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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

July 31, 2019

Chris Ash

Piscataway, New Jersey

COACH CHRIS ASH: Looking forward to getting training camp and the season kicked off here tomorrow. Hope everybody had a great summer and well-rested and ready for some football. And as always, appreciate what you guys do and the coverage you guys give us and looking forward to working with you guys here this season.

Just a quick review, last night, most of you guys probably saw on social media, we just had a great event, great moment for our football team when we opened the Brown family locker room last night. Awesome to see the energy and enthusiasm from our players, when we are able to add another piece to our facilities here.

I can't thank enough the people that worked every single day on this project, all the way back when we started having planning conversations, to the design, all the details that go into it, Pat Hobbs, for his persistence in trying to push this thing along, all the facility people, the development team, the workers that were there every single day tearing out the old locker room, building the new one. There's so many people that put in a lot of time and effort and energy into getting that thing done and they did it first class.

Obviously I want to mention a huge, huge thank you to Greg and Anna Brown for their continued support of just Rutgers university overall, the projects they have done at this university, not only for the athletic football in football is just amazing, and then to try to make this place the best that it can be. Last night was just an awesome moment for our team and for them and for everybody that was there. So want to thank them.

I'd also like to give a quick shout out to Dr. Barchi. He announced there recently that this is going to be his last year and want to wish him well here in his last academic year. He's been supportive of our program, athletics and done great things here at this university and we hope he goes out on a positive note.

The 150th, we've talked a lot about. It's 150th anniversary of college football and we've mentioned before that we are excited to be part of that history and we are looking forward to the celebrations weekly throughout the season, not only here on our campus but across the nation to celebrate this great game and looking forward to some of the special things that we have on game day here this season. A couple roster updates and I know you'll ask about some.

Mickens has moved on, a medical scholarship, will not be on our active roster. Lacewell (ph) is no longer with us. Transferred to Garden City Community College, I believe. Langin, you guys will ask him, his NCAA waiver was denied and it's in appeal process and have no timeline, no timetable on when we might get a decision back on that but it's in the NCAA's hands and we'll see where it goes from there.

A couple newcomers. Rambul (hp) will not be here, Ron Johnson, also. He will hopefully be joining our team at some point in training camp but he had some academic things to complete and paperwork that has to be finalized on Michigan's end and our end before he can actually jump into training camp, but hopefully that will all get cleared up relatively soon and he'll be here.

Injuries, you guys know, I won't make a lot of comments on injuries unless they are long-term injuries where somebody can no longer compete. I will make mention that we will have a handful of guys that will be limited or miss some practice time early in training camp due to either post-season surgeries that they had, post spring or something that may have happened over the summer. We have a handful of guys that are probably in that category. The good thing is we don't have anybody right now that has a long-term injury that should force them to miss any games or any playing time once we kickoff.

But 2019 is here. It's amazing how fast the off-season of summer goes. The more you're in this, it goes by faster and faster. New year, new season, new team, new energy and really, really excited about it. One of the things I think is really cool about college football is every year is a new year, successes or failures last year, whatever your situation, it doesn't determine your season. Next guy up mentality when somebody leaves and it's someone else's turn.

I'm really excited about our team, our players and the work that they have put in and how they have responded to last season and really looking forward to kicking off training camp and watching these guys work here in August before we get started late.

Some things that I've talked a lot about with our players or just our program overall, just some of the things that have changed since December of 2018. Staff changes. We made some staff changes, very, very difficult to do those things but I'm very excited about where we landed and I'm mostly excited to see the players respond to the new coaches, new technique, new energy, new voice, whatever it may be with that particular unit.

Roster changes, we lost some guys but we brought some guys in both from a transfer standpoint and new comer standpoint, new freshmen that I'm really excited about.

Scheme adjustments, I think it's been talked about widely about having our offensive coordinator come back for the second year. That's very, very important because we have a guy that understands the personnel, the strengths and weaknesses, and can make the necessary adjustments that we need to for the personnel that we have and be able to put our players in position to have success.

Off-season, we made some adjustments to our off-season, our spring practices to allow us to have more player development, leadership development and culture development this off-season. We had Navy seals come in. We did a team retreat. We did other things with guest speakers that I really am fired up about that I think has helped us move forward both as individuals and as a team. And then just the physical transformation. We played a lot of young players that probably weren't ready but that's what the roster was and when I look at some of those guys right now, some guys have put on 15, 20, 25 pounds from last season. They look much bigger, stronger and more prepared to go out and compete in a league like this. So those are just some of the major things that I think we have been able to adjust, adapt, change, whatever you call it, coming out of 2018 as we head into 2019.

And all of them are just in an effort to push our team forward. We know where we are at after 2018. We know where we need to get to by the end of 2019, and we're trying to do everything we can to push the program forward.

Just a few things on the three phases. Offensively, I know that's a big topic of conversation. We understand that we have to do better. We've got to score points. We've got to be more effective in all areas and all positions, and we're working hard to get that done.

One of the things that we have to do that will probably make the biggest change for our offense -- and we've got to protect the football. Our turnover take away ratio is not where it needs to be, and we've got to protect the football both in the pass game and the run game and that alone will change, you know, the narrative around our offense more than anything else.

We looked at everything from A to Z last year after the season, the goods, the bads, the things we adjusted throughout the season in making sure that we make the necessary changes and it all starts with the O-Line and the quarterback. We have to be able to block better up front in the run game and protect better and play better at quarterback. Everything that we are going to do is driven by those two positions and we know that we had to make some changes and we've done that. We practiced some in spring practice, we'll do some more in training camp and I'm excited about what those changes are to help those players have success.

I know the quarterback is another conversation piece. Coming out of spring I had mentioned that Art is No. 1 on the depth chart and that has not changed going into training camp. We have Carter that came in as a transfer from Texas Tech and Nicole Schneider is an early enrollee, will compete for the quarterback but Art is the No. 1 quarterback headed into training camp and I know you'll ask about a timeline. There isn't one. When we feel comfortable with whoever -- if it's Art, it's Art; and if it's one of the other guys; if it's one of the other guys, and there's a lot of things, but mostly protecting the football and being consistent and can be a leader for the offense.

I'm excited about the room overall and the way that those guys have come together. They push each other, challenge each other and it's made each guy better this summer.

Defensively, hired Andy Buh to be the defensive coordinator, a guy I have history with and we believe in a lot of the same things, coached a lot of the same things and it was a great fit for me, not a lot of schematic changes are going to be made on that side of the ball.

I'm probably most excited about the depth that we have on defense on all positions. We probably have more depth -- not probably. We have more depth on the defensive side of the ball than we have in the last couple of years, especially last year. Defensive line wise, hopefully by the end of training camp we are going to be able to go three deep at most positions and it's going to allow us to rotate guys and keep them more fresh throughout the game and course of the season. We have not been able to do that in the past, especially last year when the season started.

Linebacker, one of our strong effort positions on the football team right now. We have worked hard to build that unit up and create depth at all positions and I think that we have that necessary depth to again be able to rotate and be able to fight through injuries that occur and just have competitive spirit for opportunities to play.

DBs, we lost some good ones but I think we have good ones back and we have players that really shined in spring ball and I'm excited to see them in training camp. You know, young guys, Avery, not necessarily a young guy but a guy we were counting on playing a big role for us last year not only on defense but special teams. Jarrett Paul was a freshman last year and he played safety. Christian, coming out of redshirt, Malik Dixon, we moved back to safety and timber. Those are all players we think have a really bright future and excited about moving forward.

Specialist and special teams, all are our guys are back. I thought that was the strong spot of our team back last year. Good to have Davidovicz back as our young kicker and he will be challenged by the freshman with a strong leg but he's done a great job the last couple years.

We have got Adam Korsak back. I think you guys saw him develop and grow become a pretty good weapon for us and excited.

And then Billy Taylor, no one talks about him because he's Mr. Consistency and he's back again. I feel really good about those three positions and what they are going to be able to do for our football team. With that, I know you guys have a lot of questions, and I'll go ahead and open it up for whatever you guys have.

Q. Do you think offensively you guys are at the point where you might be able to realize the vision you talked about when you first got the job, scoring a lot of points, being excited?
COACH CHRIS ASH: I'll tell you at the end of training camp. I can't tell you we're at that spot right now. We haven't even started practice. We've got a lot of work to do over the next four weeks. I've seen progress being made in a lot of -- developing incoming players and I'm excited about, but we've got to go practice and we've got to go work and it's got to all come together. One of the issues when I talk about just ball security, the other issue, we have to get all other 11 people working together on offense to make the picture look better. That's what we have to invest an insane amount of time in in August.

Q. Fourth year, now the point where the majority of the players really are your guys, how much, though, in that time have you changed as a coach from when you came in here, without having been a head coach to now you've got significant time under your belt and you've had most of these players here for a long time?
COACH CHRIS ASH: Well, it's a good question. I'll just start with me and my personal development. I think any time, whether you're a first-year head coach, fifth year head coach or in your 15th year, you're always doing what? You're always evolving and trying to improve and trying to make yourself better.

Yeah, obviously I think I'm better here going into year four than I was in year one and you know, as a coach, period, when I first started back in 1996, I'm a better coach today than I was then. But what I really probably have done, what I think a better job of, is here is the plan, here is the blueprint, but adjusting and adapting based on the situation, what players do we have, what's required of our team, where are we at and I think all good coaches do that with your unit, with your offense, defense, but sometimes ego gets in the way; this is the only way.

But we're always trying to find ways to get better and improve in everything that we do in the program and that's the way I'm wired and I think I've tried to do a better job of that.

Q. Have you had a conversation specifically as what that means --
COACH CHRIS ASH: Yeah, I think anybody that is in our program wants to see significant improvement. What that is, there's not a number. I know a lot of people want to put a number on it. To me, it's about improving, having your football team go out and having a chance to win as many games as possible. That's improvement. Is it 12 games, ten games, eight games, six games? I don't know.

All I know is we're going to work really hard to put a really competitive, enthusiastic, tough, disciplined team on the field that gives us an opportunity to win every single game that we play. And that's what our focus is. I'm not worried about a number. I've never had a conversation with anybody about a number. We're trying to make our football team as good as it can be and that's our focus and to do that, we've got to focus on our process and that's day one of training camp.

Q. Coming back to the quarterback position, you get a guy like Carter coming here for the summer, what's he been able to do? Is it enough time to learn the playbook and what have you seen from him just in that short time that you know of him?
COACH CHRIS ASH: I haven't seen a whole lot, with the rules the way they are, we can't be around the guys with balls and things like that. He's participated in player run practices that they had in summer.

But until we get a chance to put the helmet on and get the balls out and be with them, we can't give any evaluation other than what I've seen on film from Texas Tech. He's a great kid and comes from a football family and knows the game and studies the game and he's played the game. Until we get him into our system, I don't know what it's going to look like.

He's a kid and competing to learn as much as he can as fast as he can, I can tell you that, but time will tell.

Q. You're obviously very enthusiastic about this team. Can you see in your mind that path to improvement from what you have seen through spring and summer so far?
COACH CHRIS ASH: Absolutely. Again, there's a lot -- just like I mentioned, all the kind of check points along the way to get to where we are at today. I'm here every day and I see our team develop and improve every single day, and I know when you're not, it's hard to see it or believe it or think about what it could become. But every single day, I see the players come in with a great attitude, great focus, great commitment to try and improve, not only themselves but their unit and our team.

That's been fun to watch. You know, when you go through a year like last year, you're not sure how teams are going to respond. You're not sure how individuals are going to respond. Not everyone is made for those tough, difficult challenges, but I can say this football team has responded in the right way. What does that mean? I don't know. I'll tell you at the end of the training camp how I feel going into games and obviously the true measure will be on Saturdays when we play.

Q. How prepared do you think Isaiah is to take on something more? Obviously he showed some flashes last year as a freshman and did some things. How prepared is he to take on something bigger, something more?
COACH CHRIS ASH: I think he's definitely developed and I think he's definitely ready to be a contributor right out of the gate. Isaiah wasn't right out of the gate the player he developed into throughout the season.

We expect him to be an impact guy right away for us. He's got to work on being a complete running back still and that's what August is about. I think he improved some in areas in the spring but he's still got a long way to go to become a complete every-down running back for us, but that's the goal and that's the challenge that Coach Smith and the offense have is to try to make him become that guy, but he will contribute early and often, and it's going to help improve our offense.

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