Everything Rutgers Football HC Greg Schiano said ahead of Norfolk State game week
Rutgers Football head coach Greg Schiano met with the media again today as the Scarlet Knights prep for the upcoming game against Norfolk State this upcoming Saturday afternoon inside of SHI Stadium.
Full Press Conference Transcript
GREG SCHIANO: Hey guys, thanks for coming out. We’ve started our preparation on Norfolk State, moving forward. Good practice last night with the younger players, and now today’s their day off.
This is the first real week of school, so now they’re getting into it. One thing about Rutgers, it’s hugely competitive in the classroom as well as on the field. Students that our players compete with in the classroom are really, really bright kids.
Certainly our guys really have to work very hard to compete there. It’s a different world now that we’re out of training camp mode and into the academic year. We have to be real aware of that as coaches to make sure that our guys are getting enough rest, that they’re taking care of all their business, and still being ready to play on Saturdays.
Definitely a switch in gears that way. I’ll try to answer anything I can.
Do you have any more clarity on Dantae Chin?
GREG SCHIANO: Still waiting on some tests, but I’ll try to do that on Saturdays with the availability report. Like I said, he’d be a big loss. How would he have played in snaps when he was out, and he’d be the primary backup? Yeah, I mean, not gonna get into too many. He was playing anyway Saturday.
So that wasn’t as a result of the injury, but then when the injury occurred, then he became a full-time guy. We had a three-man rotation going at tackles. Who else is involved? There’s some other guys that are in the backup roles.
Mo Giwa, a transfer from LIU, and Justin Cesaire, a transfer from New Haven. Those two guys are in the mix, and then some of the young freshmen too. We’ll have to sort it all out, that’s for sure, if he can’t play.
Greg, this week you’re preparing for Michael Vick, the coach, but in the past, you went up against Michael Vick, the player. What was that kind of like in prepping for him?
GREG SCHIANO: Yeah, Michael Vick, people say he’s a generational talent. I think Michael Vick’s a historical talent. The ability that he had as a player, I’ve never seen anything like it. He was the fastest guy on the field when he was running the ball, and he had an arm that still to this day has been unduplicated, in my opinion.
He could flick that wrist and the thing would go 50 yards without blinking. Truly, like I said, a historically great player, and I’m excited for him. He’s got a chance to start his coaching career as the head coach at Norfolk State.
They got their first win, which I’ve watched both their games, and watched this press conference, and I think everybody’s very excited. It’s my job to make sure they’re not excited on Saturday at the end of the game, so that’s my mission. But I am happy for Michael. He’s doing a great job.
Did you see improvement in this game, in particular in the second half, where it seemed like there was a stark contrast from the week before?
GREG SCHIANO: Yeah, I did see improvement. I’ve told you guys all along, I haven’t been shy about it. Defensively, we’re going to be a work in progress. If we weren’t, then everything I believe in isn’t real, right? Because I think practice is everything.
You have cumulative repetitions of doing things right. You get incremental improvement. We haven’t had enough cumulative repetitions yet. We’re getting better. We, as coaches, are getting to know. Just because Rob’s worked here before doesn’t mean that he hasn’t changed, I haven’t changed, we haven’t grown.
Zach’s (Sparber) in the mix. We have some other coaches that got elevated. Literally trying to find your rhythms with each other, as well as the players all being new.
I’ve asked a lot of questions of the players, and they just don’t spit the stuff out like we’re used to, because they haven’t been here long enough. They haven’t had the cumulative repetitions to say it, to do it, but we are getting better, and we’re doing everything we can to accelerate that. And I do think we’ll play good.
If we can stay healthy, I do think we will get to playing good defense here. We have the ability to do it, we just need everybody clicking and doing all the little things correctly. But I do think that will happen.
You’ve talked a lot about dipping up the carries in the run game. During the game, what’s the involvement level in terms of personnel for you versus Coach (Kirk) Ciarrocca and coach (Damiere) Shaw?
GREG SCHIANO: Really, I have a lot of faith in Coach (Damiere) Shaw, as does Coach (Kirk) Ciarrocca. I predominantly leave it up to Coach (Damiere) Shaw, unless I see something, if I have a gut feeling. He and I communicate throughout the game, as do, obviously, Coach (Kirk) Ciarrocca and I. But I would say, predominantly, that’s coach Shaw’s doing. We have a plan going into the game. We have a plan at every position.
Percentages, how we want it to play out. Does it always play out exactly that way? No. Because the game has something to say to that. I think we had 44 defendable reps Saturday. That’s very, very low. That’s not normal.
You don’t go into a game thinking you’re going to have that. So, again, the game will make you change the plan a little bit, adapt it. But we have a plan, and then our coaches do a very good job of executing it.
Coach (Damiere) Shaw has a good feel. Some guys just have a feel, who’s hot, who’s not, when to get them in, when to get them out. So I rely a great deal on him to do that.
Norfolk State has used two quarterbacks in their past two games. What’s the preparation look like for you as a coach, having to possibly face two different quarterbacks, two different clubs?
GREG SCHIANO: Yeah, it’s definitely an added job, right? Because they’re different quarterbacks, too, I would say. I think number four really throws. He comes in in both games and throws the ball very well, distributes the ball very well. He seems very calm under pressure. Seven can throw it as well, but he’s much more of a runner, more athletic.
They do some different things with those guys in the game. Overall, Norfolk State does a lot of football. What do I mean by that? They have a lot of offensive scheme, they have a lot of defensive scheme, and they do some things in the kicking game. Coach (Tory) Woodbury was at Howard last year, so we faced him. Coach (Brian) Sheppard, who’s the offensive coordinator, was out at Minnesota with PJ. He knows our defense and our style of play very, very well.
He’s a very experienced coach. Then Coach Garvin, you look at what they’re doing on defense. We have our hands full with schematically the different types of blitzes they do and the coverages they do. There’s certainly a lot to work on here. Today’s our big game-planning day, and we’ve had a lot of back-and-forth already. It’s just after lunchtime, so there’s a lot of challenges that are being presented.
We’ll work through it, and we’ll have a good plan by the end of tonight, but it’s taking some time. When you look at the way that Strong and Duff are in the process of developing, is there anything that mirrors or brings back memories of some of those great receivers you’ve had here your first time around? Yes and no. I think when you’re able to throw the ball around, it reminds me of that.
When you have confidence that you call a pass play and you think you’re going to hit it, that feels good. That reminds me of it. But these players are so different, and I’m so different.
How many years ago was that? It is different stages in all of our careers. But to be able to throw the ball effectively, certainly I enjoy that.
Ethan’s completion percentage is up significantly from last year. You see improvement from him. Is the weapons around him also getting better? Is the protection better? Is there one thing that you can point to and say that’s why he’s completed so many more of those passes? Definitely, he’s improved.
There’s no doubt about that. We saw that in the back half of last season. He’s continuing to improve.
But I do think the receivers have gotten better. I think the tight ends have gotten better. I think the line is really improving.
So, yeah, I think it’s overall the offense. Again, Ethan being in his second year in the offense, and really if you think about it, it’s kind of like his third year because he had Kirk in Minnesota for a year. So, yeah, I think everything has gotten a little bit better. When you add it up, it makes it considerably better.
Thursday will be 24 years since September 11th. I know you’ve talked about that day in the past, but I’m just curious, back then you kind of had to take a little bit of a break from football to focus on other things. Now maybe you have to educate the guys a little bit on what happened. How important is that still almost a quarter of a century later?
GREG SCHIANO: Yeah, it’s still real important, right? 37 Raptors alums lost that day. Personally, a guy who grew up with two doors down lost that day. A lot of us all lost people that are from this area. And also what it did in changing the world.
Think about how much that changed things, right? You really get a sense of how vulnerable you are. Again, it’s just, to me, a great gratitude to the people who serve our country and protect us, right? I think I will educate the team. And I do every year because most of these kids, if not all of them, weren’t born yet.
So to them it’s just something they read in the history books. But I think being located where we are. I always tell the story.
We stood on the practice fields and you could see the smoke on the horizon. We knew we weren’t playing a game, but our players just wanted to go out to get their mind onto something else. It definitely hits home.
And then a couple years ago, when we were at the pinstripe bowl, one of the events that they did, they took us down to the site and then we went on a tour. I think now a lot of the guys, having gone through that, really understand it much better. But again, half the team wasn’t with us then, so maybe more than half the team.
So, yeah, I’ll definitely educate. But that’s really everything. We try to talk about things in this room as a team, not only about football, but what’s going on in their world, what’s going on in the world.
Because, again, the thing that can’t get lost is we’re educating young men to hopefully become the kind of grown men that we want in our society. So we take that real seriously. I take that real seriously in dealing with our football team.
Football is a great opportunity to educate young people in a lot of ways, not just in competition and winning and all those things. But I look forward to getting back out there Saturday. It seemed like a blink and we were playing our second game.
I’m sure it’ll seem that way playing our third game. And we’re getting better. We just got to keep focusing on the one thing we can control, and that’s the here and now.
There’s a lot of things we can’t control, but we can control what we do now, and that’s what our team’s focused on. So thanks again, guys.
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