Everything Rutgers Football HC Greg Schiano said ahead of Maryland game week
Rutgers Football head coach Greg Schiano met with the media again today as the Scarlet Knights prep for the upcoming game against the Maryland Terrapins this upcoming Saturday afternoon inside of SHI Stadium.
Full Press Conference Transcript
All right, guys, thanks for coming out. Appreciate you covering us. So, great opportunity here with Maryland coming to town.
You know, we came out of the Illinois game. It was a physical game. We’re a little banged up, but we’re going to rally up and get ready to play.
And by Saturday, our guys are going to be prepared and physically and mentally and emotionally ready to go and give it every ounce of energy we got. So, with that, I’ll open for questions.
You’re a defensive coach, obviously. Has this year been more frustrating than others just not being able to get that side of the ball going for you personally?
GREG SCHIANO: “You know, when you’re as a head coach, as many years as I’ve been, you kind of lose that where you’re offensively or defensively or special teams. You become everything after a while, right? Did I come up in the ranks as a defensive coach? Absolutely. I love defense.
I think we’re getting better on defense. I just think that until you make some big steps, it doesn’t show in the results, but there is incremental improvement going on all over the place. I’m hoping that this week it surfaces in a way of results.
It did a little bit at Purdue. We’re a little bit better. We’re actually a little bit better at some things Saturday, believe it or not. It’s just the talent of the guy behind center really kind of negated whatever improvements we’ve been able to make. Like he was special from the first drive on, you know, so, but that’s life. You know, that’s what you play in the Big Ten and we just need to get better.
We’re to the point where we can do it against that level of competition and be successful defensively. So that’s our hope this week. Certainly have a huge challenge.
Young quarterback, but immensely talented. We know him well. We recruited him out of Bishop Spalding High School. Great program down there. Malik is everything you want in a quarterback. He’s big.
He’s strong. Got great arm talent. Tremendous human being. Everything that, everything you want in a quarterback. So we have our hands full. Certainly, they had a tough game against a very good Indiana team.
So both teams are going to be looking to come out and rebound and that’s going to be the great challenge that we’re up against. And on actually their quarterback, does anything that he does as a freshman really impress you that you look at the film and you say, wow, for a guy his age, that’s pretty impressive and something else. Yeah, a lot of things. Yeah, that’s the reason that he’s playing. I mean, they have other quarterbacks in the program. He’s just, he’s really good player and arm talent, foot talent.
Noggin the whole deal. I think he’s, you know, we thought that of him coming out of high school. We thought he was the complete package.An incredible human being too. So when you put all that together, it’s what you look for in a quarterback.”
Greg, a repeated pillar of the Rutgers culture is chop, guys focusing on their job a hundred percent of the time. There’s been a couple mental errors here and there. What do you think guys aren’t living up to that chop mentality?
GREG SCHIANO: “Well, chop is absolutely what you say, Richie. It’s the ability to stay focused on the spot over and over and over again. But human beings aren’t perfect, right? So when you make mistakes as coaches, you have to evaluate the reason. Sometimes we’re the reason, right? So we have to change something we’re doing. Sometimes it’s the player that’s the reason.
Sometimes it just happens. Things, you know, sometimes the opponent makes you make a mistake, but you constantly evaluate and you just try to fix. You know, that’s what I think coaches do is they identify and then fix.
I know the defensive line has put up the raw gaudy numbers, but a guy like Eric O’Neill has really come up and made some big plays in the last few games. How have you seen him grow as a leader in that room and as a player since he’s gotten here?
GREG SCHIANO: “I think what Eric’s tried to do is really rise to the occasion of Big Ten football, and I think he’s doing that every week better and better and better. He’s making plays.
As you said, I thought Saturday may have been his best game as a Rutgers player. Very productive. And I love the way he approaches things. He’s an all about it football player. He loves football. And I do well with guys like that.
Maryland secondaries long, athletic, makes a lot of plays. What have you seen from them? And will this be one of the toughest secondaries you’ve played so far this year? Without a doubt. I mean, they lead the nation in pick sixes.
They have 15 interceptions in eight games. That’s it. That’s outstanding, right? And that’s that’s an elite level and you hit it on the head.They’re long, they’re athletic. They’re very well coached. I can see that, you know, I look and they understand passing concepts.
They understand quarterback play. They’re very disciplined in their technique. I think it’s without a doubt one of the best secondaries in America.
The offense hasn’t been playing at its best in the recent weeks. How do you feel like the two tackles Mo Giwa and Tyler Needham adjusted to having, you know, Needham having to move over from left to right and then Giwa obviously getting the start on Saturday.
GREG SCHIANO: “Yeah. I mean that that was the, you know, what we needed to do to get what we believed was the best five on the field at once, right? Certainly not ideal that that Tyler has to jump to the other side. All in all, I thought Mo for his first start did a very good job. I mean, you’re talking about a guy who was playing one double-A football, you know, less than a year ago and now all of a sudden he’s starting left tackling the Big 10.
So, I think, you know, again now, how can he grow? How can you build upon that this week? That’s going to be the the real question and one we have to get an answer to, right? How do we make them better, incrementally better by Saturday?
Colin Weber’s been starting to make a little bit of an impact more and more for the offense. But when he came here, he talked a lot about culture, about fit. What did you see from him on the flip side that made him a natural fit for the program?
GREG SCHIANO: “I love the kid. I mean, just from the minute I talked to him, he was driving home from, he was driving home from from Charlotte to Michigan and we talked on the phone for like 40 minutes and I hung up the phone like, you know, what have you been doing as long as I have? I turned to Eric Joseph, said we got to get that kid. That kid’s got to be on our team. And I was so excited when he decided to come here, you know, it would have been easier maybe to go to Michigan State or somewhere closer to home and the fact that he came here meant a lot to me and he’s been a tremendous fit, a tremendous addition to the offense. We’re fortunate to have him.”
I know you’re busy, but I guess you’re not surprised about Kyle Monangai’s performance this past week?
GREG SCHIANO: “Oh, I was so excited. Everybody was texting me, you know, and I had texted him before the game, like just what I used to tell him before we played. No, no flowery message. And it was funny. He hits me back with the same thing you say back to me and I was not shocked one bit.
As I’ve said to everybody, when he was coming out and some listened and some didn’t, was the way he runs, the way he ran in the Big Ten is exactly how he’s going to run in the National Football League and having coached in the National Football League. I know what works in that league at running back and he’s what works. He is, I heard their coach on one of the clips say he’s hard to take down.
That’s who Kyle is. You know, he’s not going to, I told him, they’re not going to be 4-4. That’s not who he is. He’s hard to get down and really pleased for him, pleased for the Bears. You know, I have special place in my heart for that organization, worked there early in my career. I was really excited when Kyle got his opportunity there and excited for him now.
What have you seen from Farrel Gnago and the way he’s taking advantage of the opportunities he’s gotten?
GREG SCHIANO: “Very good, very, very good young talented player. He’s only going to get better and better.
I can’t wait to see him after an offseason with Coach Brown in the weight room. He’s already made huge strides, but as you can tell, he’s very comfortable out there. He’s a mature guy.
I know you probably, you know, he got, I think he visited with you guys after the game, right? At the podium or no? No, okay. I thought he did that. Oh, last week.
Okay, I get confused, but a very, very smart kid and a really fine athlete.”
The Big 10 designated this game against Maryland as a rivalry. What are your kind of thoughts on the Big 10 designating rivalries? And do you think this could be a trophy game?
GREG SCHIANO: “I know we ask you this every year. Yeah. Again, I think we’re such neophytes in this league and until you win games at a consistent rate over time and you have contests with people, who knows it could, right? Right now, we’ve been, we played each other five times that they have the lead three to two, right? So could that become when you go back and forth and you go back and forth in recruiting, could that become a rivalry? Sure. I don’t think you can tell somebody this game’s a rivalry.
I know, I know the reason we do it and I’m fine with that, but rivalries happen organically over time and usually they’re over tough ballgames, tough recruiting battles, but we’ll see. I’m worried about one thing, 2.30 kickoff, having this team ready to go and all the rest of the stuff is fluff.”
This is probably more of an off-season big picture to look, but having lost Doug Blue-Eli live for the season, having Darold DeNgohe miss five or six games, having Braxton Kyle out for the year. How much do you think those injuries, interior of the defensive line, have impacted the defense’s ability to play this year?
GREG SCHIANO: “I think every time you lose a talented player, it has an effect, but you’re right. That is a hundred percent an off-season question. And look, there’s a lot of things that are off-season questions.
Right now, we have one thing, one mission, and that’s 2.30 Maryland and the week, the time that we have to prepare that’s left, but certainly we’ll talk about all that. I don’t mean to sidestep your question, but now it’s blinders. Thank you guys.”
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