Q. Where did things start to fall apart in your opinion?
COACH SCHIANO: We gave up 14 points and our defense hadn’t given up anything. That doesn’t help matters, right, to start the game — kickoff return and then an offensive touchdown. So that doesn’t help. But as I’ve said to you guys before, our margin for error right now is not very big. So it’s 14-10. Whatever you want to call it, we block a punt or the guy drops the snap because he’s worried about it, whatever it is. We have a chance to have the ball at 14-10 on whatever yard line that was, 20-something. And they call us offsides. So that’s kind of like the margin for error. Every football game takes on a life of its own. If there was a critical point, you can’t say that you can give up a kickoff return for a touchdown and a non-offensive touchdown and think you’re playing well. But we have an opportunity to go back and seize the lead at that point. And that was kind of a margin of error. From there is where it turned. And that’s where it took on a life of its own.
We’re not quite good enough yet to overcome that margin. We’ve just got to keep working until we do.
Q. Are you still at the point where you look at the program, though, and say I still see good things coming?
COACH SCHIANO: 100 percent. I’ve told you, I see so much promise out of these players. And it’s never a linear ascent when you’re building a program, whether it’s an individual or it’s a program itself. It never goes like this. There’s always ups and downs. And we’ll just keep going. As long as you don’t turn around and quit, you’re fine. You’ll get there. I have that confidence.
Q. What did you see from Gavin?
COACH SCHIANO: Gavin was a little sped up tonight. And what do I mean by that? I’m not sure. I want to watch the tape. He wasn’t as process driven as he was a week ago. Now some of that has to do with the defense. Some of it has to do with the run game a week ago, kind of put us in better positions. But still, we didn’t do a good enough job getting him ready, because when he sped up, he wasn’t as good as he can be. So that’s part of it. Again, individuals and programmatically, it’s not going to be a — he had a really fine game last week. He took a step that way and I really believe he’ll go this way. There’s some lessons he learned in that game that I’m sure he’ll never make those mistakes again. The one interception he has Sean Ryan for a touchdown. He’s got him beat by three steps. And he tries to kind of just lay it in there. In one of the conversations we have all the time is you’ve got to drive every ball. So it’s the same old deal with your kids. Don’t touch the stove, it’s hot. Sometimes they’ve got to touch the stove, okay, that should never happen again.
Q. Those self-inflicted mistakes, the offsides on special teams, the turnovers on offense. You’ve talked about wanting to get better throughout the season. It’s mid-November and those mistakes just keep happening —
COACH SCHIANO: The penalties, I’m not there with you on that. We’ve had some issues this year. Tonight, that wasn’t the issue on special teams. Turnovers for sure — you can’t turn the ball over against a good football team and expect to win. Not fitting a kickoff return properly, that certainly is an issue, but it wasn’t that tonight on special teams.
Q. On the offside penalty, seemed like you were having a pretty animated conversation with the official after that. Was there anything in particular?
COACH SCHIANO: I didn’t see it the same way, I guess. You wouldn’t do it if you were in agreement. I wouldn’t be congratulating that way.
Q. What adjustments if any do you think needs to be happening on special teams?
COACH SCHIANO: Well, certainly on kickoff. We have two kickoffs returned for touchdowns this year. And the that falls on me because I’m the head coach and that can’t happen. So I have to do some real deep dive on that. I know why it happened tonight. But why was it — why did that happen? We know that could happen if you do what we did, and yet it happened. So that falls 100 percent on me. I’m in charge of all those things and I didn’t do a good enough job of making sure that we were doing the things that we needed to do to be successful on those teams.
Q. As long as you’re in this division you’ll be measured against Ohio State, Michigan State and Penn State. Do you think you closed the gap on those teams?
COACH SCHIANO: I do. I think those teams continue to get better. I know they do. You remember Jim, they were ready to run him out of town a few years ago. Now he’s about ready to go to the playoffs. He’s got the showdown next week. The same thing could be said for James over there. There was a time when all the writers wrote about was he’s a .500. Now they’ve all improved. And Ohio State, they’ve been good for a while. Those three teams have gotten better.
As I said when I took the job, we are chasing a moving target and really we’re chasing moving targets. And just because when the divisions end a year from now, you’re still competing for the same championship. If you ever are here and you’re not competing for the championship, then you probably ought to go find an island somewhere and call it a day. We’ll be competing for the championship. I’m confident of that. I said it: We’ll be a better football team and we are a better football team than we were at the beginning of the year. We have had a lot of things go on this year that kind of just get glossed over. I was sitting with the trainers yesterday and talking about, all right, at the end of the year we’ve got to get the surgeries all lined up. There’s only three of them. I said that’s the best I can remember. He said, yes, coach, because we had 11 of them since spring football, 11 surgeries. We’ve had an uphill climb, which there’s no excuses, but it is what it is. As I told you, our margin for error is slim. Today we started out looking like a really good football team and then it caught up to us. So we don’t have right now as much as we need to get it done. We will. I’m confident.
Q. Seems like when the mistakes happen, they kind of just come in an avalanche. I’m wondering what the cause of that is. And it seems like the team kind of unravels quickly. How do you stop that from happening?
COACH SCHIANO: You know what, I think it really has to do with who you’re playing. Like Penn State has improved — they may be the most improved football team in the Big Ten this year. They’ve really made leaps and bounds, as I’ve watched them in crossover tape and things. So when you make mistakes against a team of that quality, it does avalanche on you, for sure. When you make them against teams that aren’t quite that level, kind of just gives the game a bad feel but it’s not like that. We have to figure out in what we do to continue to get better, that will take care of that eventually — when you have more guys that are getting better. They’re capable of playing in the Big Ten East. And then we’re getting them better, we’re coaching them better, all those things. And that’s when that avalanche will stop. It’s that margin of error I’m talking about.
Q. I know this isn’t necessarily about the game itself but you had the decal, the moment of silence for the UVA players. Could you talk about that, coaching young men and what those moments mean for you, kind of big picture beyond the field?
COACH SCHIANO: It’s really sad. Really, really sad that a team, a university, families have to deal with that. It seems so senseless. But certainly the young man who did it has real issues, real problems. I just feel for everybody involved. And it’s sad. We did, along with Penn State, had the same decal on our helmets. And as my wife said to me, you know, she showed me a picture of the kids, like any of your kids on your team. And I just can’t imagine what they’re going through down there. It’s awful. So our prayers are with them. And the one thing that I do want to say here, I thought our fans were outstanding this year for Rutgers. I thought that we had tremendous turnout. Our students today were just off the chain. It was excellent. And I promise them and I promise our fans, we will get there. As long as we don’t do weary of doing good, we will get there. Just can’t grow weary and say, oh, I can’t do it. We can do it. Rutgers can do it. New Jersey can do it. We can do it. We just need to keep plowing ahead. And I promise you that’s what we’ll do.
Penn State Head Coach James Franklin
Opening statement: “Like always, and I know I say this and you guys probably ignore the first statement, but I do appreciate you guys coming out and covering Penn State football. I also appreciate the people that you work for allowing it because the industry obviously has changed a lot. So, we appreciate you guys coming out and covering Penn State football, and the support that we get. We talk about the stats that we talk about each week. We lost the field position battle, and we’re not punting great, we gotta get that cleaned up. The turnover battle we won, which we understand how important that is. The penalty battle we lost by some yards, not total penalties, and the explosive play battle we won. So, those things are positive. Most importantly, we played complimentary football, offense, defense and special teams were all doing what we had to do to win. I must admit that kickoff return was a thing of beauty. We’ve just invested so much time on special teams, so I was really happy for Stacey (Collins) and Eric (Raisbeck), as well as our players obviously. To have some success on that, we hadn’t had a whole lot of success on it yet. So that was big for us. But we’re playing good complementary football. You know, I think we scored three non-offensive touchdowns which is special. We’re playing really good on defense. We’ve done it for multiple weeks. It didn’t feel like that early in the game because of the field position. Our defense was in tough spots from a field position perspective, but overall, we’re playing really well. Defensively, we got 16 different players with a sack. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard that stat before. That’s an impressive stat, we got a lot of guys that are able to contribute, so that’s been awesome. Offensively, early on, if you look at this team from a statistical standpoint, you know, they’re a pretty good defensive team. (Greg) Schiano has done a really good job his entire career with that. Once we were able to make some adjustments in the run game, you know, they outnumbered us in the run game, but we were able to make some adjustments there with our Mike IDs, and then some of the things from a protection standpoint. Once we were able to get those things resolved and I thought we did a pretty good job offensively and moved the ball. We got two running backs that are our racers for us, that make big plays. There’s a really cool stat if I can find it. Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton are the first freshmen duo in Big Ten history with 700 plus yards in the same season which is a great stat. So, lots of good things. Probably the thing I’m most proud of, with the staff and the players is, as you guys know, we don’t report injuries, but we’ve had a lot of moving parts. The coaches have handled it the right way, and not allowed it to become an excuse. The players have handled it the right way. I also think we have some depth, and we got some young talented players that have been able to come in and step in and allow that to not be an issue for us as well. So you know, I’m proud of them, but overall good when on the road. You look at college football, and you know, winning is hard to do. We’re fortunate to be one of those this week.”
On the status of sophomore wide receiver Parker Washington and sophomore linebacker Curtis Jacobs: “I will have to wait until Tuesday to talk to you about about Parker. I want to make sure I’m clear with what’s going on. I have not talked to Parker yet so I’d like to be able to do that first and then I’ll make sure I answer your question on Tuesday. Curtis, you talk about an experienced linebackers who has played a ton of football for us, is athletic, is a playmaker for us and is playing with more and more confidence each week. Having a veteran guy like that back is really good. We’re in a situation now where our depth at linebacker is pretty good. I wouldn’t have said that at the beginning of the season. You know right now (Tyler) Elsdon and and Kobe (King) are both playing really well. And now you get Curtis back. We got pretty good depth really across the board.”
On the team’s killer instinct and stress-free victories: “I love I would describe it like that, stress free, but I’ve got a ton of respect for Coach (Greg) Schiano and Rutgers. They play hard. We’re getting better. We’re getting better each week. That’s really your objective is to try to get better every single week – at home, on the road, conference opponents, whatever it may be. I do think we’re doing that. I think we’re getting better each week. We got a ton of guys playing, a ton of guys getting reps, which always makes me feel good as a head coach. I know how hard those guys in the locker room work and some of them don’t have an opportunity to see the field. It’s always great when we get a bunch of guys some opportunities and some reps.”
On the wide receivers without Parker Washington: “I think pretty good early on. We weren’t in rhythm the way I felt that we needed to be. Parker (Washington), obviously not having him for this game, that’s a big loss as you guys know. A good percentage of our passing game has gone through him not just this year, but last year. He’s a leader for us as well. I thought those other guys did a nice job. Obviously we’re going have to build on it. We’ll see how this plays out with Parker, but we’re going have to build on it. Either way, their rep count is going to go up.”
About getting quarterback Drew Allar a lot of snaps with the first-team line: “Every time he gets on the field, it’s a positive. It’s a good thing for him. It’s a good thing for our program. We’re creating depth, we’re getting him experience, we’re getting him opportunities. I wish we weren’t so banged up on the offensive line so that we feel like we could make some changes, get some guys off the field. I don’t really like having Juice Scruggs in there for the whole game. To be able to get some of those guys in that that you really feel like can go in and still execute the offense the way it needs to be executed. I was trying as long as we could to keep those guys in so Drew could get a true evaluation and a true opportunity. Then at some point we had that we had to sub some guys in there, but overall he’s gotten a lot of reps this. He’s gotten a decent amount of reps. I think about as many games that we’ve been able to have a point differential that’s allowed us to get a lot of guys on the field. Obviously a big part of that is Drew.”
On linebacker Abdul Carter: “I think the biggest thing is he’s really made the splash plays from the very beginning. The thing that probably is hard for you guys to tell when you’re watching the game is, his missed assignments are going down every single week. So that gives you a lot more confidence that you can put him in there, and you’re not only going to get the good plays, but the plays that we have to eliminate as a young player, those are reducing. He’s always been super mature, I’ve talked to you guys about that. He’s very smart. He’s taken really the right approach you know, since he stepped on campus. As you guys know, when you watch him he’s got unbelievable burst and acceleration once he makes up his mind. Whether that’s chasing down a ball carrier or being able to change direction and bring down a quarterback, he can burst. He can burst and change direction and run. So, not very often you have a true freshman, and also one that’s 235 pounds that’s doing it, but he’s obviously been a major factor for us on defense. He’s allowed us to, maybe kind of overcome not having Curtis (Jacobs) for a week. Those things have been really helpful.”
On freshman offensive lineman Drew Shelton and freshman punter Alex Bacchetta: “We’ll see how it works out with (Alex) Bacchetta. He’s got a really strong leg. When he hits his ‘A” ball it’s as good as anybody so we’ll continue to evaluate that. It was great to see Barney (Amor) handle it the right way, come back in and then I think he had a 63 yarder which was huge. Maybe that was the right thing. Maybe I should have done that earlier, but that was a positive. With Drew (Shelton), we had a bunch of conversations. We were going to start JB (Nelson) at tackle this week, but then we still would have been in a tough spot with JB as well based on games. As a coaching staff had a conversation with Drew’s mom, had a conversation with Drew. He wants to play. We feel like he gives us the best opportunity right now and playing seven games as a true freshman with a good percentage of them as the starter, that’s a worthwhile burned red shirt, if that makes sense. So just had that conversation, made sure we’re all on the same page and then kind of go from there.”
On redshirt senior Sean Clifford’s running game: “I think that’s a part of Sean’s (Clifford) game. It helps he even the numbers a little bit when they’re dropping the safety down in the box. That factors into it as well. It’s frustrating as a defense or as a defensive coordinator when you stop the traditional run and you’re able to get pressured into pass and then the quarterback is able to be productive with his feet. To me that’s something that always needs to be a part of our game plan with Sean. That was also pretty cool to see (Drew) Allar go in and go down the sideline for 30 yards or whatever it was at six-foot five 242 pounds. The fact that he’s got enough mobility that people have to be concerned about him too. He does it a different way and kind of runs through arm tackles like they’re not even there. I think that that running game and that mobility at quarterback position I think is really important for us.”
