BAD BOY MOWERS PINSTRIPE BOWL: MINNESOTA VS. SYRACUSE

December 22, 2022

Joe Rossi

Yankee Stadium

Minnesota Golden Gophers

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Thanks for taking a couple minutes today. We're going to do the Minnesota portion of Media Day first. We're going to have defensive coordinator Joe Rossi, offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca, linebacker Mariano Sori-Marin, tight end Brevyn Spann-Ford.

Questions, please.

Q. Joe, I wanted to ask about Jordan Howden and Terell Smith, how they were able to fight through struggles and tough times to stick around, to not look for the grass is greener in the transfer portal, put in their time to have the success here. What stands out about their perseverance?

JOE ROSSI: It starts with just who they are as people. I think that they have the ability to persevere. They have, if you want to say and talk about grit, that's an en vogue word. They can overcome adversity. They know what they want and they're willing to work for it.

I think that ability is something that's becoming more and more scarce. I think if you find anyone who is successful in any chosen endeavor in life, there's struggle, there's hardships and things you've got to overcome. That's how you ultimately get to a goal.

If it was easy, came easy to everyone, everyone would be successful, and really no one would ever be successful.

That's the thing with 2022 and a lot of situations with football, is everyone is looking to move on and go to the next thing, find the easy way. Well, nothing worthwhile is the easy way. Those guys have chosen to stay and work hard.

They've gotten better, are good players. They're both going to get an opportunity in the NFL. Will it be easy? I don't know. I know it won't be. Will they make it? I don't know.

I know they're equipped to give it their best. They're in the best situation they can be to maximize their talent.

Q. You guys signed three defensive transfers, each level of the defense. What did you like about each of those three guys?

JOE ROSSI: We'll start with the back end. What stands out to me is the physicality, Jack, his frame. You haven't seen him yet. When I saw him in the hotel, I was probably 40 yards away from him. I said to one of the recruiting guys, Is that Jack?

He was like, Yeah.

He looks like a linebacker.

I got excited because he can run. He's physical. He's really good in the box. You know our defense, you know that first and second down nickel players have to be physical players. I'm excited about that because when I saw what his frame was, you combine that with what you saw on film with his speed and athleticism, I think we got a really good one.

Ryan Selig was a two-year starter at Western Michigan. He played Will. You slide him over, again, when I saw him in person, recruited him, he's 6'2", 240 pounds. He has the size that we're looking for.

We did our research and know that he runs really fast. We happen to have a guy on staff who coached him. So we know what he runs. The other thing is when I did homework on him, talked to his position coach, said he was the smartest guy in the room, studied the most film of everyone, made all the checks and adjustments. We said, Perfect.

He's going to slide in and have an opportunity to compete at the Mike linebacker position. I think there's some meat on the bone, too. There's things we can work on him that he can improve his game.

Segues into Chris. I love his frame. He's a grown man. When you see him in person, he's a grown man. He has some physicality, made some plays in the ACC. I also feel like there's some things we can coach him on that we can get him to be even better and more impactful, take his game to the next level.

The hidden value in the transfer game is, is there someone you can bring in that you actually feel like isn't a finished product as well, that you can coach him up and get him better. I feel like all three of those guys we can do that with, and they have the skill to help us, and they also got some meat on the bone for us to help them get better.

Q. Joe, Nick Monroe is Syracuse's interim DC. Did you cross paths?

JOE ROSSI: Interesting, yes. He came in. I was a senior. He came in as an intern after I graduated. Now, I worked in the football office for four years. After my senior year, I said, I'm not working in the football office this last year. I got an intermural basketball reffing job. I wanted to take a step away. I used to get reprimanded as the official. I was relegated to doing the scoreboard because of maybe a little incident that occurred while I was reffing games.

Yeah, I know Nick. He's a friend of mine. We're friends. I'm excited for him and the opportunity that he's got.

Q. Joe, Mohamed Ibrahim is closing his career in the bowl game. From a defensive standpoint, when did you first notice him, that he could be an impact player? What has he meant to you?

JOE ROSSI: I think he's the best running back in the country. I know I'm biased. The funny thing is I'll talk to people, I talked to some ACC coaches about this game coming up. They're like, Listen, we've seen Mo Ibrahim. That guy is awesome. I got some guys, the coach defense in the league, this guy's the best guy, the best guy.

When did we know? We knew when he was on the scout team. He's hurting us, gashing us in 2018, whatever year it was, '17. He's hurting us on the scout team.

We did a little like cross-the-ball, bye week, study each other. I remember in '19, watching us on offense. I was like, Mo is the man. That's when he was a sophomore. This guy's the man.

What's he mean to the defense? The defense, I like sitting up in the box when we get a long drive, Mo is stuffing it down people's throats.

The best defense is the defense that's not played when you're on the bench, you're able to run the ball, not to have to have the guys out there defending.

In my humble opinion, he's the best. I think he's going to have a bright career because he makes something out of nothing. Some guys need space, some guys want to slash and bounce things. You don't bounce things in the NFL. You do that, your career is short. You got to be able to create, set blocks up, you got to be able to get things when things aren't there. That's Mo, so...

Q. Joe, obviously there's a couple of different threats with the Syracuse offense. What is sort of the biggest challenge in game planning for this offense?

JOE ROSSI: I think the quarterback, No. 6. I have a lot of respect for him. He's big, he's strong. He slings people off. I think he has a really good arm. He creates on the run.

I'm originally from Pittsburgh. There's a little Ben Roethlisberger in him. He'll get to the perimeter. A guy will come up open, he'll throw it up, make a play. Move the ball down the field. He's been dynamic in the run game. He was a little banged up.

We expect him to be 110% with the weeks off. We got a lot of respect for him. The ball goes through him in the run-and-pass game. He's going to be a huge challenge for us.

Q. Obviously there are a couple people that entered the transfer portal, a coordinator change. Does that change your game plan, or is it the same deal?

JOE ROSSI: I think what you'll see is someone else calling it, so there will be different tendencies. Some guys in the transfer will opt out. Offenses many generally want to get the ball to their top players. If some other players have moved on, they'll get the ball to who they deem to be the next most impactful players.

We're expecting the offense to be the offense with some wrinkles thrown in. Maybe you can't focus quite as much on tendencies because there's a different guy calling it.

While we expect some new things, a lot of it will be similar to what we've seen. In any bowl game, there's always the "expect the unexpected" mentality because of the time off.

Q. What can you say about the rest of the offense, what you've seen from Syracuse. What have you seen from the guys that will be playing in the bowl game?

JOE ROSSI: Yeah, I mean, I've been impressed. I think they do a nice job. I think they're well-coached on offense. Their players play hard. They do a really good job getting the ball out on the perimeter with some of their arrow schemes, perimeter throws.

19 across the middle is a big target. Sometimes he's playing in a tight end role, sometimes he's detached, sometimes he's pulling around and counter, sometimes he's blocking.

I got a lot of respect for him. He does a lot of things that maybe are unseen. Sometimes he's listed as receiver, as a tight end. He's a hybrid-type throwback player. When they need to make a play, they get the ball to him. He catches balls in contested space. Has a big catch radius.

Other guys have speed, 82, 85 down the field, catch it, go vertical, take the top off. I've been impressed.

We're expecting to see them at their best. I know they had some injuries at the end of the season on the offensive line, at quarterback. Time heals all wounds. We're going to see those guys humming at their best. That's what we're expecting.

Q. Have you seen anyone in the Big Ten that's comparable to Garrett Shrader running the Syracuse offense?

JOE ROSSI: No, no. In the Big Ten, we generally don't get a ton of QB run. We got a little bit. Nebraska had some elements of QB run. No, there's probably not a great comparison in terms of we didn't play Michigan, so no.

We haven't played anyone necessarily that we would compare.

Q. Joe, you got a bowl here going forward, but what is a major coaching point that you want to see from the D-line going forward?

JOE ROSSI: Pass-rush. We got to get better rushing the passer. I think that is something that everyone knows. The couple weeks that you have in bowl prep to work at it, but then there's the extension into the off-season.

I think that that will be something in terms of you'll work on it from January all the way up until next season. But I feel like those guys have improved as the year's gone on.

I see things different than the fan. The fan sees the final number, the final result. I see the process. The process will yield the results. As the process starts to change and improve, eventually there will be a breakthrough and everyone will notice.

I have no worries about that in the long term. As that occurs, we'll play to those strengths.

The thing I think you'll notice for us as the year went on, I think the play-making up front in the run game has really improved at defensive tackle with the hands. Kyler Baugh really has stood out to me, Trill Carter. I think you see Striggow and Jah Joyner have the ingredients to be really good pass-rushers. I think we have young kids, players, that have the ingredients to do that.

I think that's something we'd like to be able to see take the next step. We've been working hard at it these couple weeks. It's the bowl game. You have practices a couple times a week as you're preparing. You get through recruiting. You hunker down for the week and a half you have to get ready for the game.

We've seen some things there. That would be it.

THE MODERATOR: Coach Rossi, thank you for joining us today.

JOE ROSSI: Thank you.