Greg Schiano on Oregon: "They challenge you at every turn."

Oregon heads East this weekend to face the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on the road. The Ducks were pretty fortunate however drawing a 7:30 PM EST (local time) kickoff. Which for Oregon’s players registers at 4:30 on the body clock.

Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano spoke very highly of Oregon and head coach Dan Lanning. As you’ll recall, Lanning was highly complimentary of Schiano on Monday as well. It’s clear the two have a mutual respect.

This is the first meting between these two teams. Meaning one of them has a chance to start the win streak at one Saturday night.

As you can guess, NIL was a hot topic from Rutgers media on Monday.

Opening Statement:

“Got back Saturday morning, about nine o’clock. Guys had off Saturday and we got right back at it on Sunday and getting ready for what amounts to a really, really good Oregon team. Been in the top 10 for 38 straight weeks. So I don’t know if you have to say more than that, but I will.

They’re very talented, big, strong, very, very fast. Probably the fastest team we’ve played in a while. Coach Lanning does a great job. He’s very impressive. He and his staff, not only are they very talented, but they’re very well coached. They do a lot. They present a lot of schematic issues. And they’re very, very efficient in situational football.

So my hat’s off to them. They’re doing a great job, top 15 in both scoring offense and defense. And then I think their special teams are very well coached. In special teams, they do a lot. So they challenge you at every turn. They’re very talented but it’s something that I know our whole program is excited about having the opportunity it’s great to get back home be with our fans I’ve already announced the sellout which is exciting so looking forward to getting getting into the week and getting our preparation underway. A great challenge for us.”

On Defensive Issues:

“Yeah, I think the biggest issue we’re having right now is there was some explosive plays, right? I think the biggest issue we’re having right now is there was some explosive plays, right? And when you talk about the plays that really got out, there was some unfortunate situations. We fell down twice, which in coverage, if you’re playing man coverage, you can’t do that, but it happened. I thought that they made some really good plays. They had a very nice catch in the end zone. We made a nice play in the end zone and knocked it out. Like, you know, they’re a good football team. They’re a very good offense. We knew that going in. And we just made some critical errors and they capitalized on them, you know, found the open guy.

We had some assignment errors as well, which, you know, why does that happen? That’s the thing we need to get to the bottom of. And, you know, I put it on us. I put it on coaching. We have to get, you know, my job and the coach’s job is to equip and inspire our players. And we need to do a better job of that to get them to do it the way we want. Very talented team, as I said, Friday night after the game. So, yeah, we’re getting better. We did a lot of good things.

On the NIL ‘Gap’:

How wide the gap is really doesn’t matter. That’s where we find ourselves today. Right. So I’ve never believed in that. You know, there’s people like to talk about these gaps and there are, but that’s not new. Like I’ve been doing this 37 years. There’s always been haves and have nots, right? I think the gaps are actually going to start to close a little bit, which is good.

I think Kelly and President Tate fully understand what is necessary. And we’re moving in the right direction. Again, would everybody like it to be faster sure but I also know that when you’re at a program you have to understand who you are and how you can be effective at that program when you try to be someone else or do it some other way I don’t believe that’s effective and I think that’s exactly what we’re doing right now, and I’m very excited about it.”

On Taking the Next ‘Step’ at Rutgers:

“Well, look, I’m not going to get into, in the middle of the season, a perspective. But we came back. This is our sixth season back. And I think you, as well as anybody, because you were covering the team, we’ve made great strides. Where is there? There is playing at championship level, right? And we’re not playing at a championship. Are we playing at a competitive level? Absolutely. But we’re not playing at a championship level because at a championship level, you find how to win those games. We’ve had three games that I thought we had every opportunity in the world to win, and we didn’t, right?

But we’re in those games. They’re competitive games. We’ve won some of them in the last two years. We’ve lost some of them. This year two years. We’ve lost some of them. This year we haven’t won any of them yet. So is it frustrating? Absolutely it’s frustrating. But there, there is no there, right? The journey is the destination.

And there’s a lot of things that go into getting it over the hump. Some of it is coaching. Some of it is playing. Some of it is offseason. Some of it is talent acquisition, right? There’s all that. But in the middle of the year, all you focus on is, OK, who’s healthy? These are the players we have. These are the players we have to go against and the scheme we have to go against. What’s the best way to deploy them to give them the best chance to win the game? Sometimes you do it right. Sometimes you don’t. You have to do it with your experiences and say, this is what we think is best. I think as a coach, once you do that, that’s equipping them, and then you have to inspire them. And I think this team is, once you do that, that’s equipping them. And then you have to inspire them. And I think this team is a very inspired team.

I thought we played our most violent game of the year out there on Friday night. I thought our guys flew around. It was a violent, violent game. And that’s what this is in the Big Ten. And we just need to keep building on that, do a better job getting them in better positions. And let them play free.
Let them go see what they can do. And that’s what we’re going to do Saturday night. I think some fans might see another NIL launch and say, well, we’ve done that. We’ve tried that. I guess if you were speaking to them directly, what about this? We’ve tried that. Where have we tried that? There’s been certainly nights at the Raritan.”