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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 13, 2010

Greg Schiano

SYRACUSE Â– 13
RUTGERS - 10

COACH SCHIANO: Guys, a tough one. Be willing to answer your questions. Probably better that way to help you get what you need to do your work.

Q. What went into your thinking with Savage in the second half with Dodd replacing him?
COACH SCHIANO: I didn't think we were very productive in the first half. I think we were 3-11. Sometimes you just got to do what you believe is best. Sometimes it's right, sometimes it's wrong. You got to do what you think at the moment.
That's what we as a staff felt gave us the best chance to win the game today. As I told you guys all along, that's all I'm worried about, the best thing that gives you a chance to win today.

Q. Deering's performance?
COACH SCHIANO: I thought Jeremy did well. Obviously, didn't do it alone. He rushed for a lot of yards, made some good blocking. Jeremy did what we asked him to do exactly.
He's certainly growing up. He's getting better. At the end of the day, it wasn't enough. We need to be able to do more offensively to score more points.

Q. Do you think there was fatigue with your defense?
COACH SCHIANO: I don't think so. I don't think it was fatigue. I think we just didn't execute. I think they out-executed us in that last drive.

Q. Could you comment on the execution on your offensive drive leading to the missed field goal.
COACH SCHIANO: I thought we executed well. But, again, we need to finish those drives off. Whether it's play calling, whether it's playing, whatever it is, we didn't do it.
There's plenty of theories to go around, I'm sure. I have plenty of thoughts of my own. But we need to get that done.
We're getting better. We just got to keep getting better. We didn't get better enough. Again, I said it last week. I said it two weeks ago. Two weeks ago it was a little bit of a different deal. But last week, I thought we just got to keep getting better and pretty soon our better will be better than their better, but it's not right now.

Q. What was the thinking in going so heavy with the wildcat?
COACH SCHIANO: The opportunity to run the football against a very blitz-heavy defense. We thought it would be effective.

Q. Veteran kicker, two opportunities he misfired on. In the range, the gray area, plus 40s, is he at the point where he should be making those?
COACH SCHIANO: Well, I think it's the whole operation. If you noticed the last one, the ball wasn't exactly on the clean spot. It skidded back. There's some things we didn't do well there.

Q. One point loss last week. Now you lose with a minute to go. Any concern about the effect on the kids coming up short now?
COACH SCHIANO: I hope not. I hope we've raised our guys in this program to chop through whatever comes our way. You know, we're getting tested right now, there's no doubt about it.
I don't worry about that. I worry about us getting better. Can we get better fast enough? That's what we got to do. We've got three games left. Cincinnati next week. Can we get better fast enough to win that game?

Q. Do you think you're going to be at the point where you're going to have to play it by ear as far as the quarterback position goes? Do you have to think it through for a couple of days or is it automatic?
COACH SCHIANO: That's where we are all the time. We try to figure out who gives us the best chance to win, be it practice, game performance, we make those decisions. I don't think it's anything different. Does it make decisions harder? Yeah, it does. It makes it interesting, for sure.

Q. Are the emotions of the last month taking a toll on this team?
COACH SCHIANO: I'd be naÃ¯ve to think that it doesn't have some factor. But, as I've said to the players, life is messy, and you don't have a choice, men. You can either keep living or you can feel sorry for yourself. We got to keep living, getting better.
You know what, tough losses, all the things that have gone into this year, that's life. Figure a way to get through it and to overcome it. That's what we're here to do. That's what we're here to teach young men to do.

Q. Sanu second half.
COACH SCHIANO: Sanu was unable to go from some point in the second quarter actually. And Joe Martinek was unable to go. It was Sorie tried to go last week in practice, as you guys saw, but he just wasn't effective.
So certainly those are two experienced performers, one we didn't have for the whole game, one we didn't have for close to three quarters of it. You know what, everybody has people banged up this time of year. There are no excuses, you got to find a way to get through it.

Q. Teddy was not healthy enough yet?
COACH SCHIANO: Teddy was not healthy. We though he would be. Went out to warmups. He's got an injury, I don't know, may not be better all year. They keep telling me it's got to heal. I'm not a doctor. But he couldn't do it. So I thought Sully stepped up and did a good job for his first time punting. Hopefully he can build on that.

Q. Was it the foot again with Sanu or something else?
COACH SCHIANO: Something else, yeah. Something else. A leg. A leg, yeah.

Q. The Bowl streak has been a thing of pride around this place. Are you confident in the last three games your team can make it?
COACH SCHIANO: Mathematically we can. We will worry about one thing. We will focus about one thing, and that's Cincinnati. Certainly none of us are living in a bubble. We know after these three games, that determines if we can or we can't.
But I refuse to let myself and implore the team to focus on one thing: you worry about the big picture, you lose the little picture. We need to make sure we keep working on getting better.
You can't win enough games to get to a Bowl game in one week right now. We have four games that we've won. We need to win five, then you can win six. We can't win six now. So let's just focus on what we can do. That's what my message will be, my message has been for 10 years. Let's worry about the here and now.
Thank you, guys.

End of FastScripts

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