Greg Schiano Quotes - Wednesday in St. Petersburg
Dec 16 | Football
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - (December 16, 2009) – The following are quotes from Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano as he met with the media covering the St. Petersburg Bowl:
On arrival into St. Petersburg for Bowl week
“They did a great job. The administration has done it now for five times, they’ve got it down really well. Everybody worked together. We have a beautiful practice facility and great hotel. Everything’s good. The kids have done a good job so far, they’ve been on point with everything we’ve asked them to do. The one thing is, when it’s time to work, it’s time to work and the rest of the time is yours to enjoy it and I think our kids understand that and appreciate it.”
On choice of practice facility
“There are different choices I guess, but I don’t do that, the advance guys (Deputy Athletic Director) Kevin MacConnell and Todd (Greineder) go down. They know what I’m looking for and they search all the places and come up with the one they think fits us best.”
On if there was a connection to St. Petersburg Catholic High School
“Not really. I’ve been there obviously recruiting. The coaches and athletic director have been really helpful.”
On what is sought after in a practice facility
“Just a good field. We’re only practicing two days, so it’s not like we’re there for a week. There are other times that when we’ve gone away, we’ve gone longer but the field surface is beautiful. It’s very level, they played a whole season on it and it’s still in very good shape. It’s really a good place with plenty of room to work outside of the actual field.”
On Tim Brown’s progress
“He’s getting better. I know I sound like a broken record but it’s really going to be on game day when he goes to do it, can he do it. He can go out there and limp around, there’s no doubt. We he be able to go be functional. At Louisville, I think he was functioning but he still wasn’t 100 percent. West Virginia he was borderline. There were some plays he usually makes, he wouldn’t make so then as a coach you sit there and say, should we really play someone else.”
On Justin Francis’ progress
“He looked OK today. I’m anxious to see the tape. I saw him flash a few times which is good. On those kind of things, it’s not getting going as much as planting and stopping your body that’s tough.”
On perceived home field advantage for Central Florida
“The reality is as long as you have seven, eight, nine thousand people, they’ll generate enough noise. It’s going to be loud the whole game. It’s going to be loud when we have the ball and it’s going to be loud when they have the ball. One of the benefits of being away, defensively you get quite because they’re not going to drown out their own offense so you can communicate defensively, where when you’re home, you can’t hear a thing. I can be screaming from the sideline and they don’t move a muscle. The game is going to be sheer volume the entire game so it is what it is. You have enough Rutgers people that are going to make it loud and certainly the Central Florida people will make it loud as well.”
On Tropicana Field as a football venue, will catwalks affect kicking
“I’ve never been there. I’m going over there Friday. It isn’t going to change so I think I’m just going to try and roll with the punches. I talked to (South Florida head coach) Jim Leavitt at our summer meetings and he said it was good, there were no hitches.”
On the Beach Bash Event, presence of high school coaches and its effect on recruiting
“It’s a nice thing they do. I’m looking forward to it. When we first started, we were all Broward, Dade and Palm Beach. Now recruit the whole state and we’ve developed some really good relationships. We have guys that are contributing from this area and a lot of areas in this state. It’s a good opportunity.”
Other injury concerns
“We’re more like a team at the end of the year, than a team coming into a bowl game. We played 12 days ago, I don’t think they’re feeling great but I know they’ll be excited to play. You can gut one more out and then you have plenty of time to rest. I’m concerned a little bit about the overall health of the team and the fatigue. We really have cut it back quite a bit. I think we went an hour and 20 minutes of actual practice time. We walked through some stuff so we don’t wear and tear. We have to make sure that they feel good Saturday night.”
On recruiting and visiting prospects
“We’re going to see some people which is going to pull coaches away from some of the functions but to me it’s such a critical time that we have to get out. We’re only doing it for the ones that I think we need to.”
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