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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 16, 2019

Chris Ash

Piscataway, New Jersey

CHRIS ASH: I'd like to start, just take an opportunity to congratulate the athletic department for the opening of the RWJBarnabas Athletic Performance Center. That's a really much-needed addition to the athletic department, and many thanks to all the people that contributed to that. Congratulations to Pat, and the sports that will be housed in that building. It shows the commitment and direction in what we are trying to do here in the future.

Just a quick bye week recap. As we talked last week when we were together last, it was a great opportunity for us to really self-evaluate. I think it fell at a perfect time. We were able to play two games. We won one, last one, but go back and really evaluate what was good, what was bad, where do we need to improve, what do we need to eliminate, where are the gaps at in our performance, and how do we close them.

So it was a great week. We spent a lot of time just focused, laser focused on improvement and improving in certain areas, and the attitude of the players was awesome during the bye week. We started a little bit slow on Tuesday, Wednesday, but Thursday and our practice yesterday, we were off the charts with great energy and got better throughout the course of the week.

During the week talked about we wanted to focus on -- we want to be an offense that can run the ball but when we can't or we're playing against a pretty good front we have to be able to pass the ball and have more production. We really worked on that in the bye week.

Defensively, explosive pass plays, we had, I believe, three of them in the first two games and we have to eliminate that and a lot of it is communication and eye discipline to invest extra time in that area and special teams continue to develop. Fundamentals is where it needs to be.

So that's really the focus that we had with our football team during the bye week. Just an injury update, I know you will ask, Carter is still in the concussion protocol. He has improved significantly. He is listed as day-to-day here as we go through the week. He has not practiced since we played in the last game. There is a chance that hopefully he'll return to practice on Tuesday, but again it's going to be day-to-day and is just going to see how he continues to progress but he's doing great right now and there is a chance, but you know, it's day-to-day, as we go.

Just looking ahead to our next opponent, Boston College comes to town, it's really an old school rivalry renewed. Really excited about this game. I think it's a great game for this region two, teams fairly close together, Power Five conferences, old school rivalry.

Got a lot of respect for their program and what they have done over the years and mostly recently with coach Steve Addazio, he does a great job. I just like the style of play. They want to run the ball, stop run, play good special teams. They play hard, physical team and well-coached and they don't beat themselves.

But it's a great opportunity for us to play a quality opponent here at our stadium, and with that, I hope the fans will show up. In our last home game, the fans as we talked about were an X-factor in that game, especially the student section. They showed up with great energy and passion and cheered throughout the game and really made the difference in that game and I'm hoping we can get that energy here on Saturday against a good opponent.

Q. If McLane can't go, would it be Art?
CHRIS ASH: Art's No. 2 on the depth chart and he would be the starter.

Q. You said --
CHRIS ASH: Even -- I'll go back. We have to see even if McLane is cleared if he will be able to play in the game. He's missed a lot of practice time.

Q. Five days, so if he's not practicing on Tuesday, that would probably be an indication of --
CHRIS ASH: Well, no, that doesn't mean that he's not -- practicing on Tuesday will be up to the medical staff. He's not completely symptom-free but he's pretty darn close to that right now. He doesn't necessarily have to be practicing on Tuesday for him to say he's going to play on Saturday, but practice time is going to be the issue.

Q. You said that you spent a lot of time during the bye week evaluating the pass game. Where is it lacking? What needs to improve specifically? Is it protection? Wide receiver?
CHRIS ASH: Wide range of all the things. If you looked at week one we threw the ball pretty well. We protected and threw the ball pretty well. We played a pretty good opponent, like I said when we met kind of after that Iowa game, a lot of that credit goes to Iowa. Their front did a good job of playing pressure to the quarterback, not necessarily sacking him but they hit him a few times.

We need to be crisper with some of the routes that we're running. We need to look at what we're running, as well. Make sure that we can protect it, we can throw it, we can catch it, all of those things. So we just did a thorough evaluation of everything. You go through training camp and you say, hey, these are the adjustments we made after last season, and these are the things -- until you start playing the games you really don't know but we focused a lot on trying to improve some n some areas. Not all -- like I mentioned there were plays had in the Iowa game that were there but we just didn't connect on them. We shored up some things and feel really good about the work that we got in here in the bye week.

Q. In the passing game, it's been a theme the past few seasons -- do you think anything similar, common with these issues or is it different things each time?
CHRIS ASH: Well, it starts, you've got to come back to execution. We've got to coach the passing game better, the details of it better on game day and we have to evaluate what we are asking our players to do, as well.

Our players, whether it be the O-Line, quarterback, receivers, may not fit them but until you play the game you don't really know. We have gone back and thoroughly evaluated it and again got a lot of work in it and on it here in the bye week and I feel pretty good about where we're at right now.

Q. How would you assess the offensive line play, and what areas do you think needs most improvement?
CHRIS ASH: It's like anything, when you lose a game, and James mentioned the yardage, you don't have many yards like that, nobody played well so we have to play better up front. We have to play better at quarterback, wide out, tight end, all positions.

Again, I thought week one we played fairly clean football. We communicated well with all the looks that we got last week, or last game against Iowa, I didn't think we played bad but we need to play better when you're playing a quality opponent like that.

Q. I think it was the UMass game on the TV broadcast, you mentioned Penniston had the ankle issue and were hoping to get him back. Do you think he will play this week?
CHRIS ASH: No, he will not.

Q. Boston College, from our perspective, we see Dillon, the running back, he's explosive? Is that your biggest concern?
CHRIS ASH: A couple things. You all look at personnel first and foremost and he's the one that jumps out. I think they have a good running back unit overall.

It's not just the AJ Dillon Show, although he's a really good running back. They have some other good quality backs, as well. Brown at quarterback is a very good player. A couple of their wide-outs can get-up-and-go and they have had some explosive pass plays down the field so far this year. They can run the ball effectively. They are a play-action pass team.

When you combine those two, you have to have great eye discipline on defense, and you have to have great gap integrity and you have to pursue the ball and tackle well against a back that's 250 pounds. They present a lot of problems. Their schematics, they are comfortable living in condensed sets. It's a little bit different and unique to college football where everybody is spread out. Some of the motions they do put stress on you defensively for alignments and communications.

So it's a combination of some good players, I think a good scheme for what they have with their personnel and I think they do it exceptionally well.

Q. I know he'd already committed when you took over, but Anthony Brown, did you recruit him?
CHRIS ASH: There really wasn't any. If I remember correct, I think he was a mid-year graduate and early enrollee at Boston College. So he was basically already gone and done to Boston College before I even got here.

So I've never -- I can't recall ever having a conversation or meeting him or anything like that. It was pretty much a done deal.

Q. Secondary, after a week of practice, what do you think the issues were at Iowa, especially the quarterback?
CHRIS ASH: The only issue was a double move that got Avery early in the game. He was being overly aggressive in a particular coverage adjustment and then late in the game, they ran a little what we call scissors route between a wide out and tight end. The inside safety was a little over-aggressive on the corner route but really just being a little over-aggressive in both situations.

Q. You've been rotating a lot of guys at safety and linebacker. Do you see that continuing in the future?
CHRIS ASH: It should develop the depth that we want. We think that there's pretty good competition for playing time and reps at both of those positions. We need to develop the depth as we go through the season.

We are really getting into the meat of the season here with this stretch before our next bye week. You know, we're just trying to keep guys healthy and fresh and develop depth at those positions and there's not much of a drop off between the guys that are on the first team and the second team. I saw that during training camp and I've seen that from the first two games, as well.

Q. The workload for Pacheco and Blackshear, are you happy with it or does it need to improve? 21 touches apiece in the opener. I know it depends on the amount of tons that you have, but are you satisfied with the amount of workload they are getting?
CHRIS ASH: Yeah, I am. They are obviously two of our best players and they are going to be a focal point for our offense, and we need to get some other guys in the mix, as well. But they should always at the end of the game be two of our leading guys in terms of touches offensively.

At the Iowa game, we just didn't have enough plays overall to increase those potential touches in that game, where there might have been some plays that they were targeted on and it just never developed the right way because of pressure or something within the call.

But yeah, I'm pleased with what we are doing with him and where we're headed with him.

Q. How does this game play into momentum of the season and how are the players viewing this challenge from Boston College?
CHRIS ASH: We're just trying to get better every day. That's our focus is just to keep improving. You know, our last game out, we didn't play the way our team is capable of playing and we're just trying to get back to that, that's it.

Q. Do you look at this game as an important step for recruiting? Boston College has 17 Jersey guys. Do you look at this as a game you need to win to keep Boston College at bay?
CHRIS ASH: No. Our focus is on our improvement, that's it. This is a big game and like we've said -- I've said since we started, every game's a big game for us and our focus is just on our process of trying to improve every single day. Every team we play pretty much recruits in the State of New Jersey. Boston College because of proximity recruits here a little bit more because it's so close.

But every game is a big game and our focus is not on the game right now. Let's try and have a great Monday and go have a great Tuesday practice.

Q. Former regional rival, first time you've scheduled Syracuse -- why do you think that's important to play non-conference games against regional rivals like BC, for the fans, for the players?
CHRIS ASH: I think it's more for the fans and travel. They are closer games. It just makes sense. I know we had conversations about traveling to the West Coast to play non-conference games versus being able to play somebody locally.

Financially it's a smarter decision. For the fan base, it's a better deal and you're renewing some old rivalries that -- I wasn't here but I'm sure a lot of people would enjoy seeing. I just think it makes sense for us, and the other part of it, you know, you've got to be able to work the non-conference schedules out because these things are scheduled out so far in advance.

So it's not just like our desire or their desire to do it. It's got to fit in each other's schedule. But from my preference, I'd love to be able to do this more times than not.

Q. What's the next step, your vision five years down the line, what's important from a facility standpoint?
CHRIS ASH: It all starts with two things: What do we need to recruit and what do we need to develop our players. That's it.

I'm not so much into, you know, how nice a coach's office is. It's what do we need to help us recruit against the teams we compete against and what do we need to develop our players.

When you look here at our facility from a football standpoint, we have made a lot of improvements and upgrades most recently the locker room; the Academic Success Center when that's done is going to be a huge piece. There's still components to the Hale Center that need to be done. They are very, very old -- they are still functional and we get our work done. But I think if you walk into the APC, you see the shiny new feel and sex appeal, so to speak, that it has.

We have parts here in our football facilities that have that and some that do not and the goal is to get them all that way.

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