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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 19, 2011

Greg Schiano

COACH SCHIANO: Before we get started, why don't I just talk about the question you're probably going to ask.
I have been in touch with Tim and we've been in constant contact with what's going on. I'm not going to make comments about any league affiliations or any league discussions or any of that stuff.
My main focus, my only focus, other than brief conversations with Tim is Ohio. I trust Tim and our administration to do what's best for Rutgers and that's what they're doing right now.
Let's turn our attention to Ohio, who is a very good football team. They're off to a 3-0 start, scoring all kind of points on offense.
When you look at their offense, their quarterback, No. 4, although he's only started three games, he's a very good player. He can run, he can throw. Their offense is unique in that it's a combination of the Nevada pistol offense, some gun run offense and some of the Nebraska option offense that Coach Solich used to employ with the speed option. They employ a vertical passing game as well as a play-action passing game. Quite a challenge.
I mentioned No. 4, the quarterback, a very good player. No. 7, the wideout, very good player. 3, 15, play-makers at the wideout position. They're kind of runningback by committee right now. 8 left the game. 8, 20, 22 all play. The offensive line is very solid in what they do.
Defensively it starts up front. Their nose guard, 93, 300-pounder, very stout. Their linebacking core is probably the strength of their defense. No. 47 and No. 34 are very good players.
In the secondary, I think it's No. 18, a very good player. Very, very solid. They create takeaways on defense. That's been something they've done extremely, extremely well. Six of them last game.
You know, just trying to do my homework, they are a very, very good football team and they know it and they feel it. Coach Solich just called it the best team that he's had there. They're calling it maybe the best team they've ever had there.
Going to be a great opportunity, a great challenge for our guys. We're preparing. Started our preparation last night for Ohio. Today is the players' day off. A bunch of guys in the building on their own. You can see they're working. I think we'll be up to the challenge. It will be a great football game. Looking forward to it.

Q. (Question regarding recruiting.)
COACH SCHIANO: That doesn't have to do with Ohio. We're on Ohio. I will handle recruiting. Believe me, we're going to be fine. That's not an issue.

Q. What are your impressions of Coach Solich, who brings that pedigree from Nebraska?
COACH SCHIANO: I've known him a long time. An excellent football coach. You can see it. A team that never beats themselves. They play sound, fundamental football. I'm glad we have a bye week to look at them. I don't know if that is going to make a difference. They create a lot of problems for our defense, a lot of challenges, and you can see it. They're scoring points on everybody.

Q. You mentioned Sunday being the day where you made some offensive line decisions. What are your thoughts on Kaleb Johnson and Betim Bujari?
COACH SCHIANO: They'll play. I don't know if they'll start. We'll see how that goes this week. They're definitely going to play. A guy like Kaleb, he's a young guy. Do I want to start him against a good front? I don't know. I'll see what my feeling is come game time, what Kyle and Frank are feeling. We'll make a decision and go with it.
Both of them need to play in the game and we'll go from there. We have a little bit of flexibility as far as moving some people around and we're going to be willing to try that.

Q. Do you worry about lining up two young guys next to each other like that?
COACH SCHIANO: Well, I mean, there's going to be some mistakes, we know that. We wouldn't do it if we didn't think it gives us the positives, that the positives outweigh the mistakes we're going to make.
They've done some really good things in the bye week. Are they ready? I think so. We'll see.

Q. Do you remember where you were when Miami and Virginia Tech left the league, the differences?
COACH SCHIANO: I don't mean to be uncooperative, guys, but I really am not going to talk about that stuff. I'm on Ohio 100%. That ain't coach speech.
Maybe if we were playing somebody that I knew we were umpteen times better than and just I got to get the team ready. I'm telling you, this is a schematic challenge and it's a personnel challenge.
You just look around. The MAC Conference has caught up. The gap has closed. You just look. Last week with Temple, almost upset Penn State. You look at what's going on. There's not a big separation anymore. There used to be. There isn't anymore.
Every MAC team has good personnel, great coaching in that league. This team is probably the best team in that league. Their offense is certainly one of the best in the country right now the way they're performing.
We have such a big challenge right now that I really want to just stick to that.

Q. If there's underclassmen or a current player in the program that expressed concerns about Rutgers not playing in a BCS conference, would you talk to them or would it just be on Ohio?
COACH SCHIANO: Are you guys going to say, You're punked now? Is that what you're fixing to do in a minute?
We're going to be fine. Let me say Rutgers is going to be fine. Don't worry about that. The rest of it is not going to get talked about. I'll address it if there's a need to address it with anyone in particular inside or outside of our program that affects our program.

Q. Anything final with Williams?
COACH SCHIANO: There's a football question (laughter).
I think he's going to find another place. I'm not 100% sure. I think that's where it's headed. We've kind of moved on. I spoke to him before he went home for the weekend and I haven't seen him since.

Q. You've played some MAC teams like Ball State. Is this the best MAC team you've played?
COACH SCHIANO: I thought that Ball State team was pretty good. That was the team that the next year went 12-0. They really had a talented football team. This one is definitely right there with them. I think it's a much better defensive football team. They're very opportunistic, this defensive team. I thought the Ball State offense that year was very talented, as well.

Q. What are Jordan Thomas and Gareef's roles on defense right now?
COACH SCHIANO: I don't know. It still is to be determined. It all depends how healthy we are at the position. They're still making young-guy mistakes. You can make a young-guy mistake at linebacker and maybe they get a big run, a seven-, eight-yard run. You make a young-guy mistake at corner, it's a touchdown. We got to see how on point they are come the end of the week.
This is a different scheme again. You're running option. The play that no one ever sees anymore is speed option. It's old-school speed option. They run it out of the pistol. That's one of their leading plays and they're very good at it. No. 4 is a very good runner and he makes good decisions. So it's gun run, it's option, it's spread offense, it's everything in kind of one group.
I think there's not as much. If you look at the first three games, there's not as much pure volume of offense, different plays. But what they're doing they're doing very well and very decisively.
We looked at every game last year. We had all their games. There's a huge amount of offense to prepare for, huge. This year it's not that much. You know they have the capability to do what they did last year. So now you have to make decisions as a coach: Are we going to prepare for everything they did? Are we going to try to prepare for what they're doing now?
We kind of mixed and decided to do a little of both. They're doing what they do very well right now.

Q. Is Brandon Jones going to practice this week?
COACH SCHIANO: He is. He is going to practice, yep.

Q. Probably doesn't matter who is going to start. Do you see Savon getting a bigger workload this week?
COACH SCHIANO: I do, yes.

Q. (Indiscernible.)
COACH SCHIANO: I am, yes. Wouldn't do it if I didn't think so.

Q. With Savon learning to run the lower pad level, could that happen this quickly?
COACH SCHIANO: It's emphasis. You're going to revert back to your habits when you're in stress situations. I think he's working on it in practice to try to make it a habit. It's not like he's running straight up and down. We'd like him to get his pad level a little lower.
He's a very strong guy, very strong lower body. Like extremely strong lower body. He's got the ability to drag defenders. If he gets his pads down, now he's going to come popping out the other end, not just drag them.

Q. Does it take away from football that all this is happening during the season?
COACH SCHIANO: Not for me it doesn't.
Here is the deal. My wife asked me. I'm getting it from you, my wife, everybody (laughter). Like I said, it doesn't matter because if we're not ready to play, all this stuff is not going to matter. We got to be ready to play and we're playing a very good football team.
Believe me, it's tempting for me to look on espn.com, find out what's going on. What does it matter? I'm not the one handling that. I trust the guy that is, I'm letting him handle it.
All right, guys, thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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