TKR TV: Rutgers Football HC Greg Schiano talks Ohio State postgame
Rutgers Football Head Coach Greg Schiano talks with the media following today's 35-16 loss to No. 1 Ohio State inside of SHI Stadium.
GREG SCHIANO: We're just not there. We're getting better. I don't know how to put it other than we are not there yet. We are a work-in-progress. We are getting better. We are just not there against the No. 1 team in the country, not quite yet. We have to.
You can't say, well, we are going to get there. You have to go make yourself get there, so that's what we'll do, we'll come back in this room, we'll be honest with each other tomorrow and those kids love each other, those coaches love those kids and we are just going to keep going and eventually we're going to get there.
Q. What did you make of the role that the offensive line made in terms of the run blocking?
GREG SCHIANO: That's always the hardest thing for me to comment on because not unlike what you see it looks like a admonish pit of people, and sometimes Kyle comes spitting out of there and sometimes doesn't, right.
But you don't rush for the yards that he did and that Gavin did without some good offensive line play, it just doesn't happen. Coaches are never satisfied. Obviously the execution is such a finite thing, so we'll just keep working to get it fixed.
Q. Gavin started the game 0-for-5 but bounced back in the second and third quarter. What did you see from him, body language on the sidelines, but also how it translated on the field with his development?
GREG SCHIANO: There's never any moment that's too big for Gavin, I can promise you that. Gavin is a cool customer. They made a lot of quarterbacks look like that all year, right. We are talking about what might be one of the top-five -- not might be, is one of the top-five defenses in America, and as I said everyone and thought I was joking, you know, they will all be in camps. I don't know if they will all make teams. There are only 1,696 guys in America that are active players in the National Football League.
But they will all be in camps. They are all players of the National Football League that are going to get a chance. They do that to a lot of football coaches. We're just not quite there yet.
Q. As a whole, how do you feel the defense played today against Ohio straight from the first half to the second half.
GREG SCHIANO: Yeah, they played -- I thought they played some really good football. There was a couple plays that we all want to have back but you know, some critical plays, but I think the defense kept us in the game and then the offense got rolling.
If you get behind, it's awfully hard to do what we did, because if you get behind, you have to throw the ball and we were able to play our way into where we made it a really competitive game but again, I'm not going to end on any answer with that.
That's not good enough. That's not what we are here to do. We are not here to get close. And I know I'm speaking for them. It's not just me.
Q. Can you take us through the decisions on the three field goals in the first half, and did you think about going on any of those?
GREG SCHIANO: Well, yeah, always think about it, right. You have Nix that you're reading and you have the game itself, but as you go into that game and it's 7-0 at the end of the quart -- is it 7-0, end of the quarter and then you have a chance, we know we are getting the ball back to start the second half.
Had we not taken -- that's what the killer play is, we were first and goal on the two and all of a sudden it's second and goal on the three and just a bad -- they are good. They penetrate and made a play. That changes things immensely but you know, knowing you're getting the ball back to start the half, and knowing the way you're playing defense, I thought that was the prudent thing to do but trust me, you have to do everything in your power not to be the fan and go for it.
You've got to look at it and measure it as the coach and say, okay, this is all the things that's happening today. Analytics are great, but they are dangerous because they are dead numbers. They already happened. You're living it right then and there. You have to know, how is this game going. I thought we made the right decision in retrospect, who knows. If you score, it's the question about the little dump pass. If he catches it and scores, we're like, man what a call, right, and that's inches, life, not just in football, but it's everything.
But I am, I am proud of our guys, no moral victories, we are not there yet. Proud of our student section. That was cranking. They gave us a home-field advantage but now we have a real big tough task from us. Iowa, if you've never played there, it's one heck of an environment, and we have to get our guys ready. And they are a good football team, and much like us, they are going to play nose-to-nose.
So we have a huge challenge ahead of us next week, we have to lick our wounds here a little bit and get back to work.
Again, I appreciate you guys covering us.
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