Rutgers Football Head Coach Greg Schiano talks with the media on Tuesday afternoon following one of the program's bye week practices.
Q: Is there anybody coming through this bye week that you expect to heal up, or any updates on injuries that you can share?
A: Yeah, I’m gonna defer to the availability report, which will be a couple weeks. Unfortunately, Tyreem, his hand is gonna need surgery, so he’s gonna be out for a while. Probably the remainder of the season.
Q: What will that position look like behind him now?
A: We’ll figure that out. We gotta move some things around, probably. That’s part of next man up.
Q: He’s gotta be down, did you talk to him about it?
A: Oh yeah, sure, but that’s part of the game, he knows that, and we’ll move forward.
Q: How do you go about using the bye week, do you use these two full weeks to prepare for Ohio State or do you kind of use it to look back at the first eight games or so?
A: We do a lot as coaches, so we’ve got to evaluate what we’ve done in the eight games, we work on Ohio State. For players, it’s about getting guys healthy, it’s about fundamental improvement, and then when we get back on Sunday we’ll start on Ohio State, in earnest, but we’re working on them as a staff, as we always do.
Q: You’ve talked a lot about the bolstered depth at linebacker, especially with Mo back this year, how much is that gonna kind of help, he’s a tough player to replace I realize.
A: Yeah, Tyreem was playing at a very high level, so you’re right he’ll be a tough player to replace, but thank goodness we have some depth. Now that depth will be tested, not only the immediate depth but the young guys behind them. It’s somebody’s opportunity now, and they need to step up and take advantage of it, but Tyreem will heal up and be well again, I’m confident of that. It’s just a shame it happened to him.
Q: A player at that position that people have been worrying about, Moses Walker, he’s been playing on special teams and hasn’t really played linebacker. Is he at the point where he can contribute in a game?
A: Oh, yeah, he’s doing well. Saturday his position didn’t really fit what we were doing, but yeah Moses is doing very well. Moses will be a very fine linebacker here. He’s just learning the position, you know, he missed the whole year [last year], and then he missed a little bit the last, whatever game that was, he missed a whole week of preparation, so he’s getting there, he’s doing very well.
Q: What’ve you seen out of Eric Rogers this year and what has he meant to the defense?
A: Eric’s been a great addition. [Robert Longer]Beam and Max [Melton] started but then we roll, and then on third down we roll. It’s been good, it’s been a huge addition for us. He’s won us, he works hard, he loves ball. It’s fun to have him around.
Q: Going back to linebacker on Saturday, Timmy Hinspeter, just talk about his development since he saw significant snaps.
A: How many snaps did he see, I don’t know, but he knows his job. He does a good job, he works really hard, he’s a great teammate, helps everybody on the development, very smart guy, very dependable guy.
Q: Any concern that Joe Harasymiak’s success the last two years will make him a head coaching candidate moving forward?
A: Well I’m always concerned about that, but I’m also hopeful for them. I know that’s ultimately their goal but, when you have good staff people, you try to take care of them, take care of their families, make sure it’s a good work environment for them, but my hope is that they become head coaches if that’s what they want. But we’ll make sure that it’s gotta have to be a great job for Joe to leave.
Q: A lot of guys this season who have really been kind of helping this resurgence have been from the 2020 class you put together in two weeks. What do you remember about that process?
A: Yeah it was 11 days. It was crazy. [Director of player personnel] Eric Josephs was the key. He was here when we got here, he directed, it was Nunz[io Campanile], me, and Eric Josephs, that was it. That was our army. Then we hired Fran Brown about a week into it, and Eric was just, literally we’d be in a home visit, and we’d get out and be like “Hey I got you in if you can get there by 9:45 they said they see you”, so we’d roll over there, and then Fran joined and he was a big help. It was a crazy time, yeah. 11 day sprint, and then we tried to do a little on the back end but it wasn’t as effective on the back in that 11 day sprint, it was pretty good though.
Q: How gratifying is it to see some of those guys that you recruited that quickly step up and become the type of player they are now, whether it’s Kyle [Monangai], Tyreem, Max, Robert?
A: Yeah it goes to show you the whole recruiting-slash-evaluation is more of an art than a science. Everybody wants to make it a science with analytics, and I get why we do all that and I’m into that, I’m into length and speed, but at the end of the day you have to factor all those inputs, and then that one that you can’t put a measure on, that’s this and this, and we got some good ones here for sure. Fortunate and blessed.
Q: How’s Marquise [Watson] doing?
A: He’s hanging in there, yeah. Little by little it’s a slow recovery but he’s working.
Q: Only four years left on your initial deal, this is the point where a lot of college coaches discuss extensions, have you had any discussions with the administration about that, or is that after the season?
A: Yeah I don’t get caught up in that stuff, I don’t talk about that stuff.
Q: What does this week look like for you, in terms of game planning and scheduling but also finding that balance, some of that time off, I remember you said after Michigan State, something that you guys weren’t looking too good walking around?
A: I’ll tell you what, I slept great. Sunday night I slept more than I’ve slept in the last 10 years probably. Then yesterday I slept again, so I’m good to go for another few months now.
Q: Do you get any family time?
A: Actually, you go recruiting. We’ll practice Thursday and then everyone will hit the road, but I want to make sure that our staff gets a little time so then, they’ll get a day, a whole day, how about that… But yeah, they work really hard, we all do, but that’s part of the business.
Q: I’m assuming you guys have done some evaluating of the first eight weeks. When you look at Gavin [Wimsatt], what do you see as positives, what do you see as things he has to work on, particularly it seemed like some of his throws against Indiana sailing, throws a little high, missing his target, seemed like an issue this season, just overall Gavin?
A: Yeah, I think he’s improved a great deal. We all want him to improve more, faster, but sometimes you gotta be careful, you squeeze that egg too tight you can crack it. We just gotta bring him along, at the rate that he can improve and I think he’s improved immensely, I think we can all agree with that. Take his course. Kirk and the offensive staff have done a great job with him, and the whole offense. We as a whole have to continue to develop, offensively, defensively, and in the kicking game. We’re making progress, we all want it to be faster than it is. All of us, all of you, the fans, everybody wants it to be faster. I wish it could be. But there are some limits on how fast you can get better, but we don’t want to put limits on ourselves. What we say is, no limits on what we can achieve, no limits on how hard we can work. If you believe in those two things, there are no limits. We’ll see what happens.
Q: Going back to Marquise, were there any communications after the win on Saturday, was there a team phone call, or something that happened afterwards?
A: I go see him regularly, but let’s all keep him in our prayers.
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