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Rutgers Head Coach Chris Ash
Chris Ash: Obviously not the outcome we wanted. Disappointed. I thought we had a great week of preparation. The guys were focused. Had a positive attitude. Worked extremely hard and they were confident going into the game.

But you get five turnovers in a game you and really have no chance to win a football game. That's what it came down to. I thought we did a lot of good things on both sides of the ball. We ran the ball better. We threw the -- at times threw the ball better today. Had a little energy going. And every time we were in critical situations, shot ourselves in the foot. Again, five turnovers is really the difference in the game and that's the story of the game.

We can't allow it. We've got to keep getting better, and it's on me. I've got to do a better job of making sure that we are getting enough ball security things done in practice. Obviously we work it a lot, but obviously not enough. Those things can't happen.

So with that, I'll go ahead and open up for questions.

Q. Is there any common theme, lack of focus, execution?
Chris Ash: It's not lack of focus, lack of execution. It's lack of holding on to the ball better. It's as simple as that. We had the first one there on the punt return with Jawuan, and you know, he's been fairly sharp, fairly consistent back there for us, and you know, running back position, it's about ball security. It's about holding on to the ball and getting in traffic and putting two arms around it as much as anything.

Q. What went into the decision to pull Chris in the second half?
Chris Ash: Same thing. You know, we needed a spark. We've got an issue at quarterback. We've had one. We need to evaluate. I thought Gio came in and provided a spark for the offense. Moved the ball down the field several times. Had an interception. Missed some throws, but at least he could move the ball with his feet, and I like what he did.

That's a guy that didn't get a ton of reps this week through the course of practice but he showed enough that he could do some things with his feet and just made the decision at the half that we needed to go a different direction, so we did.

Q. Does that mean that it will be more of an open competition?
Chris Ash: It's open. It's completely open. We haven't had enough production at the quarterback position in the first half of the season, and we've got to open it up.

I like what I saw out of Gio today and we've got to continue to try to work him and work some of the others, but it is absolutely an open competition. We've got to figure out who can give us the best chance to consistently move the ball. I thought Gio did a nice job when he came in in the second half.

Q. This is the second straight week you've had to pull Chris. Have we reached a point of no return with him?
Chris Ash: We've reached the point where it's an open competition. We've got to look at doing something differently, whether it's him doing something differently or someone else has got to be in there, and we're at that point.

Chris has done a lot of good things and again, like I've said before, it's not all on him. But again, a lot of times, you've got to have a quarterback there that people trust, and every now and then when things break down, can make something happen. And Gio was able to do that for us in the second half, and we'll see if moving forward he can end up being the guy or if somebody else will, but he'll be right in the mix.

Q. But it will be open --
Chris Ash: It's open.

Q. -- to all the quarterbacks on the roster?
Chris Ash: I don't know many. But the quarterback position is open. How many will have an opportunity; that will be up for conversation as we go into next week starting tomorrow and Monday. But we've got to look at doing something different.

Q. Would you explain or fathom on what happened on both fourth downs?
Chris Ash: Bad snaps. You know, the first one, Derrick was just trying to anticipate the snap count. He thought we would snap a little bit faster. Quarterback didn't tell him to snap it and he snapped it, and it was a bad snap and the quarterback wasn't ready for it.

The next one, until I watch the film, I'm not sure exactly what happened. I think the snap was okay. Gio felt like he should have handled it better but didn't. I know the first one, Derrick just anticipated a snap count and snapped it early.

Q. I know it's right after this game, but is there a message you can share? It's got to be disheartening to come out of another loss. You talk about the second half being a fresh start, not the way you wanted to start.
Chris Ash: Absolutely. It's not. We talked about our keys to victory going into this game and it's our plan to win, but we wanted to make sure we had a focused football team this week. We wanted to have a positive mind-set and we wanted to be confident in our abilities to go out there and get the type of results that we wanted.

I can say when we started the game, I felt really good about having all three of those things with our football team. They were focused. They were focused all week. They were positive. They were confident they could go out and play the type of game they needed to play to be successful.

We talked about not beating ourselves. That was point two in our keys to victory: We can't beat ourselves. We've had mental errors in the last two games, big losses that killed us. Well, that's an area obviously that we didn't succeed in today is we didn't go out and play a clean football game. We beat ourselves with the turnovers.

We were cleaner with our assignments. Up front, we blocked guys better. We protected better. But we had the five turnovers and that's really where it's at. We talked about critical situations. We had to win critical third-down situations. Offensively, I think we got nine -- converted on nine of our third downs, and I think they were four of 13, Illinois was, which on both sides of the ball, that's not bad. But the critical situations that hurt us were the fourth down situations, so we didn't win the critical situations that we needed to.

And then we talked about the battle of field position and how important special teams was in having our success. Obviously we fumbled the first punt and we lost that area.

So when you look at those keys to victory, I thought we were clearly focused, we were positive, we were confident. But we beat ourselves and we didn't win critical situations and we lost the battle of field positions when he fumbled a punt.

Q. You talked about this a lot, being a long process. Have we reached the point where you had to start making decisions for 2017 and beyond?
Chris Ash: No, I'm a coach, we're a coach, we're a program. We're going to keep grinding. We talked to the players in there; there's a wall that everybody hits at some point, and that wall is the difference between average and good and good to great and great to elite. We're at that wall. We need to find a way to get over it.

Sometimes, you know, you look at games like this and it looked like the games the last two weeks, it looks like we're really far away. We're not that far away but we have to find a way to get over the wall and get over the hump. There are a lot of positives that I can take out of this game, unlike the last two.

The last two, there weren't any positives. We were annihilated. There's no secret to that. This game, there's a lot of positives I can take out of this game that we can build on. Again, preparation was there. The attitude was there. It's the small details.

Winning is very hard. I've told the team this. I've told the staff this; it's not just the players. Winning games is very, very hard, unless you're an elite team and have a bunch of guys that are better than everybody else.

But winning is really hard and the attention to detail has to be there from everybody. That's the coaches, that's the players, support staff, everybody. Accountability, having extreme ownership in your responsibilities has to be there on Saturdays and today unfortunately it wasn't, when it comes down to some of those keys to victory.

Q. Gio's touchdown, was that a design play or was it improvised?
Chris Ash: No, it was a design play. Yeah, that was all design.

Q. And the way it was executed?
Chris Ash: No, good execution. We were reading it and he had a run/pass option and did a nice job of reading his key and kind of lobbed the ball up over the line and it was a great catch by the tight end.

Q. With all the turnovers that were so damaging, at that point when he gets the touchdown you and get the three-and-out, you seemed pretty fired up there. Prior to that last pick six, did you think, maybe they could, you know, maybe you were on the way to a comeback?
Chris Ash: Oh, absolutely. I didn't think until the end, until the pick six, really that there was any opportunity, or really any time we were out of that game. I felt confident about our ability going into this game. You know, even at the first half, we were down 7-0. With the way that -- the turnovers we had in the first half, we were only down 7-0. That's unfortunate. We had played some really good snaps of football.

We come out in the second half, disappointed in the defense giving up a touchdown there right out of the gate. If we could have stopped them there and forced them to punt and get the ball back, 7-0, I felt confident. But even after that touchdown, we get a three-and-out, we get the ball back, there's more than enough time. We have the whole fourth quarter to go. Gio is giving us a spark. The sideline is juiced up. I absolutely thought we had a chance to come back.



Rutgers Defensive Coordinator Jay Niemann
On the play of his defense: "It was a better outing than we've had in the past two weeks, but there are still too many things that are breaking down, particularly in the pass rush defense. I haven't looked at the statistics yet so I can't put numbers on it, but too many runs are breaking. You expect some of those once in a while; 10, 12, 20 yards, but 40 and 50 is too many. We have to get that fixed and get things looking cleaner and better."

On big run to start the third quarter: "They came out in a balanced set. It wasn't something we hadn't worked on. I made a big point at halftime to the whole defense that we needed to get off to a fast start and get a three and out and give the ball to the offense. For whatever reason, it went just the opposite of that. That was a pivotal part of the game. You hear a lot of coaches say that the most important minutes are the last couple of minutes in the first half and the first couple of minutes in the second half. We didn't do our job there."

On the bubble screen that went for a touchdown: "There were two missed tackles from what I could see. I didn't have a great view of it from where I was standing, but we had a miss on the first attempt and we didn't have a good reaction by our alley player out there in terms of getting a right reaction to the play. So the inside-out pursuit from that perspective didn't do what it was supposed to out there. It was those two things that let that play happen."

Challenges of getting the defense on the field so quickly: "That's the way it goes. Sometimes you get three or four minutes, sometimes you get 45 seconds. It's just what you've got to do. You just have to be as clean and quick on the adjustments as you can and you just go with it."



Rutgers Offensive Coordinator Drew Mehringer Opening statement: "You look at some of the things on this stat sheet here. Two-hundred and three yards rushing, 17-of-30 passing. And then you look at some of these other things. Four turnovers, four fumbles, one interception. Those things can't wipe out the dramatic improvement we had. It doesn't wipe out the time of possession. As the offensive coordinator, it makes you sick that your guys are in that position. We did some good things, but the bad things we did dramatically outweighed all of the good things that we set out to and did accomplish at times.

"We moved the ball well and the difference in the amount of punts was good. But you add the punts up, and add the turnovers up, and what are you left with? Especially the turnover down in the red zone earlier in the game, the one late to put the defense in another bad spot. For our seniors, those are the ones I feel for the most. They're the ones who are playing their hearts out. You look at some of the guys on the defensive side; Darius Hamilton, JPO and then you look as some of the guys on our side; Derrick Nelson. You look at guys who are playing their hearts out, and something isn't right in the ball-security department and it's preventing them from getting where they want to go. It's a tough pill to swallow and you can't go out there and carry the ball for them. You can't go out there and throw the ball for them. We have to do a better job, I have to do a better job of getting them the reps, more reps if need be, getting them the reps to put them in position to be successful.

"My heart goes out to the seniors who are playing their tails off. I'm sorry to those guys. But you can't expect to win a game on either side of the ball by putting them in that position. It doesn't matter how many trips to the end zone you have if you don't protect the ball"

On what he's looking for from the quarterback: "I think the thing we're always looking for, you get asked about style, qualities that he has. We're looking for production and leadership. Gio (Rescigno) came in and did a nice job in the second half. He had a good week of practice. He's a selfless, conscientious kid. So when we go into tomorrow, that's something we'll discuss. I don't know if Zach Allen's game reps were a solid assessment of his abilities, but it's going to be an open competition. [Gio] did some good things. We'll see tomorrow."

On the bad snaps: "We got jumpy. We got jumpy on fourth down. You look at it even, if you look at our plan to win over here. Play great defense and score points, win the turnover and takeaway battle, we didn't do that. And then going into the red zone on third down and you can throw fourth down, win critical situations. We got jumpy. That's the best that I can give you other than going and spending time delving into the physiological aspects of what is going on with the guys on that field. Obviously, it's unacceptable."

On the interception that went for a touchdown: "He made the right read and he was going to the right place. I don't know if you guys saw, but the ball was tipped by the defensive end. Credit to the kid who picked it off. He made a good play in man coverage and fell off his man and made the play. That comes at a very unfortunate time. You look what it did to the score differential at that point. The kid made a good play and they capitalized on it.

"I don't think that we'll ever give a break on a turnover. Is that one a little out of his control? Yes and no. In terms of his read, I give him a break on his read. He made the right read and right throw. But we'll never accept turnovers from anyone, ever."

On Tylin Oden playing this season: "To be honest with you, Coach Ash has a great policy that he will never burn a kid's redshirt without asking him. Sitting him down and making him sure that he understands everything that goes into that. We spoke with Tylin and told him that we thought there were some things that you can do in this game that can help us. Do you understand the consequences that go along with that? And he did. Tylin's gotten a little better every week. He has his own issues that he needs to get resolved."

Rutgers Wide Receiver Andre Patton
On if Giovanni Rescigno provided a spark for the offense: "I felt like throughout the whole game we had sparks here and there. I felt like when Gio came in he had a really good game."

On how the team feels after the loss: "At this point, we just want to win. We know we're more than capable of going out there. We know what we can do and we know what our abilities are, so at this point it's just going out and executing on every drive we have."

On if the game felt like a lost opportunity: "I felt like the game was there and there were a lot of plays left out on the field. But then again, it's on us because we didn't finish."

Rutgers Quarterback Giovanni Rescigno
On if he felt like he gave the team a spark when he came in: "I just wanted to come in, give it my best and give my team a chance to win. Once coach called my name to go in, I was prepared to go in. I'm really proud of the team and how they worked. We just have to get better."

On playing in the game: "I've been preparing the whole season for when my name would be called. I've taken care of my reps in practice and waited for my chance so when coach called my name, I was more than prepared to go in."

On what happened on the interception: "We just need to take care of the ball better. All in all, we just have to keep getting better for next week. It just didn't work out the way we wanted to. We just have to get over it and move onto the next play."

Rutgers Safety Anthony Cioffi
On how the defense played today: "I feel like we had spots where we did very well. We had some three-and-outs, the interception which was big and stepped up on some missed field goals. I feel like we played alright."

On keeping the momentum up on defense: "We just went out and did what he had to do. We knew that the offense needed the ball. They had a lot of momentum on their side so we needed to get them the ball."

On dealing with adversity: "We love our brothers no matter what happens. We're still pulling for each other. If momentum swings our way, it's great. I feel that if we're grinding on all cylinders - offense, defense and special teams - we're hard to stop."

Illinois Head Coach Lovie Smith
Opening Statement: "Whenever you take the ball away five times and have two fourth down stops, you should be talking about a win. Rutgers played hard throughout. Just some tough breaks for them. Defense wise, our guys stepped up, Darius Mosely, we started him for the first time in the nickel position and that was probably the play of the game, that long interception return. He did a great job returning punts too. Times like when you have a four-game losing streak going, you need to have someone elevate their game. He did. Offensively, Chase (Crouch) kind of picked up where he left off from last week. Just tough play from the quarterback position. We didn't score as many points as we wanted to. We'll keep building on with him. Running back wise, Ke'Shawn Vaughn getting in, of course that was a big play. We had some individual efforts that gave us a chance to win. I thought the defensive line did a good job rushing. Carroll Phillips coming in, playing the second half. Dawune Smoot, his normal game. A lot of things to like. I didn't like missing those two field goals. There are some things to clean up, but we'll take the win. A road win is always hard to come by.

On getting the first Big Ten win: "Just a win. It's been a long time, since the first game of the season. Just that and to get a road win too. There's a lot of history in this stadium. First time for our guys in this stadium and for our guys to come get a win should give us some confidence going into next week.

Update on quarterback Wes Lunt's status: "We didn't dress (Lunt). He wasn't ready to go. He's making progress. We decided to hold him this week."

On quarterback Chase Crouch's shoulder: "If he was hurt, we wouldn't have him out there playing. Did he take a few shots? Yeah. There's some soreness. Quite a few guys have that. This was a physical football game."

On running back Kendrick Foster: "Pleased. I think I've said that quite a few times with Kendrick. Again, the running back position, all three of those guys have found a way and they all had big plays today. Reggie Corbin, he had two. We talked about Ke'Shawn Vaughn. We've been getting great play from that tailback position.

On showing multiple back sets: "We're trying to get our playmakers the ball, but we have some receivers that can catch the ball. As much as anything, we want to have balance and keep defenses off balance. The more guys you play in different roles will do that."

On the first half penalties: "We're constantly coaching up penalties. Sometimes you don't get that done. There were some bad penalties in the first half. It comes to a point where you need to show more discipline. Again, I'm not talking about all the play hard penalties, some of the post, pre snap we have to eliminate. Looking at the glass half full, we did a lot better job in the second half in all areas.

On forcing turnovers: "I think when you take the ball away five times, most of the time that says win."

On starting new guys on defense: "Trying to find combinations to win football games. There are different reasons why you like games playing. Maybe a player hadn't played as well as we need at the position, somebody else gets the opportunity. We've been in that situation a few times. Then you get in the game and you see who is playing good at the time and you make adjustment just like everything else."

On a sense of relief in getting a win: "We feel good about winning the football game, yes. About this one game. You have to celebrate every game to feel good about it. Sense of relief? Yeah. You can give it a few different descriptions. There definitely was a lot of excitement. There's nothing like seeing a locker room after a big win and that's what we had today. We want it to become more than an every once-in-a-while thing."

On the mind set coming into the game: "For us, we go in thinking every game is a winnable game. It was about us eliminating some of the mistakes whether it be penalties and not finishing a football game. The last couple of week we had opportunities to win against a top 10 team and last week at home. It was about finishing today. We finished today."

On putting the game away in the fourth quarter: "Very pleased. It takes a while to build a program. That's where we are. We found things out each week. We have gotten better each week. Eventually if you continue to get better and do some things right, eliminate some of things that are bad that you are doing wrong, you win football games."

Illinois Quarterback Chayce Crouch
On first career start: "It is always good to come here and get a win on the road, any win regardless, but a win on the road is something special. It was good to get the first start out of the way and come into an environment on the road and get a win."

On when he found out he was starting: "Truthfully, I didn't really find out until the other day, but throughout the week Wes (Lunt) wasn't practicing so it just made sense."

On nerves: "You always have a little bit of nerves. We really stress coming in as a unit and we're not individuals, we're a team. When you have guys like the dudes we have on our team with you, it makes it easier not to be as nervous."

On quarterback Wes Lunt: "He was my roommate at the hotel. It's the same friendship we've always had. He would go over the series with me at practice before we would run them. He would try to help me out. He's doing good. He feels great."

On the importance of the win: "I think this is our first road win, where we've taken a plane to the road game, in a while. Regardless, it is tough to win football games. It was a big time win."

On improving the offense: "We have to start a little faster and put up more points in the first half. We came out in the second half strong and that showed a lot. Our coaches made great adjustments and as players we took what they told us and brought it on to the field."

Illinois Center Joe Spencer
On needing this win: "It was time to get a W, let's just say that. It was time to get a win. We came in and took care of business. I'm very happy for the team. Chayce [Crouch] did a great job back there. Defense did an amazing job with five turnovers. Now we are getting ready for a big one next week."

On taking care of quarterback Chayce Crouch: "There were a couple of times that we needed to do better in protecting him. Chayce did a good job. He's a fighter. He's a battler. People have said he reminds them of Reilly O'Toole and I think that is a great comparison. Those guys put their heart in every play. It's great to see and have back there. He did a great job coming in for Wes (Lunt)."

On what this win does for the team: "In college football getting a win is probably the hardest thing to do. Just to get a win and walk away is great. Not everything is going to be pretty. There is a lot we need to work on. We need to get our hands inside and communicate a little better. A win is a win and we're going into the second half of the season with some energy."

Illinois Defensive End Dawuane Smoot
On the first Big Ten win of the season: "It's crazy. It's like getting a big monkey off our back. It just feels good finally getting this win. It is like a relief."

On the importance of the win: "It is definitely important. This is the starting point, for us to get this win."

On nerves in the second half: "I don't think we were nervous, we just knew we had certain things to do. We had to make a couple changes and stop them. We were able to do that."

On forcing turnovers: "We attribute that to working in practices and focusing getting off the field. We were able to execute.

On first sack: "I can't even explain it. It's been a long time and I've been close in a bunch of games. It feels great."

On true freshman defensive lineman Kenyon Jackson: "He's been great. It is giving him experience he needs going into the next three years of his college career. It's great getting out here freshman year and getting as much reps as he has."

Illinois Running Back Kendrick Foster
On what worked today: "I think we started to be confident in our scheme and ability to run the ball. Especially with Chayce [Crouch] being another threat to run the ball and his ability to pass the ball as well. We wanted to put our foot on the gas pedal. We have been hurting ourselves in the fourth quarter, and we knew we were a better team that what we were presenting out on the field."

On the importance of this win going into the second half on the season: "It is very important. We were on a losing streak and now all it takes is one win to get on a winning streak. This is a great feeling for all of us. We haven't had this feeling for three weeks now. It gives just another boost of confidence to the guys up front and the whole morale in the locker room. It means a lot to know that we are good in the Big Ten and we just have to keep fighting."

On first career start: "It was fun. I'm not the one to complain about where my spot on the team is. I'm just making the best of my opportunity and praising God."

On how rewarding this start was: "It's very humbling. I went through a lot of trials and tribulations. I'm focused on the season now. I'm more mature now. I'm a redshirt junior and 22 years old, I'm too old to worry about the past."

On a sense of relief: "A big weight has been lifted off our shoulders. The defense played great with five turnovers. The whole morale in the locker room it brings a positive attitude. It is a monkey off our back for sure."

On defense forcing turnovers: "We put our defense in a couple bad spots, but it helps us a lot if we can get turnovers and score at the same time. We can put pressure on teams."

On scoring early in the second half: "It felt great putting pressure on the other team. It gives us a great confidence boost and showed that we can play in the Big Ten. We are good, we are just not presenting to our standards. We have to do a better job. I'm happy with the win and my team and I are enjoying it. We are just going to get better from here."

Illinois Running Back Reggie Corbin
On what worked in the running game: "Just staying true to our offensive line. As always they had a heck of a game. They were so focused on this game all week and to make things right."

On feelings after the game: "Everyone is happy and enjoying the moment. We are all fresh at all times and it's a great thing."

On how quarterback Chayce Crouch played: "Amazing. He controlled the team and ne had a heck of a game. His confidence is building."

On the crucial touchdown to start the second half: "We had to come out strong. That is a big part of winning football games, especially when you get the ball at the half. It was a big accomplishment. It was nice."

On the defense forcing turnovers: "It was good. I knew it was going to happen. It was expected."