Rutgers Football HC Greg Schiano's Purdue Postgame Press Conference
Rutgers Football head coach Greg Schiano met with the media following the Scarlet Knights’ 27-24 win against Purdue on Saturday afternoon inside of Ross-Ade Stadium.
Following the game, Schiano spoke with the media to offer an immediate reaction to his program’s performance and talked about what he saw in the eighth game of the season.
Full Press Conference Transcript Coming Soon
Well, I appreciate you guys coming out here and covering us. I know these trips aren’t easy, and it does mean a lot to us to get you guys to cover us and get our word back to our fans, so thank you, appreciate it. Certainly really, really proud of our players, our coaches, and really everybody associated with the program.
It’s been a tough, tough stretch. I’m not a big believer in should’ve won this or should’ve won that. There’s one winner and there’s one loser, so do we have our feelings about some of the games we’ve lost? Yeah, but it doesn’t matter.
Today I was really proud of our program, everybody, the way they chopped. Every time we got a little momentum, it felt like we lost it. But that’s the true test.
We do something in the winter called mat drills, which is a real hard conditioning, mental toughness. We call it chop training. Today, the whole game felt like mat drills, but it’s great for our players.
It’s a life lesson, right? When things aren’t going your way and things are going against you, you just keep going. And I’ve always told them the same thing. I can’t guarantee you that it’s going to work if you do what I ask you to do, but I can guarantee it won’t work if you don’t.
And these guys, I’m really proud of them, so I’ll try to answer your questions. Greg, you seemed very emotional at the end of the game. What was going through your mind? What were you thinking? What were you feeling as you see the ball go through the upright? You know, I just wanted these kids and the coaches, I got to tell you, the staff, everybody who works their tail off, I’ve had success.
You know, I wanted it for those players so badly because they have not balked at one thing we’ve asked them to do. And you know, you lose four games in a row, I mean, that’s hard with a bye week in there. I mean, it’s just, that’s a long stretch and there’s reasons that people can start to say, why should I do that? And are we perfect? No, but I am so proud of the way that they just kept chopping and that’s why I was, you know, and I can’t lie either.
This may be the hardest I’ve worked in a week of football in my life, so when that thing went through, I think the complete exhaustion hit me. I can’t wait to hit the plane and go to sleep. Jay Patel’s obviously had some, he’s had some tough moments this season.
I guess to see him come through like that in high pressure situations late in that game, what was that like for you? Because I know how much, you know, you’ve talked him through this. Again, it’s like, there’s a lot of those examples out there that guys that just kept, you know, it sounds cliche, right? But kept chopping. You know, Jay had some struggles and to go out there and make them and clutch situation like that, really, really happy for him, you know, happy for his development and I think this will help him.
You mentioned this is the hardest week you’ve had in football. Can you take us through what you did this week and how involved you were with the defense today? It looked like you were more talking to them on the sideline and things like that. Yeah, I mean, there’s so many things that go into being a head coach.
You know, nothing stops just because you’re losing. Recruiting doesn’t stop, NIL doesn’t stop, none of that stuff stops. Your offense, your special teams, kids’ problems, you know, guys, when you have, you know, whatever it is, 200 people that you’re responsible, maybe more, think about how many issues come up on a daily basis.
And as the head coach, that’s your job. So to handle all that and then take on a little maybe additional responsibilities or more time, really. All the work, guys, the work gets done Sunday through Friday, really, Sunday through Saturday, right up through, but, you know, the other stuff, the game itself is the culmination of all that work.
So that’s kind of what, I mean, there’s some late nights trying to just get it down to bare bones and see if we can’t just go play really hard. We made mistakes today, believe me, but there were some things that we did, you know, one for nine on third down. I mean, that’s the game.
You stop them on third down, you get off the field, you know, we’ve had trouble doing that. And then the last, you know, at the end, getting off the field, you look at offensively, I mean, it was bombs away, you know. The guy I’m really super proud of is Benji, Sean Benjamin.
I mean, there’s a guy who chopped. He very easily could have said, well, you got Sam Brown here, you got Antoine. I’m going to, I’m going to go somewhere else.
And he and I had a really, really pointed conversation last year. And I told him, you stay here and I guarantee you, you’re going to be a really good player. I can’t tell you how happy I am for him trusting us and then him going out and doing it.
So those are the, those are the things that keep you coaching, you know. Were you calling defensive plays? I’m not going to get into who was calling what. We worked at it together and literally, that sounds like a cop out, literally, that was like a staff meeting during the game with the players.
It felt like a defensive meeting during the game. The thing that I was so pleased with is how everybody just put their egos aside and worked together. Coach Smith, Coach Sparber, the whole defensive staff, everybody just put, look, we got a job to get done.
And were we perfect? No. But improved. And now we got to take another step, playing a really good Illinois team next week.
And we have to continue to, you know, our big thing, as you know, is incremental improvement. We have to continue to get better every day. You let a day go by where you don’t get better, it’s a waste.
What was it like to see KJ have a game like that with 200 receiving yards and then I guess how close did Ian get to being able to play? Ian gave it every try he could. You know, he didn’t practice. And that was on purpose.
We thought maybe if we just rested, he got blood in there, did some things and, you know, treatment and Alter G and all that stuff, that maybe he, and he gave it, he gave it to try in pregame, but he just, it’s not time yet. So I’m hopeful we can get him back next week. But you never know.
Those are tricky things, especially at that position, you know. Really proud of KJ. I kind of feel like there was a part of Ian out there playing with him today, though.
I mean, those guys are, you know, locked. And but yeah, we’re fortunate to have KJ here. You mentioned it when you’re in four game losing streak, things can be wobbly, you guys kept going.
But did you feel like today was a potential turning point where, you know, now this could rejuvenate the team and if things had gone the other way, things could have, were you worried about that? Just did you think this game was a pivotal moment in the season in that sense? The reality? No, I don’t. Because I think these kids and these coaches, they believe so strongly in what we do. I think they would have just kept fighting.
But man alive, you know, it keeps putting more and more strain on them. And the fact that they got rewarded for what they did. I mean, we’re talking about inches, right? And so many times the difference between winning and losing is inches.
But if you keep going, you keep chopping, you have a chance to get the inch. And that’s what they did. Yeah, I’m proud of them.
Thanks, guys.
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