Rutgers football coach speak: Scarlet Knights prepare for Buffalo

The Rutgers football team has put the ugly loss to Kansas in its rear view mirror.

Head coach Chris Ash, defensive coordinator Jay Niemann, and offensive coordinator John McNulty spoke with TKR and other members of the media on Monday in their weekly press conferences.

This week, the Scarlet Knights will look to rebound against a challenging opponent in the Buffalo Bulls.

See what the three coaches had to say below.

Ash talked about some injuries, evaluating the team, his message to recruits and more.

Niemann discussed the cornerbacks group without Blessuan Austin, who will have surgery on Friday, lack of a pass rush, missed tackles, and more.

McNulty spoke a lot about quarterback Artur Sitkowski, the wide receiver production or lack thereof, and the run game.

Chris Ash

CHRIS ASH: Appreciate you guys coming. New week, new opportunity. And that's what we're talking about, that's what we're looking at. Three games down out of 12, 1-2, we got a lot of games to play, a lot of football to play, a lot of improvement to make. Really still excited about our football team and the opportunities that layout in front of us, a lot of things that we set out as goals for our season are still out there, still obtain able, and obviously got to work and get better to go do it but very, very excited about it. Disappointed about Saturday's loss, just a quick wrap up of that, move on, disappointed in last Saturday's loss, our performance, any time you have six turnovers in a game you can't stop the run it's going to be really, really hard to beat anybody. We have got to do a better job of getting our practice and our preparation to show up on game day. We have had really good practice, great preparation, really have been happy with our players and their focus every single week and that's got to carry over on to game day. We have got to do a better job as a staff and better job as a team overall in getting that to happen. I truly feel we're a much better football team than what we showed last Saturday, have felt that and continue to feel that way and we'll get to where we want to get to and we'll play better football and hopefully here sooner than later. Just a couple things, injury wise, we do have some players that are still week-to-week, day-to-day. So to speak. I know you guys ask a lot about Blessuan Austin. He will have surgery this Friday, they're going to go in and look at his knee and not sure exactly what they're going to have to do but they will go in and look at his knee and potentially have to redo his ACL repair, but they're going to go in on Friday and take a look at Bless. And again some other guys are day-to-day, week-to-week. We are in better shape a little better shape than we were at this time last week though which is promising. Just offensively, at the beginning of the season we talked a lot about how young we were going to be on offense, we have had 21 players that are in their first or second year play this season. Which is a pretty high number. I think we have had just around 30, just over 30 players play total on offense this year and 21 of them have been first or second year players. We knew that was going to be the case, they were going into the season and I talk after games I mentioned a couple times we got to get some of our young players developed and improved as fast as we can so we can start playing better football. Defensively, our numbers are down a little bit, you guys are aware of the off the field issue that we had. I look back at our roster, 38 scholarship players coming out of spring practice as we headed into the summer workouts. 16 of the 38 scholarship players that were on the depth chart in at the end of spring were not available for that game on Saturday. Part of it is due to suspension, the other part of it is due to injuries and we have got to make sure that we get our guys back and are healthy and we're asking some guys to do some things that they haven't done in different positions, play some different roles, and to their credit we have got a very selfless team and they are doing that. Looking ahead to Buffalo, it's a very good football team, it's going to be a big challenge. Lance has done an outstanding job, he's in his fourth year, he's got that team 3-0 this year, they have really done a good job of identifying some players that haven't been heavily recruited, they have done a great job of coaching them, developing them, and they have got a good football team. So it's a good challenge for us, we're going to have to play much better football, protect the football, number one thing that we preach to to your football team to show improvement as we continue to move forward is we have to take care of the ball. We have talked about that since December, we're not sitting very good with the turnover ratio right now, I think we're minus nine, we're not going to win games doing that. That's the number one thing that we talked about, number one thing we emphasize, it has not shown up here in the first three weeks of the season. That has to change if we're going to win football games. So with that I'll go ahead and open it up to questions.

Q. With regards to Bless, is he out for the year?CHRIS ASH: Don't know that for sure, but most likely, yes.

Q. And he had a tweet late Saturday, kind of mocked one of your quotes. Did you address that with him and do you know where he was coming from with that?CHRIS ASH: Bless and I talked, yes. And what bless and I talk about will stay between Bless and I. Bless is one of my favorite players, he's very passionate, obviously going through a difficult time with the injury and not being able to play, he loves football, loves his football team, and it's a tough time for him as he's getting ready for surgery. But he and I have talked and I love the kid.

Q. After watching the Kansas film just what stuck out to you as the most jarring or the most obvious or noticeable things on film?CHRIS ASH: Well six turnovers. I mean that's where it all starts. You just can't do that. After the game I mentioned you turn the ball over and you don't stop the run it's going to be a bad day and it was a bad day. We have to protect the football, we have got to make better decisions with the football at the quarterback position, we can't fumble the ball with three interceptions and three fumbles you're just not going to win games. And for us right now we have to play complimentary football, with our youth on offense and our depth concerns on defense, we have to play well together and we have to compliment each other and we did not do that on Saturday. And again the result is not very good when that happens.

Q. You mentioned your youth on offense you mentioned the issues with turnovers, so are you staying with Art as the starting quarterback?CHRIS ASH: Yeah, like I mentioned last Saturday after the game, we're, Sunday and Monday are evaluation days and game planning days and we are evaluating what we're doing and who we're doing it with at all positions, including the quarterback position.

Q. Just to clarify, you haven't made a decision on who is starting Saturday yet?CHRIS ASH: Just to clarify, we are evaluating what we're doing and who we're doing it with. And we'll, we'll see what gives us the best chance to win as we move forward.

Q. What might be some of the deciding factors to go into naming a starter at the quarterback position this week?CHRIS ASH: Well, right now Art's our starter still, didn't say he wasn't, didn't say he was. He is the guy that has started the last three games. We have to find a way to obviously protect the football and that starts with the quarterback position and we got to look at what we're asking that position to do, so he can get that done. We got to make sure that that's what's in the best interests of the football team and the offense overall. When you look at the position there have been a lot of good things from that position, the most glaring are the turnovers and we just can't overcome those turnovers right now. So we got to look at what we're doing and what we're asking him to do and how we can get that cleaned up.

Q. At the running back position the decision not to use Pacheco at all, what went into that and where does he stand moving forward?CHRIS ASH: Isaih has done a great job so far for us, it's just the way the game was going Isaih one of his things that he's really improved on, had to improve on is his ball security also. Obviously it wasn't going very well for us offensively from that standpoint, I think the offensive coaches just felt a little nervous about putting him in there. Isaih is great, we absolutely love the kid we think he's going to be a really good player, just the timing, the situation, the way the game was going, they didn't feel it was the best interests to put him out there. And it turned into, you know, a little bit more of a throw game there in the second half also.

Q. I know that you're not up to this quite yet but if Bless is out for the year, do you envision a scenario where you would apply for a fifth year for him?CHRIS ASH: You know, those conversations -- we haven't had those conversations are, that's going to be up to Bless and what he feels is best for him and we'll support him in whatever he feels is best for him and his future.

Q. Would you guys consider moving Damon Hayes back to corner back if bless is out?CHRIS ASH: No, Bless has been out for the last two and a half weeks, and Damon has been playing at safety and he's been playing well. If you look at the depth chart there's not a lot of options at safety. We're hoping to get Tre Avery back really soon. Tre Avery, we feel has a chance to be an outstanding football player. He is probably the fastest kid on our football team. During training camp before he had his injury we had him doing a lot of things from corner to nickel to all over the field on special teams, as a returner, we think he can be a dynamic football player and we really need him back.

Q. When you talked to the recruits on Sunday, what was your message?CHRIS ASH: I didn't talk to any recruits on Sunday. I'll talk to a bunch of recruits tonight.

Q. Going forward I mean obviously that's probably a bigger concern than the fans or even the media the outside perception, what's your message to the recruits going forward?CHRIS ASH: The message doesn't change. The reason that recruits have committed to us, that's not going to change based on what happened Saturday. We have a vision, we have a plan, we are working really hard to provide a great experience for these players here, build a program that everybody can be proud of, competitive program, a winning program, they know what we're doing, we have sold that vision, we have sold that plan, they committed to that vision and to that plan. That plan and vision doesn't change. So the message isn't going to be any different.

Q. I know after the game you said you were okay with the effort level. Gave up 400 yards rushing, over eight yards a run. After watching the film do you still feel the defense played hard in the second half?CHRIS ASH: Absolutely. It's no different than what I said after the game. Depth is an issue. And when you've got 16 scholarship football players that were not able to either start the season with us or be in that game, it takes a toll on your depth. That was a hot football game, there was a lot of sit down and get up and go play again based off of the way the game was going with turnovers. Our guys were gassed. On the sideline they were really struggling because it was up and down, up and down. And it took a toll in the second half and when that happens the first thing that goes or a couple things that happen when you get fatigued, like that, one, mental errors, thankfully we didn't have a lot of mental errors, but the other part of it is fundamentals because it's just tougher to focus and execute the fundamentals that are needed at each position, especially when it comes to tackling. Kansas, give Kansas credit, they have got a couple really good running backs and they were able to rotate those guys through and keep them fresh and in the second half they had a pretty fresh running back when they were running the football and it made it more difficult, the most difficult play or I guess the most disappointing play that we had on defense in my opinion was the one at the end of the first half 2:57 left, the score is 24-14, we were almost out of the first half, a disastrous first half, if we could have gotten out that have half at 24-14, it would have felt really good about where we were at. We were able to survive a really bad half. We had, they ran the ball, we ran a call, had a potential for a tackle for a loss and we missed two tackles and then next thing you know it's a 60-yard touchdown. We can't allow explosive plays like that to happen. You're going to miss some tackles every now and then, we also had a mental error on that play, so when you factor in a mental error, a missed tackle, disaster hit and it's unfortunate because at that moment in the game I still felt really good about our chances and our opportunities because of how we battled back and we were able to hang around if in that first half.

Q. You probably talked a bit more about goals than any time than I can remember going into the year. I think winning your non-conference game plan is one of them and then going to a bowl game is another. Obviously the first one is off the table, but going to a bowl game do you still see this program turning it around and is that still an option?CHRIS ASH: Absolutely. Look at Kansas for an example. Dave Beatty's in his fourth year, who did they lose to to open the season? Nicholls State. How do you think they felt after that opening loss? Not very good. Obviously I'm not there, but they must have a pretty good locker room and pretty good relationships in that program because they rebounded and they won back-to-back games. Let's see how their season goes, but they have rebounded, won back-to-back games. You look at just down the road, Temple started the season out 0-2. What did they do just this last weekend? They went and they played a pretty good football game and played a pretty good football team and won on the road. So there's a lot of examples out there. I still, I've said it before I started the press conference, I believe this is still a football team that can play really good football and win a lot of games. We have to play better on Saturday. We have to coach better, we have to play better, and we have got to make sure we put our players in position to have success. If we can do that, and we put all those things together here soon, then we still have a chance to reach our goals. We have seven goals that we set only one of them is off the board, but that one doesn't necessarily, it would have helped us reach our final destination, but that one doesn't necessarily determine whether we can or we can't. And again our focus isn't on those goals our focus is on our daily improvement, our weekly improvement and making sure that we can play better football each Saturday.