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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEAugust 26, 2019Chris AshPiscataway, New Jersey CHRIS ASH: How you guys doing. I'm going great. Welcome to game week 2019. It's finally here. Seems like the summer and training camp really, really flew by. This is the best time of year. You can feel the energy, enthusiasm for the start of the season while watching college football here this last weekend was a lot of fun, to be able to watch that and looking forward to our game Friday night and football this weekend. Just a quick training camp review. I've said this a few times in the meetings that we've had but I absolute love our guys. I love this team. I love being around them and watching them work and watching them interact with each other. It's been fun here through training camp. I would say this is been the best training camp that we have had on a number of fronts. One, it's the healthiest we've been as a football team at this point. We've only got a couple guys that we started training camp with that may not be able to participate in the game this Friday but will be back with us. Overall we're a pretty healthy football team. I think we made the most improvement during training camp in all three phases that we've made since I've been here, and kind of the fewest distractions, if you want to talk about injuries and things like that. So it's overall been a really good training camp and a lot of fun to be around the guys. Our goal, it says over there on the wall, have 10 units strong and a lot of that has to do with depth. The depth of each unit will determine how far we can go and I feel this is the most depth, if you talked about the 10 units, seven of them I feel really good about our development, and to get to the level that we want and feel good about to make it through the season but that's more than what we could have said in the past. Right now just with our team what I'm really trying to get these guys to understand and live by are two phrases that we talked about consistently here: First one, more games are won than they are lost and we talk about first and foremost the effort that we need to play with, the effort that we need to practice with is so important. Been able to do that and match that with great fundamentals is really important. Ball security is everything. We've talked a lot about that. One of the biggest keys to our improvement this year is going to be ball security and mental errors and not beating ourselves with foolish penalties and then practice, execution becomes game reality. Those things have to show up in practice. I go back through my career and look at last year, the days that we had bad practices, a lot of those things showed up and then they showed up on Saturday. We as a football team, players and staff alike, have to be able to put those things on film and practice to get them to show up consistently in a game. I know obviously a lot of questions about depth chart, quarterback right now. We know what we are doing at quarterback. We have a plan. We know who will start. We know who will play. We are not going to make a public announcement about that plan and who that will be, and hopefully everyone respects that. But there's no competitive advantage for us to do that with the different styles of play that we have at the quarterback position. But we are crystal clear with our team, with our players, on what we are doing, how quarterbacks will be utilized in the game on Friday night. Obviously we will talk about that after the game and as we move forward for the rest of the year. UMass as a team coming in Friday night presence a lot of challenges because of a new staff. Whenever you face a team in game one with a new staff, you've got to figure out what they are going to do schematically. You've got to look at personnel changes and where they may be moving people around and just the overall attitude and identity of the football team, those are challenges. So we are going way back to games that Walt belt has coached in both at Maryland, Florida State and maybe even Arkansas State, special teams coordinator, the D-Coordinator, we have to go way back and look at a lot of things to figure out what they are going to be there at UMass with the players on that roster. That presents a lot of challenges and becomes like a rules game here this Friday. Last thing before I open it for questions, we've talked a lot about this team, it's a different year, it's 2019. I hope that Rutgers fans and people here in Jersey will give this team a chance and come out and watch these young men. These are terrific young people that will try to represent this university and program in a first-class manner with their effort, enthusiasm and just the way they go out and compete every single game day, and I hope everyone will give these guys a chance to prove what they can do here this season. So with that, I'll go ahead and open up for any questions. Q. The quarterbacks, a chance that both of them could play? CHRIS ASH: Well, we've got three guys that have been practicing. So like I mentioned before, nothing is off the table. Q. Overall, three years, it's been 124 or worse, how do you improve the pass offense overall? CHRIS ASH: It starts up front and we have to be able to protect the quarterback. If we can't protect the quarterback and give him some time, then it's really tough to have an effective pass game. That's the first part of it. Second part of it, the quarterbacks and receivers have to be on the same page with what they are asked to do, how to identify coverages, how to get in and out of breaks, be on time with the throws. There's just a lot that goes into that. You know, our job right now, honestly, is about scoring points and however we'd have to do that to score points, we have to score points offensively. Part of that is we have to have a more productive pass game. Doesn't mean we need to be able to pass it every down but we have to be able to get more production and all of those pieces have be to working together. Q. What are the challenges not knowing who the other team is going to have at quarterback present to you? CHRIS ASH: Kind of the same thing. You know, when you look and read about who they are practicing with at quarterback, they are different styles and when you look at Walt bells offense over the last few years, you can kind of tell what he wants to be, but just a question, does he have the quarterback to do that, and we'll find out Friday night. But it does present a different set of challenges because their guys are different, you know, one guy is more probably a pocket passer and another guy is more elusive and he can run and do some quarterback run game things. So different challenges, different things we've got to prepare for. Q. How does the wide receiver position stack up? CHRIS ASH: We do have a lot of guys that have been out there practicing but at the end of the day we have to identify who are the knew guys that we can count on to go make plays and that's really what we have been able to do as we've gone through training camp. There's still a lot of guys getting practice reps but we have honed in on who are the guys, who are the few three, four, five, six guys. Hopefully that list goes as we go through the season, but who are the guys we're really going to be able to count on. Because you guys have mentioned it before, when you've got 15, 16, 17 wide-outs at practice, they are not all going to be able to go out and be counted on and trusted to make plays on game day. Sp we have had to whittle that down and make sure that we are focused on those few guys that can get the job done. Q. You mentioned hoping the fans give this team a chance. Curious if you were talking to them now, what would be the one thing you would say to them that would make them believe that this team would be different than it was a year ago? CHRIS ASH: Well, there's nothing I'm going to say that is going to make them believe it. It's going to be what we do on Friday night and then what we do each weekend after that. So me sitting here talking about what we are going to do, isn't going to do any good. It's not going to make people believe that we're better. It's what we are going to do on Friday and the following Saturdays. But I just want fans and people to give this team a chance to show what they can do and we'll go from there. But it's not going to come from my words. Q. (Off-mic). CHRIS ASH: Yeah, you've never heard a coach start the season saying, man, we're going to suck or we're not going to be any good. We have invested an insane amount of time trying to improve every individual and every aspect of our football team. Again, where are we judged? We are judged by the product that shows up on the game field on Friday night, like I said. That's it. That's our focus and we've invested a lot of time in a lot of areas, physically, mentally, leaf-wise, chemistry of the team. There's a lot that we have done here this off-season as much as any off-season that I've ever been a part of as a coach to try to get this team moving forward. Q. Can you talk about the quarterback a little bit more, and is it a matter of was it a tough decision or just, hey, here are two guys who can bring two different things and we may want to play things a certain way? CHRIS ASH: Well, there's a combination of both. There are a different set of skills that they each bring to the offense. But like I mentioned, I had a lot of fun watching all of our quarterbacks really compete through training camp, and it was a tough decision to figure out what we are going to do, but that's why we took the time to let it play out because in the end, I think what we are doing is the right decision, and I think it will help our football team. But they do bring different skill sets. When you bring all three of the quarterbacks together that have been getting reps, they are all three different. Q. Are they both fairly close in terms of preparation, effort, execution, leadership? CHRIS ASH: Yeah, that part of it, a lot of those things are equal. They are equated. So really it comes down to who has in the end made the most plays and led the offense most effectively in practice. Q. You saw Carter and Sitkowski. Johnny Langan, did he make a big stride the last couple weeks? CHRIS ASH: Johnny is coming out of spring -- we knew if Johnny was eligible, he has a skill-set that we don't have at that position that can be difficult for defenses to prepare for. So we've always had a Johnny Langan plan in case he was cleared, which he was. So we have been working on that throughout training camp. May not be when you guys are there. It may not be with the one offense. But we have been working on things with Johnny all along just in case he got to this point and he was cleared and we were able to use it. Q. Do you feel more confident in the depth, and not just the starting lineup, but overall? CHRIS ASH: Well, it's like I mentioned. The goal is to have ten units strong with the ability to go play, and the depth at those units. We are not, you know, 10-strong in terms of where we want the depth to be but that's not unlike a lot of other teams in college football. You've got your typical elite level programs that might be two, three, even four deep across the board at some positions. But the majority of college football, if you talk to 90 percent of the coaches in college football, they would all tell you depth is a concern, and usually it's at the line of scrimmage. Nobody usually have enough offensive and defensive linemen, and that's usually where the games are won and lost is up front. Q. What's the identify of this team? CHRIS ASH: Well, I'm not going to give away any schematic secrets if that's what you're asking. You know, our identity is going to be our competitive spirit. That's what I want it to be. I want us to -- someone turns on the tape or someone shows up, I want them to see a team that plays with relentless effort. They consistently execute with great fundamentals. They excel at special situations, and we don't beat ourselves, and we just compete. We compete in everything that we do. Q. The mock game over the weekend, how did that go and did certain players catch your eye? CHRIS ASH: It went exceptionally well. It was the fourth mock game we've done and it was far and away the cleanest we've had, which you would hope that would be the case. What I was pleased with was the progression of the football team at each scrimmage day we had in the stadium, whether it was a thud or not, just the game-like situations that we went through in the stadium. Our first Saturday we went out there, the defense handed it to the offense and we didn't play very good. Next time, it was more equal back and forth, and third time we went out for the mock game, it was against UMASS looks, so it wasn't 1s/1s or 2s/2s. But it was the cleanest that we have been in terms of our operation, getting on and off the field, making our calls, penalties, all of that stuff, so I was really, really pleased with what I saw. Q. Avery recently said on of the players he likens himself to is Isaiah Wharton. As a defensive backs coach, what similarity do you see between those two players? CHRIS ASH: Competitive spirit. That's it. They have both got good size. Skill level, it is what it is, but they both competed and they both really worked hard to be the best they can be. Isaiah learned that over the course of his career. I think Avery is a product of watching Isaiah as a senior, and going about his preparation, and Avery watched that and learned that and he's applying that. He started doing that last year, but he's really doing it right now at this point, which is a great thing to see. Q. What's it mean to have him join the team -- CHRIS ASH: Well, he just got out there yesterday for the first day. We recruited him pretty hard out of high school before he made the decision to go to Miami. They decided to come back and join our program. What does it mean right now, I don't know, but we are happy to have him. He's a talented individual, and right now he's probably going to have to sit out and redshirt this year, which is fine, and he'll be in the competition in the future. It's just another example of a young man that's heard about what we are doing in this program and made the decision to come back and we are excited to have him. Q. Talking about the unknown of the you Mass at quarterback; how do you prepare for UMass? CHRIS ASH: Yeah, you just go back to all those games of the places that all of those coordinators have been. Walt is an offensive guy. You go back and look at Florida State from last year and look at the two years he was at Maryland where we competed against him and even back to where he was at Arkansas State. You go back and look at all of those things. You're really looking for common themes that would be carried through each spot or each stop so you really know what he likes. And then you also look for common defensive schemes so you can see how he's going to attack certain fronts and coverages based on similarities of what you do defensively. But we have had to do that for the defense, as well. D-Coordinator was at Maryland so we have gone back and looked at a lot of Maryland tape from the last couple years and then the special teams coordinator came from North Carolina and Arkansas State before that, so we have gone back and researched all three of those places for all three of those coordinators. Q. (Off-mic). CHRIS ASH: I would hope he'd be able to do that, but you never know. All right guys, thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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