Head coach Greg Schiano met with the media following Rutgers Football's second and final scrimmage to discuss his team and the resignation of former Athletics Director Pat Hobbs.
"Before we get started I just want to send my best wishes to Pat Hobbs, as you guys know by now Pat's stepping away and I wish him the best with his health and future," Schiano said. "I think we did some really good things together here at Rutgers within the last four years and I wish him and his family the best."
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On the scrimmage:
"We got a lot of young guys a lot of work so that was excellent, we made some decisions and the guys practiced very hard this week, it was a tough week," he said. "We decided to hold a bunch of guys that have hundreds of reps in Big Ten games out and start getting ready for the opener. We'll transfer our focus on Monday to Howard and start getting ready for the opener on Thursday night."
On the backup quarterback battle:
"Ajani [Sheppard] is the backup quarterback and he's done a nice job and getting better," he said. "I thought today was an excellent opportunity, he had like 80 plays so he played a game, and I thought he did well. Anytime you walk away and you don't turn the ball over it's a great day for the offense. Since I'm the head coach I'm not really pleased defensively we got no takeaways, but we did block a few so that was good."
On what Hobbs' resignation means for the program:
"We are vertically aligned, it starts with our governing board and we have a great new chairman in Amy Towers," he said. "Everybody is aligned on what the role of athletics is at Rutgers and how we're going to do it. President Holloway is phenomenal and a huge supporter of everything Rutgers. As the old saying goes 'all boats rise with the tide' and everything at Rutgers is getting better, including their athletic department. Pat won't be with us anymore, but he did a lot of things to help that and whoever becomes the the next athletic director will continue on that mission because I know that our administration, leadership, and board are going to make a great hire when it's time."
On his level of involvement in the search process:
"I don't have any expectations, I'm focused on getting this scrimmage graded and then turning our focus to Howard," he said. "I have a job, I'm the head football coach, and I plan on trying to do that the best I can."
Regarding young wide receivers who are standing out:
"I think Ben Black and KJ Duff's done a nice job," Schiano said. "I think we're a much improved receiving core, hats off to Dave Brock and Johnny Perry, those guys do a heck of a job coaching our wideouts and our wideouts want to be coached. Famah Toure made some great plays today, those are all young football players, and then you saw Deondre Johnson making some plays out there in the end which was good to see. I'm encouraged with our older guys as well."
Regarding his relationship with Hobbs:
"It was good, we worked well together," he said. "I have a unique experience at Rutgers, that whole 11 years and when we started it wasn't very good, not just the record but facilities and everything was awful. When you go through that you kind of build experience and relationships and then I come back out of nowhere nine years later, but there were still a lot of the same people in place, so I think the combination of my relationships and the new relationships that Pat had formed was good for football and our athletic department and we're going to continue going into that direction. Ryan Pisarri was named interim athletic director and Ryan is a football, athletics, Rutgers, and New Jersey guy so he'll bust his rear end to make sure we keep it on track and all the senior leadership team over there in the athletic department will work very hard to make sure that there's nothing to worry about. We're going to make sure this thing keeps moving forward."
On his ideal candidate as the next athletic director:
"I'm not going to get into any of that, I want to coach this team and get ready to play this game, it's already 11 days away," he said. "You always want someone you can work with, who is vertically aligned, and our institution is vertically aligned so let's get someone who wants to join in and just make it better."
On if he approached training camp differently with the early bye:
"I had to definitely consider that and it's interesting because we have a very choppy season," he said. "We have the two, then we play the six, and then we play the four, and there are byes, Friday nights, and cross-country trips, so we've put together a plan for the season, and I'm sure we're going to have to adapt that a little bit because things change, but workload, player load, and all those things, knowing there's a bye after two weeks for sure [changed things]."
On if he has done a captain vote:
"We have done the captain's vote and I know who they are but I haven't announced them to the team yet," he said. "I won't do that publicly but sometime early in the week we'll make that public."
On why most of the first-team players were rested:
"We worked really hard this week, they would have come out and only done thud, they weren't going to do live," he said. "Thud is when you just butt them up but no one tackles or blocks to the ground, but we had enough. It's my job to know what's enough, you can always do more that's for sure, but at what cost? I thought we were tired and they worked really hard, it was humid this week and we really got after it. I wanted them to have a warmup today, take the rest of the day off, then all day tomorrow off, rest and recovery, and then get going on Howard. You're talking about a lot of guys that have played five-to-1,500 reps, some of them have over 2,000 reps in Big Ten games, so I think we're at the point now where we got to start focusing our direction to game prep and I really didn't want to risk injury."
On what he has seen from Dariel Djabome and where he is in his development:
"I think he's made a big move, as a linebacker he's done great and had a really fine camp, and he's been a real standout on all our special teams so you're talking about a valuable member of the team," he said. "He's big, strong, fast, and a violent hitter, so those are pretty good traits for a linebacker."
On if he's spoken with Hobbs and what the conversation was like:
"We've communicated, but it's personal," he said.
Regarding depth at defensive tackle:
"I think we have good depth on the defensive front overall, but it's such a violent position that it changes like that," he said. "You have to have that depth and be developing young players behind them because last year towards the end of the year it got real thin and there's nowhere to hide on either front. When you get thin and you're down to lesser players it changes the way you play the game of football and the way you coach the game, so it's critically important that we keep those guys healthy."
Schiano also noted junior Thomas Amankwaa moved back to defensive back from wide receiver.
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