good old fashioned hard work.

Q. Kind of in the same light, what do you see in Art so far that leads you to be optimistic that he'll be able to improve for you going forward as well?
CHRIS ASH: Because he's going to work extremely hard. He's an intelligent kid. He cares. He's learning a whole new offense this year. He hadn't played in a long time before he started this year. What we've seen in practices, we've got to be able to get that to consistently show up on the game field on Saturdays.

Player development, that's what it's called. A freshman that's done some good things this year, struggled at times, through continued work, continued reps, doing the same thing over and over, he'll improve.

Q. I know the rules change has kind of made it difficult. Do you guys block the onside kick after the touchdown with ten minutes left?
CHRIS ASH: We talked about it, but I had faith the way we were playing defense that hopefully we'd get a three and out be able to get the ball back.

Q. You mentioned early in the season finding an identity on offense. After two straight games with 180 yards rushing, do you feel you're starting to find that identity?
CHRIS ASH: Yeah, we've been able to run the ball. I'm definitely pleased with that. We've been able to find our identity. We've got some good running backs, and we're doing a good job in the run game. We've got to improve our pass game. Steve mentioned it, three years in a row, our pass game has not been good enough. We're just not going to win games until we get that fixed.

How do you do it? I just talked about a consistent scheme, player development, a lot of young players coming back. It's not just the quarterback. We've had drops. We've had protection issues. We've got to get all that fixed to be able to pass the ball consistently.

But I do really like the improvements we've made in the run game. I really like our tailbacks, the way they run, the confidence that they run with. Just the whole team has a lot of confidence in those guys. We've got to continue to build on that. But it's no secret, we've got to improve our pass game.

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