Q&A with Rutgers Football HC Greg Schiano talking the Bye Week
Rutgers Football head coach Greg Schiano met with the media on Tuesday afternoon to offer his thoughts on the program as the Scarlet Knights are taking advantage of the bye week.
After the game the other day, you said you’ll have an evaluation of what you’ve seen through the first couple of Big Ten games. What has that process kind of been like?
GREG SCHIANO: “Hard. Yeah, really hard, but something that’s necessary. We have to really dig deep and figure out what we are, what we’re best at doing and then major in that. We’re still in the process.
Greg, it seems like the offense has such a hot start every game and then kind of struggles to get things going in the second half and then picks it back up later in the game. Do you see a specific reason behind any of that?
GREG SCHIANO: “You know, it’s been some really close plays, like inches. As I’ve said to you guys before, the difference between success and failure is oftentimes inches. So we have to find a way to get that inch.”
With the bye week last year, you talked about how the defense kind of stripped it down to the studs, kind of turned things around. Do you see a similar process happening during this bye week and what kind of issues do you think can be addressed?
GREG SCHIANO: “Yeah, we’re in the process right now, so I can’t really tell you because I’m not 100% certain what it’s going to look like. We’ve spent a lot of time together trying to figure that out here since the game.”
Defensively, sometimes from our vantage point, it looks like guys are struggling to find out where to line up or there’s confusion, particularly in the secondary. Is that fair?
GREG SCHIANO: “No, I don’t see that. I think what Minnesota did a lot of is called scatter shifting. So, that means when two or more people move, you know that they have to get reset. So we get set in their initial alignments and then they scatter shift. So then we have to realign and it’s like a whole new play.
Now, I didn’t feel that alignment or assignment was the error. I felt execution was where we… Now, we’ve made some mistakes in other games on aligning correctly. That wasn’t really the issue this game, the issue this game was execution.”
You were frustrated last year with the injury situation and a lot of injuries so far this year. Are you evaluating that at all and what’s your frustration level now?
GREG SCHIANO: “Well, now is not the time to evaluate the why. I think we have some good understanding. You’re talking about ACLs and you’re talking about things that are not… There’s not a lot of… I shouldn’t say that, there’s a few. It’s not like an abundance of soft tissue injuries, it’s more like season ending surgeries.”
In your experience with teams that don’t execute consistently, is there a common thread? Is there like a through line between those teams that kind of have similarities to what can lead that to occur?
GREG SCHIANO: “Not a similarity because it can be a number of things, but it’s usually only one of like three things, right? Either they don’t know it well enough, they’re not playing hard enough or they’re not coached well enough. So, not knowing could be coaching and not playing hard enough could be coaching and playing properly. So, is that coaching? Is that playing? That’s what I was trying to say the other day. Everybody would like to make it either coaching issue or playing issue. It’s an us issue. We’re not coaching well enough because we’re not playing well enough. We’re not playing well enough because we’re not coaching well enough. They all go hand in hand. Then to give credit where credit is due, we play in the Big Ten Conference. The margin of error is very, very small. We’ve come out on the wrong side of that margin here lately, but we need to figure that out. Whatever it takes, whether it’s different or same, we’ve got to coach it better and then we’ve got to execute it.”
How much of this bye week is both preparing for Washington but also trying to get guys back to 100% and how do you balance that?
GREG SCHIANO: “Yeah, well, you know, we have some guys that are playing with banged up, right? So, those guys, we’re going to give them a chance to heal a little bit and we have. Then there’s other guys, young guys that we’re going to get a lot of work, Rutgers on Rutgers work. Later in the week, we’ll start to turn our attention to Washington. So, today was all Rutgers on Rutgers and several guys were kept out of practice to heal up. So it’s step by step and then the end of the week, coaches will go on the road and I’ll go on the road recruiting. There’s a lot to get done before we get up, you know, in full earnest to Washington prep.”
Sam Brown came back last game. What do you see his pull being going forward this season?
GREG SCHIANO: “Not sure yet. You know, he’s a little rusty. He wasn’t, you know, it’s not the Sam. It’s not full steam Sam, but Sam’s pretty good even when he’s not full steam. We need to get him back to where he has true confidence in that leg and we have a plan. I’m not going to share the plan because that would be a competitive disadvantage, but we have a plan for Sam’s return. We’re kind of working that plan.”
There’s no line of demarcation about the middle tier, the top tier, the bottom tier of the Big Ten, but against teams like Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, you guys have been in competitive games, but have been unable to beat them. Minnesota you beat them last year, but a couple games you haven’t. Is there any reason you think you guys haven’t been able to beat those teams in that middle tier, so to speak, of the Big Ten?
GREG SCHIANO: “Well, I mean, any of the Big Ten games we won were those teams, right? So I don’t know if that’s 100% accurate of what you’re saying. We’ve beaten some of them, and they’ve beaten us. If we’ve won in Big Ten, that’s who we’ve beaten. We haven’t beaten the champions, right? So we’ve won some, they’ve won some. We haven’t gotten to the point yet where we win them all, and that’s where we’re trying to get to, but there was a time when we didn’t win any of them. So it’s progress, but not fast enough for me. Not fast enough for our fan base. Not fast enough for our players. All we can control is keep getting better. That’s what we control.”
Just building on what Brian was asking, NIL, how important is that if you’re going to start winning more games towards just the trajectory of the program?
GREG SCHIANO: “Oh, yeah. In modern college football, it’s very important, but it’s not very important starting now. It’s been very important. So part of what we’re living now is what we were able to do with NIL, but that’s okay. I’m totally comfortable with who we are and what we are. We just have to get better, and that’s what we have to do.
The fan base is showing a lot of frustration about games you guys have been close, but not been able to win, especially these last two. I should say I have seen some apathy from people I’ve talked to. Have you sensed any of that, or do you feel people are still seeing the trajectory of the program going up?
GREG SCHIANO: “Well, first off, I don’t read anything. I don’t listen to anything. So I wouldn’t know, right? I live in a cave here and that I do by choice. I read my players’ quotes, I read my quotes, I read the coaches’ and the players of the team that we are playing quotes. Nothing personal against you guys, but I don’t find the need. This is what I do for a living. So I don’t know anything of what you’re talking of. We have a good football team. Is it quite good enough yet to win games in the Big Ten? It hasn’t been. Do I think it will be? I do and I believe that, but I don’t get real worried about that. The only thing that I control is how much I do for the program and then the only thing that every coach and every player does is how much they do for the program.
As long as you come to work every day, come to the building every day, and do everything you possibly can to be the best you can be, there’s nothing else you can do. Are you always right? No, but that’s what you can do. People who worry about other stuff, they’re the ones who get themselves in a lot of trouble. We’re going to give it everything we’ve got, and that’s all we’ve done since the day we got here, and that’s what we’re going to continue to do, and it will get us over the top. I know that, I don’t question that. As things get better, everything gets better. So we’ll be fine.”
We talked a lot about the transfer portal additions on the defensive side of the ball, but you have two new co-defensive coordinators. You’ve got a couple new position coaches. In terms of alignment, how happy are you after five games with communication, with everyone being on board, being able to coach and develop the guys?
GREG SCHIANO: “Well, I’ve said we’re not coaching well enough and we’re not playing well enough, so I’m certainly not pleased, but again, it isn’t from a lack of guys really giving everything they’ve got. So part of it is me, and the big part that I control is me. So I have to make sure that I am giving them the right guidance, the right structure, the right vision, and then I need to rely on them to do their part. As I said to you after the game, a lot of people think it’s coachspeak when coaches get up at the podium and say, hey I’ve got to look in the mirror. Well, the good ones do that, but the bad ones do this. The good ones literally look in the mirror. Now, do I stare at myself? No.
The whole plane ride home, all I could think about was what could I have done better? So I’m watching the tape, and 37 years of experience is writing notes about the plays, because I can do that with my eyes closed. What I’m thinking is how could I have done that better last week? Could I have had a different way to tell that player this technique, so he would do it better? Could I have had a better way to get these two coaches to understand this and see this vision exactly the same? Or did I not present it? So I look at the I first. What did I do that I could have done better? And then it’s my job to evaluate others.
I think it’s a dangerous role when you start evaluating others before you evaluate yourself. So that’s kind of how I handle it. That’s kind of the way I was taught. I’ve worked for some of the best, I’ve worked with some of the best, and that’s how I do it.
So different ways to do it, but that’s my way. Thanks, guys.
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