	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 5, 2016

Chris Ash

Piscataway, New Jersey

Indiana - 33, Rutgers -27

COACH ASH: Obviously disappointed in the outcome of the football game. Thought we had a chance there as we got into the second half. Just didn't make the plays we needed to. Winning is really, really hard, and we've got to pay attention to the details and be able to go out and coach better and help our players execute better.

We've got to be better in special situations and we've got to be better on special teams. Those things right now are hurting us. Hurt us in this football game. Really proud of our players's efforts. They strained. They worked extremely hard in a bye week. They practiced extremely hard this week.

I feel for them, because they are laying it all on the line. I've got to do a better job of coaching them in certain areas. We've got to do a better job of coaching them in all three phases and we've got to do a better job of executing some calls, also, when we are out there on the field.

But love our guys. These guys show up every single day. They show up with a great attitude, great effort. They are playing with a lot of energy. They are trying to stay focused. It's been a tough stretch but they are staying focused and we've just got to be able to go out and make it happen on Saturdays better.

You look at the football game, I thought defensively, it was a major emphasis to stop the run. It was one of our better rushing defensive days. After they came off of rushing for 414 yards or whatever it was last week, that was obviously a major emphasis. It's been a weakness of ours, and we got a lot better in that area. In the pass game, you see that they threw for a lot of yards and they beat us in a lot of one-on-ones, and we are right there and that's what we do. We play an aggressive, tight coverage, and you know, it's about being able to win your one-on-one battles and we were not able to do that consistently today, and obviously the yardage doesn't look good.

Offensively, biggest thing that jumps out is third down. Talk about special situations: We are one of 16 on third down, and the defense was out there a lot and we've got to be able to get some first downs, and that means you've got to be move the six on third down. We did not do that today, and there were a lot of reasons for it; a lot of issues with protections and stuff like that.

And I'll give my credit to Indiana's defense. They played extremely hard, also. They played an outstanding game; to be able to get the turnovers that we were able to get defensively and just not be able to capitalize on all of them was unfortunate, and a lot of that goes to Indiana's defense, gave great effort. We just struggled to get some things going, especially in the second half.

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

Q. Obviously it's not all the same game but there's been four where I think you guys were right there, four winnable games; does that compound the frustration that it seems like it's something each week?
COACH ASH: Yeah, I mean, it's frustrating because again, I like our preparation. I like our kids' attitude and their effort. We've just got to get better in a lot of areas, and until we do that, we won't be good enough to win games.

You know, right now, we're not, unfortunately. Does that mean we won't here really soon? No, it doesn't. A lot of people think we're a long ways off. We're not. You look at the Big Ten -- take out the Ohio State, Michigan game, but you look at Iowa, you look at Illinois, you look at Minnesota, you look at Indiana. That's four games that we were really competitive in. Three of those teams will be going to Bowl games probably and we're right there with them.

We're for whatever reason, just not good enough to make plays needed to win games, and that's my job. I've got to get that done.

Q. Were you able to do everything you wanted with Gio or was the hamstring still a limitation this week?
COACH ASH: He was limited still but that's not an excuse. You know, Gio went out there and played his heart out. We just didn't make the play that is we needed to on third down to move the six offensively. Running game struggled a little bit today.

I thought we would run the ball a little bit better than we did, and we struggled with that. It's a combination of just some things up front and some things Indiana was pressuring a lot and we missed some things and didn't block the run game the way we needed to.

We struggled a little in that area but there's nothing that I would like to say Gio could have done this or done that that would have changed the game.

Q. You mentioned the running game. If I'm not mistaken, I think Robert Martin played on special teams?
COACH ASH: He did.

Q. But not in the running game, is that --
COACH ASH: He hasn't in the last couple weeks, he has not taken many reps at running back in practice. You know, we were hoping that he would be healthier. He did play on special teams. Did not at running back but that gets back to reps and practice. He just has not been healthy enough to do that.

Our injured players are in green jerseys and he's been in a green jersey for a few weeks. We've got to get him back healthy. I was hoping that he would be able to do more today but that was not the case but he was able to go and do some things on special teams but the reps have not been there offensively.

Q. Overall performance for Gio?
COACH ASH: Could have played better. I thought he did a decent job on some things. Statistically, it looks like we passed the ball okay, 258 yards. A lot of those were at the end and not necessarily earlier in the second half when we needed plays to be made. And it's not just Gio; he was pressured a lot today. We've got to protect him a lot better.

Q. I know you emphasized it so much, the turnovers, you win the takeaways, four to one, five to one, something like that, when you win, you --
COACH ASH: You like your chances to be a lot better. We did get a lot of takeaways today on defense. We got some interceptions. We got some fumbles. We had a costly one there at the end that we didn't get. They fumbled the ball. We work a lot on fumble recovery. We didn't recover the ball. When we fall on the ball and recover it, and we didn't -- that would have taken a touchdown off the board. They got another play and scored on the very next play.

Again, that's what I'm talking about, the little things that we have to do consistently to try to win football games. They gave us the ball on the ground and we didn't recover it, and it's unfortunate. We had a lot of bodies around it.

Q. How important is it for you to win one of these last three games, in the process of showing that you can win?
COACH ASH: What's important to me is that we go out and play a complete game, and we have yet to do that. If we go out and play a complete game in all three phases, the scoreboard will take care of itself.

That's what I'm focused on is how do we get that done. I'm really disappointed in our special teams again. We missed a field goal, we had a punt block. You can't do those things. We have to be able to play a complete game and that's what we're striving to do.

That's my mission right now is to find out how we get that done, and I'm not focused on the W's. I'm focused on getting our team to play a complete game the way that I think we're capable of playing and if we do that, then we'll win a football game.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297