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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 23, 2019

Chris Ash

Piscataway, New Jersey

CHRIS ASH: Morning, guys. Appreciate you guys coming. As we always will do here on a Monday, just kind of give a quick review of the game and move on to the next one. Just kind of a review after watching the film on Saturday. You know, just disappointed but also encouraged by what we saw on the film.

Just offensively I thought that we played some snaps and drives exceptionally well, but we left too many plays out on the field and opportunities to score points. We had several of them, we didn't capitalize on them, and that's the discouraging and disappointing part. Penalties killed drives, put us behind the sticks several times. Every time we seemed to get something going, we would shoot ourselves in the foot, and that was disappointing. I thought we'd be able to run the ball better than we did. They took that away and did a good job up front and took our run game away.

But I thought we threw the ball and caught the ball better than we have in a while. That was a big point of emphasis coming out of last year, and through three games, two of the three we've thrown over 300 yards so far, so we definitely have improved.

I think just looking at Art in particular, you look at his last start last year and this start that he had this last game, you saw a lot of improvement, a lot of potential. He's just more comfortable, more confident. He wasn't perfect by any means. He played a very good game, not a great game, and there's a lot of things he can continue to work on, but I think you saw a lot of improvement from Art, and I'm really, really encouraged by that.

Defensively, just misfit some runs, as always, is the case when you go into a game. There's some new things that pop up. There were some new things that popped up. We're working hard to get them adjusted and cleaned up on the sideline. Some of them we did, some of them we didn't. We misfit an early run that got out on us for the first touchdown, and then we misfit some runs in the fourth quarter. The biggest disappointment was we struggled to get them into 3rd and long, a lot of 3rd and medium, 3rd and short, where we couldn't pin our ears back and rush the passer, and they were able to extend drives on 3rd down, and that's something we've got to get a lot better at.

Special teams, I thought we played well in all phases of special teams. I thought overall collectively with all the phases it was the best that we've played so far this year, and we've got to continue to build on that.

The biggest thing when I go back and just look at the game, we've got to learn to finish. We've got to learn to finish reps. There were some big opportunities to get some yards and points. If one or two guys would just strain to finish some reps -- we've got to learn to finish drives, we had three field goals, we need touchdowns instead of field goals, and then we've got to learn to finish games, and that's really where it's at.

Injury update. I know everyone will ask about McLane. We're all healthy other than McLane. He's still not cleared. He's still in the concussion protocol. It's day-to-day. That's all I know. Don't know anything more than that. Just that's in the hands of the medical staff, and at some point whenever that does change I'll let you know, but today it's still the same.

We're on to the next. We've got a good opponent, back in divisional play, going to play at Michigan this weekend. We had really good meetings and good practice prep yesterday to start the week, and we're ready to continue to try to improve.

With that, I'll answer any questions.

Q. If McLane does get healthy, is that a decision that you need to make? Could Art be the starter if McLane is medically --
CHRIS ASH: Yeah, I don't know anything about McLane, so right now we're proceeding with Art. There's nothing new with McLane, there's no conversation. Art is the guy because McLane is not even cleared.

Q. I guess the question is based on what Art did this past week, his body of work --
CHRIS ASH: No, there's no -- I mean, there's not even a reason to talk about that because McLane is not even cleared to play, so there is no conversation. Art is the quarterback. Art played a good game last game, and he will be our quarterback this week.

Q. Just to clarify, Art is going to start against Michigan then?
CHRIS ASH: Yeah, McLane is not cleared to play.

Q. You don't anticipate him being cleared?
CHRIS ASH: It's day-to-day. Like I said, that's all I know.

Q. You mentioned the penalties. The first three years you were here, I think you guys were in the top half of the conference, closer to the top. You're dead last in penalty yardage this year. What's been the issue with the penalties, lack of discipline? I know there were several personal fouls in the first game.
CHRIS ASH: Yeah, like I've said before, there's different styles of penalties. The ones that you get frustrated about are foolish penalties, pre-snap penalties or penalties because of poor technique or fundamentals, and some that you live with because they're aggressive plays. You want your team to play aggressively. You want them to play intelligently and clean. But some of the penalties that may occur in some games -- this last game was not the case, some aggressive penalties you're fine with. The ones you don't like are the ones that are pre-snap penalties, false starts, misalignments, things like that, ones like holding because of poor fundamentals or poor technique. Those are all things that we should be able to clean up, we should be able to coach, we should be able to execute relatively clean.

Those are some things that we've got to get better at.

Q. As a coach, just given the struggles that Art had as a freshman, just for you how gratifying it is to see him put everything together and play well like he did?
CHRIS ASH: Well, it's like anything else. He's not going to be defined or arrive after one game. Art is going to have to go do that consistently and go out and play consistently and try to be the quarterback that he was this last game week in and week out, and then we'll have that conversation.

But I was really happy for Art to be able to go in that particular game and play well. It was by far and away his best game. But again, the true measure is going to be how he proceeds from there.

Q. The slow starts -- this is a two-part question. One, you haven't scored a touchdown since the Indiana game last year; it's 10 games, an awful lot. And then the other part would be you've given up touchdowns defensively in the first three games. What's the reason for the slow starts and how do you solve it?
CHRIS ASH: Well, there's not any particular reason. If you went through every game there's a different reason. Offensively typically it's a negative yardage play or a penalty that puts you behind the sticks that's stopped the drive, and that's what's happened to us. Saturday we had a negative yardage play and we had a penalty all in the opening drive. You just can't do those -- I don't care if it's the opening drive or the third or fourth drive of a game, you just can't do those things and consistently move the ball and get yourself in position to score points.

Defensively it's the same thing. When you give up an explosive play, typically the opponent is going to have a chance to score points. We gave up an explosive run play in the first drive of the game. You look at the previous Iowa, an explosive pass play, UMass, an explosive pass play, or a penalty that extends a drive and gives them more opportunities to score.

Again, whether it's the opening drive or the first half, second half, end of the game, when you beat yourself with a penalty or you give up an explosive play or have a negative play on offense, typically it's going to either increase the opponent's chance to score or decrease yours. We just have to get those little things cleaned up and be more consistent throughout the game, whether it's the opening drive or the last drive of a game.

Q. Not to overanalyze it, but are you okay with deferring? You won the coin toss in the UMass game and then this past week. Are you okay with deferring and letting the defense take the field first?
CHRIS ASH: No, we don't have to change anything. There's a reason we defer, and unless there's a reason that we feel very, very strong about not to do that, that's what I prefer to do, and there are a lot of factors that go into that decision, but the number one is just how do we feel about our match-ups and just what it does to our football team in the second half, as well.

Q. You've improved the offensive line. Is there a chance you could put some new guys in there? What's your take on that?
CHRIS ASH: No, the five guys that have been are the guys that have been playing since last spring and all training camp. We rotate quite a few guys. If you look at the number of players that have played, we've rotated quite a few guys. If you looked at the first two weeks, I thought our O-line played pretty good. You know, this last week they did not play very well, and we need to learn to be consistent.

There's a number of things, one, we've got to be consistent with our fundamentals and techniques. That's the biggest issue. It's not a mental issue thing, it's more about just some fundamentals and techniques. And we've got to strain to finish. We missed finishing some blocks on Saturday that would have sprung some plays loose. One, for example, was a screen play to Raheem at the end of the first half. We had two linemen and they had one linebacker. We block that guy, it's probably gone for a touchdown. Those are the things that we have to get cleaned up.

Q. How is Raheem coming off the BC game?
CHRIS ASH: He's great.

Q. How do you go into this type of game where you're a big underdog? What's the mindset going into this type of game?
CHRIS ASH: Go play our best game. We've discussed that a lot. I know I get a lot of questions about this being a big game. They're all big games. Our mindset is to go play the best football that we can regardless of who we play or where we play. That's it. The attitude of this team is outstanding, and I know some people may not believe that, but this team is a very tight-knit football team. It's a very positive football team. They're going to work every single day because of the love they have for each other and the love they have for the game. That's not going to change. That's the way they've been built, that's the way we've trained, that's the way we've worked this off-season, and that's not going to change.

Q. What scares you most about Michigan?
CHRIS ASH: They're a good football team. Every year they're a good football team. They've got good players, got good schemes, and they're one of the best teams in the country every year, and this year is no different.

Q. Their offense has struggled the first few weeks. How difficult is it to game plan for a team knowing that they might start to regress back to what they did last year if their scheme is not really getting traction at the quarter point of the season?
CHRIS ASH: Yeah, I'm not here to speak about their offense and their -- whatever you guys perceive is their issues. They've got good players. They've got very good players. They've got a good scheme. They've got good coaches, and we're just worried about going to play the best that we can. That's it.

It's a divisional Big Ten football game, and it's a home game for them. They'll be prepared to play a great game.

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