Greg Schiano Bowl Press Conference Transcript
Dec 05 | Football
Head Coach Greg Schiano
Opening Statement: “Good morning. It is great to be up here to talk about a bowl game again. It is also great to get some extra practices for the guys that are first and second string players, but also for all the players in the program. This allows us to get some more work while playing in the Pinstripe Bowl and playing here at home in New York. This gives a lot of our fans who maybe can’t always afford to travel to a bowl game the opportunity to experience a bowl game at a much more reasonable expense. It is going to be a great opportunity for our players. I grew up in North Jersey and other than the night I stay over at the National Football Foundation, I don’t know if I have ever stayed over in New York. So it will be great to stay in New York for a week and [take part in] all the great things that the Yankees have planned for our players. The Yankees, as we all know, do things one way and that is first class. With New Era and the Yankees putting this bowl on, it will be a great reward for our players. That’s what I believe bowls are. I believe they are a reward for all the hard work that the players and coaches put in and a great part of college football. We are excited and I can’t really give you that much other than a fan’s perspective of Iowa State – I haven’t watched them yet. We exchanged video last night and we will get into that. As I said, the first seven practices are really developmental practices for our entire program and then we will kick it into game plan mode and exclusively focus on Iowa State. I am excited about the opportunity and can’t wait to play in our bowl game. It is going to be a great experience.”
On the familiarity with Iowa State head coach Paul Rhoads: “I am [familiar with Coach Rhoads] in that he was at the University of Pittsburgh for a while with Walt Harris and then he was there with Dave [Wannstedt] for a while. Jeff [Hafley] worked for Paul. There are a lot of connections there. Paul is a heck of a football coach and a great person. It is going to be two very similar teams going at each other for sure in the philosophy and how hard they play. As I told our team last night, get ready, you are going to be looking into the mirror, maybe not schematically as much, but the fight of both teams is very similar.”
On the benefit of extra practices: “I think you can quantify it strictly in terms of practice numbers. We are looking at about another spring practice. You probably get around 13, 14 or 15 practices. Now some of them are not like spring practice in that you are game planning so you have scout teams, but at least half of them are when you are running Rutgers on Rutgers and getting better at our schemes. When you are a young guy that has been on the scout team all year if you are redshirting, all of a sudden you get back to running our schemes. Right now they only get to run our schemes once a week and that is on Sunday nights. The majority of the time they are running everyone else’s schemes, so now they get the opportunity to line up and play Rutgers football, which is great for their development.”
On injuries: “We don’t know for sure. Savon [Huggins] is making progress. The key is when we start gameplan prep, can he go? That is kind of going to be the measuring stick. If we had to play, some of the guys that are hobbled would probably play, but there is no reason to push a guy like D.C. [Jefferson] or [Justin Francis]. They are going to get conditioning and are going to stay in shape and hopefully as we go, we get them back one by one. Tim Wright hopefully will be feeling better so that opportunity is a good one.”
On recruiting practices: “On recruiting weekends it is nice. We had some recruits this weekend, not a big weekend, but they got to see. The way we do it – I have been places where you have quote, end quote recruiting practice where you have flowers and everyone is happy – we get after it. We are going to coach them the same way we coach them every day because I don’t want false impressions of who or what you are coming to. This is who we are and we are competitive and we get after it every day in practice. If that scares a recruit, that is good and they shouldn’t come. That is why it is a good thing for recruits to see. They can sit in the meetings and they get to do some things that otherwise get to if you are not in a bowl.”
On player’s reaction of making a bowl after missing out in 2010: “I don’t know because the meeting I had with them was just telling them the schedule and what they are doing. Then they go to study hall and I go back to work, but I am sure it is [satisfying], it is for me. You take it for granted, I don’t take it for granted, but some maybe took it for granted that, oh we’ll go to a bowl game after going for five-straight years. Then you are sitting home last year watching everyone else and it eats at you. As I said last year, there is only one way to get that feeling gone and that is now. We are going back to a bowl and the postseason. It is big.”
On starting quarterback: “That is a good question, it is not going to be an easy one. Both are capable and we have to figure out what fits best, you never know. Other than the limited practice time we have had, it has predominately been recruiting and bowl planning other than game planning. We will get the tapes broken down and then get to game planning.”
On method of selecting starting quarterback: “I take everything, including the body of work up to this point, trends and what is happening now in these practices. Everything always goes into the equation. Then at the end you take all those quote, end quote numerical data and weigh it out and decide what is best.”
On Frank Cignetti’s status: “Frank [Cignetti] is going to be with us, which is good and I am excited about that. Like I said on Saturday, I encourage our guys [to look] – it is a head coaching job, there are only 120 of them. If you have an opportunity to get involved with that, as an assistant coach, you need to look into it. You don’t want to have any regrets. It is good that people are looking into our coaches as head coaches, but he is going to stay. That is great.”
On the progression of the offense: “We have improved, but like I have said all along, we didn’t get into that situation overnight and we are not going to change the situation overnight. Happy is a relevant term. I see the areas where we have made progress and frustrated at some areas where we haven’t made progress. Frank [Cignetti] and I spoke at the end of the season, and he is frustrated and he wants to get it going to where he know it can go. It just takes a little time and some experience, but we are heading in the right direction. That is what I try to look at, are we trending [up or down]?”
On the development of Jeremy Deering: “He is a very talented guy, but I think he has to lock into one [role]. He can play running back, receiver, defensive back – any of those. But that is for next year, and this year he is going to stay where he is and continue to do what he is doing. He is a great special teams player and I think he can be a great offensive or defensive player wherever he ends up.”
On the player’s reaction to bowl bid: “They are excited. They read the paper, they read the Internet and people kind of pointed in this direction. But you don’t know until they tell you for sure. After the [UConn] game I told them it would be one of three [bowls], but they are excited.”
On field conditions on Yankee Stadium: “They actually reached out to us and said they worked on that. They said it will be good.”
