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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

December 19, 2018

Chris Ash

Piscataway, New Jersey

CHRIS ASH: Welcome, guys. Really appreciate you coming. Welcome to signing day class of 2019. We'd like to start, I guess I'm lucky like you guys, these pins here, lapels, I guess, of the 1869 first game, birthplace of college football is pretty cool. So hopefully you guys enjoy that and get a chance to wear that a lot here throughout the next year.

Again, really appreciate you guys coming. We feel like this was a great day for our program. Not only for our immediate needs but long-term future needs, too, and we are definitely really excited about the young men that signed with us today.

In recruiting, everyone wants to talk about particular coaches doing a great job of recruiting, this position coach, that position coach, this head coach. But really recruiting is a team effort. All the individual efforts by the coaches are necessary, and they're great, but it's really a team effort, and before I get into anything with the class, I just want to say some thank yous to people that really work tirelessly behind the scenes. It starts with our support staff, Adam Caltury, and our director of recruiting and all of his people have done a fantastic job. There are so many things that go into junior days, unofficial visits, official visits. Every time someone comes on campus, these guys have to plan it like a big event, from meals to travel to hotels, who's going to meet with them. There's a lot that goes into it. And I think these guys have done an outstanding job and can't thank them enough. Our operations staff is also included in that, our administrative assistants are included in that, and we have a team of people that do an outstanding job with everyone that comes on campus.

Our coaching staff -- 1-11, it's hard to hide. You can't hide it. It is what it is. We've talked a lot about that. I think our coaching staff went and attacked recruiting. They have been attacking recruiting throughout the year, but they've built really, really strong relationships with individuals and coaches, and did a great job of talking about where we're at and selling our vision for the future, and because of that, we were able to land some pretty good players today.

And then the third group I'd like to thank is really our players. Our players have done an unbelievable job. Absolutely love our guys. I love our locker room, and when you talk about being able to recruit some good players into your program after the season we had, it takes a lot from the players, and because of the character of the individuals we have in there and the culture we have, these guys invested a lot in helping us recruit on official visit weekends, building relationships. Players expect to hear positive things from coaches and support staff, but when they're hearing things from the players, it's really a testimony to the culture that we have, and the feedback that I received from players and parents about our players was tremendous. It was really over the top. I can't thank our guys enough for the effort that they put into trying to help us recruit this signing day class.

When you talk about the class just overall itself, I am excited about the talent, but I am probably equally as character of the young men that signed that us today. We had a total of 24 scholarships that we could give. Nihym Anderson, who was an early enrollee earlier this year during the season, took one of those scholarships in this class, so we had 24 total. We signed 17 today. We expect to probably have maybe a couple more before the signing period is over here on Friday.

And then our goal was to have five or six left for the February signing period, and that's really right where we're at, so I feel like we hit our mark in terms of numbers, the quality and the character of the guys that we got today.

When you look at it, six of these guys will be mid-year enrollees. Last year we had 10 that enrolled early, and most of those 10 at least contributed in some capacity here this season, so to get six more that will do it this year will help us next fall.

14 of the guys that signed, we had some sort of live eval on. I think that's important in the recruiting process, whether it be a camp or a game. There were live evals on a lot of these guys, which helps us in our evaluation.

Recruiting rankings, I know a lot of people talk about them, but they don't account for transfers. Drew Singleton is a transfer that we're very excited about, and then Cooper, the offensive lineman from San Diego, is another transfer that we're really excited about as we move forward. Drew was a onetime former No. 1 player here in the state of New Jersey, and having him come back home to be a part of our program is really exciting.

Offensively we had some needs that we wanted to address. Obviously the quarterback situation, we needed to create some depth because we don't have a whole lot of it on the roster right now, and then we needed to get some offensive skill players. It is about scoring points, and you guys know we need to score more points, and to do that, we have to go out and get some more skill players to add with the guys that we've got coming back.

Cole Snyder at quarterback, we're really excited about Cole. He's a guy that we got an eval on in the spring. He was on the camp circuit here in June. We got a chance to see him throw quite a bit, and then we watched his senior year, he had a tremendous senior year, over 2,000 yards passing, like 37 touchdowns here in his senior year, so was really productive. He's a leader, he's a winner, and he just is a football junkie, and we're excited to have Cole.

Obviously the position that I think we're most excited about is our running back position. The two guys that we signed in that position, they're similar but they're different. Kay'Ron Adams is a true running back. Aaron Young is a guy that can do multiple things. He can play running back, he can play slot. He's going to be a returner, and we have been on him for a long, long time, and today he made a decision to join our program and really excited about it. Kay'Ron is a guy that we had a live eval on last summer during the camp circuit. Absolutely fell in love with him during that live eval. We watched him his junior year, looked at the weight, the speed and the strength that he'd put on from the end of his junior year to the camp circuit and then watched him here his senior year and we're really excited about him. We think we got a steal with him. With both of those guys, Kay'Ron had over 1,700 yards rushing, Aaron had over 1,600 yards rushing, and those guys are definitely going to be impact players. So similar to Raheem and to Pacheco this last year, if these two guys can add impact as freshman like those two guys, they're really going to help us out.

And then the wide receiver, Isaiah Washington, who came in late and committed to us, we think he's a good-sized receiver, he's got speed, he's got hands, ball skills, and really going to help us.

Defensively linebacker was a major, major area of need moving forward. We really loaded up on our linebackers here in this recruiting class. With what we've got coming back and what we've signed, we feel like it's going to be one of the strongest positions on our football team. It's not only going help us defensively, it's going to help us on special teams. That was an area obviously this year because of depth at linebacker, it hurt a little bit on special teams, and to load up on that area, that position to help us next year really was important for us.

D-line, Devin Baldwin is a guy that we got late, got confirmation last night that he was going to come our way. It was a battle down to the end, and he's got some length and good pass rush ability that we need also up front.

And then we've got the DB's. We've got three DB's, two corners and a safety that really fit our scheme and what we want to do schematically.

Needs moving forward, we still have some for the February signing date. We want to make sure we get another DB. We want to get another defensive lineman, another offensive lineman, up front on both sides of the ball, and then we need to get a tight end, also. So those are really kind of some of our immediate needs as we move forward into the February signing period.

Before I open it up for questions, I just would like to also take the opportunity to welcome Henry Baker back into the program. Most of you know Cory Robinson left us, but we hired Henry back. Henry is an unbelievable person, a great coach, great teacher, very good recruiter, and he's very familiar with our program and the state of New Jersey and excited to have him back.

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

Q. You mentioned 1-11 is hard to hide. What was your message to the recruits on the trail maybe trying to minimize the damage from this past season?
CHRIS ASH: We talked about that during the season. The message didn't change. It's about our program, our plan. It's a comprehensive program from the education to the life skills to the career development. The culture of the individuals in our locker room. It's part of the build. We've got a young football team. All those things had been communicated from the start, and that communication didn't stop.

And because of the relationships that we built with the players and then the feedback that they received from our current players about the culture of the locker room and what we're doing and how excited they are about the future, the combination of those things really helped us.

Q. Is it not only significant that you held off a couple of Big Ten programs for players late and then you also got a player to flip from a Big Ten program late? Was that significant to this class?
CHRIS ASH: Yeah, I think so, because other good teams usually want good players, and if you're able to either hold some guys off or flip a guy or two, for us that's a big deal, especially, again, after the season we had. That makes it more difficult.

But I'm really excited that we were able to do that, and again, I think that's a testimony to the work that we've put in and the culture of our locker room to be able to do that.

Q. Aaron Young was kind of like the flourish at the end of the day. Could you just tell us how did that work? I have to assume it's an interesting situation where he commits to another Big Ten school, he's got a brother here. How did you guys kind of go along and what happened down the stretch?
CHRIS ASH: You'd better talk to Avery. Simple as that. (Laughs.)

Q. What really stood out about Cole, and the fact he's going to be a mid-year enrollee, how confident are you that maybe he could ascend to the point where he's potentially fighting for the backup spot come summertime?
CHRIS ASH: The live evaluation, and then you look at his senior film, I remember the first time Coach McNulty went to see him throw, it was a cold morning, I believe, and the kid walked out of the car, picked up the football and started to sling it as he was working out. He got a chance to see him work out and was -- he called and said, holy smokes, you should see this guy throw it. And then he came to our camp and did the same thing. We had a huge camp the first Friday I believe in June, June 1st. There were a lot of outstanding quarterbacks here, and Cole was one of the best at the camp by far.

He might have been an inch or two shorter than some of the other ones, but the guy understands football. He's got great mechanics. You watch his senior film, he's been extremely well-coached, and does a lot of things that we ask our quarterbacks to do.

Q. You got five or six commits over the last couple of days. What do you credit that strong finish to this part of the class to?
CHRIS ASH: A lot of hard work leading up to it. I think we've evaluated as many guys as we possibly could evaluate here in the last few months, and then we went to work trying to build relationships. But it gets back to our players. I think the last three official visit weekends that we've had, our players killed it for us. They did a great job, and they embraced it. They know we need competition on this football team to get better. They know we're a young team. We had needs that we needed to fill. We needed to create competition. Our players embraced it, and they did a great job with them. Again, the feedback I received from parents and recruits was just unbelievable about our players.

Q. Drew Singleton, could he be eligible this year?
CHRIS ASH: I don't know. I mean, that's between compliance and Drew and his family. There's things that they'll go through. But I have no comment on it, and I don't know.

Q. With Drew, obviously you were recruiting him back in the day. Is there a lesson to be learned there, just keep on -- when he makes himself available and is looking to transfer that maybe the grass isn't always greener on the other side for some of these guys?
CHRIS ASH: Yeah, I mean, I think that's the message. Drew was a highly recruited individual. He could have really gone anywhere he wanted to in the country, and he decided to come back for a lot of reasons. I think you'd have to ask Drew about that whole process and what went into it, but I think it does send a message that just because you leave and go away from home doesn't mean it's going to be a better experience for you.

He'd never taken an official visit until he came on an official visit, and I think he saw a lot of great things that are going on here within the university and our program that he got excited about and wanted to come back, because when he announced his transfer from Michigan, it wasn't like he just said, I'm going to Rutgers. He had a lot of people calling him, and he was a hot free agent. We were lucky to get him.

Q. Just to go back to what Brian asked about Cole, are you guys interested in a grad transfer quarterback? I know there's some guys that haven't signed that you can't talk about. Are you set there or are you going to look for an older guy, as well?
CHRIS ASH: We'll continue to evaluate our roster. You know, it's hard to say, hey, we're going to go out and get a grad transfer. If we're going to do anything outside of what we have on our roster right now, there's going to be a reason, and today I couldn't tell you what that would be yet. We've got to get into off-season workouts and spring ball and really kind of see where we're at.

Q. You mentioned the young team. Did the play of the young players and their improved play down the stretch help open the eyes of some of these guys?
CHRIS ASH: Without a doubt, absolutely. The way we played in the last five games and the competitive play that our players displayed made a difference because it actually excited the recruits. Like you know what, if I can go there and help these guys improve on the way they finish, some good things can happen, so it played a huge role.

Q. You've talked about how the players have helped you recruit these kids. I've talked to a couple recruits who mentioned a player panel during official visits. Can you talk about how that idea came up and how that has helped you on the recruiting trail?
CHRIS ASH: Yeah, player panel, that's what a lot of people do around college football. Been doing it for a long time. We've done it here before, and it's just an opportunity for parents and recruits to ask players basically anything they want without the presence of a coach, and there were some really difficult questions thrown out, and I don't know what they were, and I didn't ask for responses, but the parents said the players answered them incredibly, and they got some great information and were pleased with the way the players handled themselves and the answers to the questions that they were given.

You know, that's the feedback that we received.

Q. You didn't want to answer at the end of the season, understandably so, but are there potential coaching staff changes? Where are you at? Do you expect more changes with your coaching staff?
CHRIS ASH: It's college football, and college football there are a lot of things that happen everywhere in the country, so right now today, no, I've got nothing to discuss other than our recruits that we signed today. But that's it. But it's college football, and you never know what the future holds.

Q. I know we talked about the junior college thing. You have two of them. But I guess from a big picture standpoint, how many of these guys do you hope will contribute right away?
CHRIS ASH: You're talking about a junior college player?

Q. Yeah.
CHRIS ASH: Yeah, I mean, if we're going to go sign a junior college player, they'd better contribute or we didn't evaluate the right way, and that's really how I feel. Junior college -- you say you're going to go recruit a junior college player. Well, why? Why are you going to do that? Well, there's a need, and you hope they can provide an immediate impact. Yeah, we do expect anybody that we bring in from a transfer standpoint to provide immediate impact.

Q. Could you put this in perspective, this class in perspective from maybe where you were two months ago to where you are now? Does the finished product exceed what you would have expected maybe in October and November?
CHRIS ASH: Absolutely. Obviously we were going through a tough stretch during the season. It could have gone any direction. Thankfully, again, the relationships that we had built during the tough stretch were really -- we built before we hit the tough stretch was really important, and the consistent messaging that we had throughout it, and the way the players helped us made a difference. It really did.

But the end product today -- now, we're not done recruiting. We still have some scholarships we need to go fill, and we need to continue to build on what we did today, but yeah, I think where we landed today was definitely better than probably any of us thought we could have at this point.

Q. Omari Cooper, offensive tackle, do you think he's a plug-and-play guy? You're obviously losing Tariq.
CHRIS ASH: We hope so. Again, we hope he's a guy that -- I never promise anybody starting positions. We have some good young players coming back on the offensive line, but we do expect him to come in and provide competition and battle for playing time.

Q. You have a kid from Sweden and also you got down to the Sunshine State. Can you talk about those efforts?
CHRIS ASH: Yeah, I think I mentioned it today on the Big Ten Network. As we looked at what we've done in the past, where we were, we just made a decision that we had to get the level of player that we need to be able to go play Big Ten winning football, we need to spread our net a little bit, so to speak, and we need to go to other areas. Our recruiting efforts are always going to start here at home. There are tremendous coaches and players and programs here that we want to always be the foundation of our program. But this is the Big Ten. It's one of the best conferences in America. We need to go find Big Ten caliber players, and if we can't get them all here, we've got to go to other areas. Florida has been a huge state of mine in the past to recruit, and we want to make sure that we go down and make it a priority again. But again, our efforts will always start here locally, but I think our coaching staff did a great job of getting out and evaluating players in other areas, and I think we've signed some really good players from other areas.

Q. Going back to spring, I believe you only had one official visitor. Do you plan on utilizing that a lot more next year considering it's coming back and it's the second time around?
CHRIS ASH: No, our philosophy and approach to the early official visits will not change. We did it by a need-based only. We had one. We didn't get that individual, and I think if you looked at the players that we signed, if we would have been bringing a lot of guys in the spring, some of the guys we signed today we might not have been able to get them on campus. I think the visits we had here in December because we could spend more time with them, our players could spend more time with them, were a lot more beneficial for us than the ones in the spring. We'll look at it again when we're all done with recruiting, go back through the whole thing and see if what we did will continue, but spring official visits we're not going to load up on them. I just think it's out of sight, out of mind, and I'd rather get them near the end when we can spend a lot of time with them. You look at some of the players we ended with today, it's because of the way we finished with them here at the end of the cycle.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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