Rutgers Head Coach Greg Schiano
Q. What's the level of concern with the injuries to C.J. Campbell and Tyler Needham?
GREG SCHIANO: The level of concern is high, yeah, very high. I can't tell you. I don't know yet what the prognosis is. Both those guys are critical, especially the offensive tackle position. We are already down. We're down quite a few guys at the position. But that's it, man. Life in the big city. You've got next guy up.
Q. Do you anticipate Ian will be able to play against Iowa? What's his situation?
GREG SCHIANO: I don't know that. Ian had something happen in the game, and we thought he was okay. He thought he was okay. And then it just never really responded. So we have to see. That's troubling, too.
Q. You've described the defense as a work-in-progress. Now after three games, what have you seen and do you think this group is Big Ten ready?
GREG SCHIANO: Well, it doesn't matter if I think so or not because it's coming, man, six days. But I've seen improvement. Today we took the ball away twice. We did well on third down. I think they were two of ten on third down. That's where you need to be. Defense, punt block is an extension of defense and blocked two punts for score. We're starting to get the hang of it. There's still plays that drive me crazy, and I'm sure drive them crazy. But we've got to just keep working at it, communicating, executing and playing really, really hard. I think they play really, really hard. Sometimes we may be aiming in the wrong direction, and you know, when you go really hard in the wrong direction, you go further away from where you want to be. We've got to work through it. We will. We'll continue to work. Coaches and players, there's a high level of commitment there to make sure we get it right, so, they will.
Q. Last time you spoke, to build on that, you mentioned the importance of takeaways and building the identity of the team. Today with the slow start of the offense and other aspects of the game, they stepped up. Does this only speak to the ceiling of this team and just how productive you guys can be if you guys put it all together?
GREG SCHIANO: Well, that's a big if, right, but absolutely, if I can do it in several different ways, several different areas, when you put it all together and play a really complete game, you ca have a good football team. But we've yet to do that, right. We've had it at one time and not the other. I'm proud of the offense now, three straight games, zero turnovers and when we don't turn the ball over we will a real high percentage of winning, real high. I think we are 19-2 when we don't turn the ball over since we've been back. Someone will say, well, then just don't turn it over. It's not that easy. The guys on the other side, they have something to say about that. Our guys are really committed to that and we've got to keep doing it.
Q. What was the plan heading into the game for AJ Surace and Sean Ashenfelder at quarterback, and how do you feel they executed in their first collegiate action?
GREG SCHIANO: The plan, when you have an opportunity like this, you hope that you can get it to a situation where you can get subs in, not just for Sean and A.J. but for everybody. Didn't happen quite as quickly as I would have liked it to. But yeah I was really glad to see A.J. get in there and do well and run the offense, and then to get Sean in there was icing on the cake, right, to get the three quarterbacks in there. We weren't able to get Rocco in there, which that would have been good, too. We tried to get as many guys in the game as we could. We had guys in there that I'm not sure knew exactly what they were doing on every play. But they were trying as hard as they could. So that was good. And that's a good thing, you know, when you play a game like this, if you can get it to where you want it to, then you can really get guys in the game. So eventually when they play a bigger role, they have been there and they have been in the arena and actually played. So that's a positive. I think A.J. shows why we do have a lot of faith in him. Very cool under pressure in the pocket, and then delivered some nice balls.
Q. I noticed after the game you had an interaction with Coach Vic, and of course obviously he's frustrated. You've been doing this, coaching players, since you were 22. How long did it take you to understand what this whole head coaching thing was about, to learn how to be a head coach and to learn the ups, the downs, all that?
GREG SCHIANO: Yeah, that's a good question. You know, I was a coach, a defensive coordinator at Miami when Mike was playing at Virginia Tech. Have a lot of respect for him and his career. I told him, I said, your team really plays tough. They play a reflection of him, they really do. I told him, anything I can do to help him, I'd be glad to do that. I don't know what I can do to help him but when you become a head coach, there's so many things that you didn't know -- you don't even know you don't know, right. And all of a sudden it's like -- and then when you do it for a lot of years, it becomes kind of secondhand, like any job that you've done for a long time. So I think it's real important that you have good people around you to help you. I know he's got some really good mentors that help him, so that's critical.
Q. What could you say about the big plays the special teams are making, the two blocked punts today, the blocked punt a couple weeks ago?
GREG SCHIANO: Well, those plays can have a huge impact on the game for sure. We believe strongly in special teams. We had some really good plays in special teams today and then we had some bad ones, and that -- that isn't -- you know, I'm more about consistencies than ups and downs, right. So we have to clean some of that up. We've been really good in our PAT field goal operation -- I shouldn't say that. We had some issues. But we've been pretty good. And then today, you know, we had two blocked. You just can't do that. You can't do that as a Big Ten football team. You can't do that. We are going to really study what happened, why it happened, and then get to work on fixing it. But yeah, you know, when you score two times in special teams, that's important.
Q. Six of Athan's first seven passes went to a running back or a tight end more than the first couple games. Was that by design to see what those guys can do?
GREG SCHIANO: It was really taking what the defense gives you. I told you coming in, there's a lot of defense. They do a lot of stuff. And we did not have a lot of material to prepare and even the little bit that we did, there's a lot of scheme. It was really one of those games where you just had to be patient, stick to your rules, and eventually, we felt we could get it going. You know, we tried to run the ball a little bit more today for a lot of reasons, but yeah, I think we have a fun offense to be a part of. That catch K.J. made that got called back, I mean, you know, you don't see many of them in the country, right. He's an elite-level performer and hopefully we can get Ian back here one of these weeks and get going, you know, and have it full force. I know that D.T. will be mad at some of the plays but he's an electric guy, too. And Athan, again, kind of quietly threw for over 300 yards. So, look, we need to go to work and that's what we're going to do right now. I'm going to take about a couple hours to relax and then get back at it tonight and get going because it's a short week.
Norfolk State Head Coach Michael Vick
Q. You played this program twice 25 years ago as a player. How different are they from when they were there to now? Have you seen them play there?
MICHAEL VICK: I mean, as far as I know, I couldn't tell you what I faced back in the day, but you know, I do know, they were a good college football team, strong, had some good players and it was a good test for us, it was a good challenge and I can't wait to go watch it. But for our players, it's got to be a learning experience, hopefully one that they'll take away a lot from. We just have to take the positives out of it and keep pushing.
Q: Most HBCUs are often overlooked, I think that you'd agree, despite the tough loss. How important are these games where you get a chance to play against a Big Ten team?
MICHAEL VICK: These games are important, it's an opportunity to grow and compete hard, and one game is going to set you up for the next, and every experience matters, and so we've got to always go into a game thinking we're going to win. That's always my message to be going to the game knowing that we've got to get better in all three phases of the show today. And you've got to continue to work hard, and to continue to find ways to get better.
Q: You guys really got some success on the ground in the second and third quarters, it's clear a touchdown drive. How can you take the success that you had getting your guys into space and kind of put them into the next games in the season?
MICHAEL VICK: Obviously, running the football. Something we want to do, we want to always try to get Kevon going. But, you know, we fall to these types of defects. Now that you know, you've got to slow it down, you've got to try to go tempo with it and try to find ways to get first downs and move the ball. We use that as a disadvantage in a lot of situations. And so, moving forward, you can't create those types of defects. Every game is not going to be like last week. We'll come back and put it out…. We gotta learn from this one.
Q: Are there any positives you can take away from something like this?
MICHAEL VICK: Yeah, I think just moving the football, we had some good play calls, and missing things. When you start in a 14-point deficit against a team like that, you know. Can't say that we started pressing, but it just kind of took us out of our game playing a bit; we definitely could have slowed it down. We had a drive going, and then we had some penalties and a third and 30, one of those types of situations. At one point, it felt like we had momentum; it was different… Defensive side of the ball, we've got to get stops, and that goes both ways. I'm not making any excuses; we've got to pick up the pieces and find our way to get back up.
Q: It seemed like you and Greg (Schiano) had a nice exchange of the post-game handshake. What did he say to you?
MICHAEL VICK: I love Greg. I have a lot of respect for him. The way he coaches is always offering advice, offering help behind closed doors, and he's just another guy I can reach out to if I need to.
