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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 19, 2019

Nunzio Campanile

Piscataway, New Jersey

Minnesota - 42, Rutgers - 7

NUNZIO CAMPANILE: How we doing, everybody? Proud of the kids' effort today, I thought they played really hard throughout game. I thought they kept playing no matter what the score was. Obviously not good enough on offense. We are still really struggling to throw the ball and turning the ball over. Those things are obviously major problems, things that we got to keep working on. But I am proud of the effort that the kids gave, I thought that they played really hard, I thought the defense did a great job in the first half keeping them out, that fourth down stop, forcing the field goal try and then the miss, we're right in the game there going into halftime. Just need to generate a little bit more. We finally put a drive together and then we kind of killed ourself with a huge penalty there, which we are not built to overcome, first and 25 is not a place where we want to be. But I thought if we could have scored there we could have kind of flipped the game very much so. But that penalty kind of killed that drive. So any questions?

Q. Passing game, how do you get that turned around?
NUNZIO CAMPANILE: I don't have a great answer. Keep working at it. We seemed to hurt ourselves in every possible way, I mean whether it's throwing it, catching it, protecting it. We just, penalty, the pass interference penalties, any possible way that we could have struggled this that game we did. Just keep working at it. And they pretty much did what they do, they brought a little more pressure, but at times we just tried taking a shot there after the fourth down stop and we turned it over. The first drive we get a first down and then we turn it over. So those things, but keep working at it, they're young players, young guys, young quarterback. And it's not like we have an older guy to go to. We have what we have. We'll give Cole more reps this week and see how that goes, but again, he's a freshman, too, and so there's no guarantee that that's the answer.

Q. Is there a point where you considered maybe making a change today?
NUNZIO CAMPANILE: No, because late in the third quarter we put a pretty good drive together, then we turned it over and I didn't really think that that was going to help anybody. And then we did go on and put a drive together, we got a couple completions, got a touchdown and then we moved the ball a little bit. So I look at those opportunities as just chances for us to practice and grow and get work. And I think that they did get some positive work there. So hopefully there's a lot to grow off of like the third and fourth quarter, we did a bunch of good things. Obviously, threw a pick six that was not a great thing. But I kind of keep telling the kids, regardless of the score we just have it keep using those opportunities as chances to grow. Now, you know if this week if Cole's the best option then that's what we'll do.

Q. He was throwing on the sideline I think like 10 minutes to go, it was only 21-0, so you weren't considering, he wasn't getting ready if you guys had held there at any point?
NUNZIO CAMPANILE: Yeah, no, I mean, not really. I think he was just staying ready just in case something came up. And then went to 28 and then the pick went to 35, so it was kind of -- I mean, because really when it was 21 we actually had a drive and not that we threw it a whole lot, but we were able to at least move the football and we were going in a positive direction and then that penalty kind of killed that drive.

Q. You had a couple more negative passes again. What is the issue there? Because that's something that kinds of sets you back even further.
NUNZIO CAMPANILE: We probably practice screen more than any team in America. So it is dumbfounding, to be honest. I'm not really sure. Obviously, we'll keep working at it. But we have tried a bunch of different types of screens and we just have really struggled with them all year. Obviously, we have to get better at it because we need -- but we struggled to throw the ball down the field, so we're not exactly getting a lot of guys dropping and getting out of there. We had two screens today that I think went for negative yardage. It happened in the Maryland game and it happened last week so, maybe we just shouldn't run any screens. I don't know.

Q. Eddie Lewis didn't play the first four games. Since you took over he's been back in the mix. He had some injuries, but what has he done the last few weeks to get back on the field?
NUNZIO CAMPANILE: Eddie's a good player, he's smart, he's a competitor. Obviously losing Raheem has opened up that role a little bit for some of those guys because I don't think it's fair to put too much on Aaron's plate. Aaron can do a lot of same things that Raheem does, but it's hard to ask him to play multiple positions as a freshman, so we're trying to not overload him too much.

Q. Defensively in that first half you guys were really hanging with them. What did you like about your group from a defensive standpoint early?
NUNZIO CAMPANILE: We ran to the ball, tackled pretty well, we didn't allow the big plays. In the last few games some of the missed tackles have gone for really big plays. So today we limited that and it definitely changed the tempo of the game. Because they don't play super fast, even though they're no-huddle, they obviously don't try to go too fast. They kind of, it's all check with me, and, you know, we did a good job of not allowing the big plays and kind of recognizing what they were doing and not allowing the big runs either. So I thought that we really just swarmed to the ball, we tackled really well. Christian Izien has done a really nice job back there. He's making a lot of plays. I'm pretty proud of his effort.

Q. Deion Jennings started. Tyreek a little banged up or --
NUNZIO CAMPANILE: I think that Coach Buh just thought that, you know, change things up and give us an opportunity to make some plays and I thought he played really well. He made a lot of plays, obviously got to watch the tape to see what the mistakes are but he definitely, for a young guy, there were a lot of, he made a lot of plays, especially early.

Q. That deep shot up 35 at the end, did you object to that take any issue with that?
NUNZIO CAMPANILE: No, not at all this it football. This is Ben-Ten football and to me it was probably Bobby Bowden would say it's our job to keep the score down, not theirs, so I have no issue with that.

Q. Are there thinks that you see that maybe the fans don't see that maybe you could see some signs of hope over the next final five games?
NUNZIO CAMPANILE: Yeah, these guys are playing hard. There are some spots where we just struggle to match up, I mean it's just the truth. So I don't fault our kids' efforts at all, I think that they're doing the best they can, I think that we have some guys that are in spots that they're not entirely ready for, but there are a lot of guys that are still fighting and staying together and I mean I wish I could tell you like, hey, we're going to go out and score 50 points next week, but that, you know, apparently is not the reality and that has not been happening for since I've been here pretty much. So we have a lot of a long way to go, but like I keep saying, I just want this team to be, those players to be better players by the time we get to the end of the year. So that whatever happens, they feel like, hey, they're getting meaningful reps. You get a guy like Isaiah Washington said to me at the end of the game like, hey, Coach, I'm not quitting. Like, hey you want that guy on the field he's like, I am going to play as hard as I can no matter what and he goes down there and gets a couple catches, the guy just loves to play football and he's got a great attitude as a freshman that's out there getting a chance to make some plays and I think there's a bunch of those guys that are in that boat. You know, I know Langan turned the ball over, but he'll keep swinging, he'll keep fighting whatever it is. Kay'Ron gets in the end zone, that's a great experience as a freshman in college, first Big Ten touchdown, it's pretty good.

Q. Do you have any problem with PJ or Minnesota throwing a touchdown with nine minutes to go in the game?
NUNZIO CAMPANILE: Not at all. Just, yeah, I think it's our job to stop them.

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