Rutgers Football HC Greg Schiano talks with the media following today's Pinstripe Bowl game versus Miami.
GREG SCHIANO: I'm proud of our team. Miami is a great football team. Coach Cristobal is a really elite coach.
I'm just really happy for our team. They stuck with it. Kind of had all the emotions like a game like this could bring. Ran out early and then lost the lead and had the resiliency to keep fighting, keep chopping, as we say, and certainly it starts with the seniors.
When we got here, there was a group of guys that we didn't recruit, guys that decided that they were going to buy into what we were talking about and what we were suggesting they do, and they built the foundation of something.
So I'm excited. I think they've laid the foundation, and see if we keep chopping where we can go with this thing.
We're in a great league. I think the best league in college football. There's a lot of things going on right now in college football. You have to navigate that landscape, but I'm sure glad I'm doing it at Rutgers where I'm supposed to be.
My hat goes off it our fans. It was incredible. All week. Not just today. All week, every activity we went to, 600,000 living alumni of Rutgers University, and it felt like almost all of them were right here in New York this week.
We saw more people. Our players felt more accepted and energized by our alums and fans. And for them to turn out the way they did en masse today, it really felt like a home game.
To the Yankees and Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe, we're very grateful. The week was awesome. First class, everything they did. They're friends. We've known them for a long time now. This is, heck, 15 years probably. Just really good people. First class. I'm glad that Miami and Rutgers could put on a good game for them because bowl games I think are still critically important. I don't buy that they go away.
If you were in that locker room seeing those kids celebrate, bowl games are really important, and that will be a memory for those guys. Most guys don't go play after college. There will be a bunch of them that will never play another snap, and that will be their last memory of football in college. It couldn't end any better.
Again, my hat's off to Miami. Tremendous opponent right down to the wire, but I'm proud of our guys.
I'll open it up for questions.
Q. Hey, Coach, just carrying this momentum, you got a lot of guys coming back that made announcements to come back, win a bowl game. Do you feel a lot of momentum for this program right now?
GREG SCHIANO: I do, yeah. I do. I think a win here is very important. It's eight months now or nine months that we get to live with that vibe, if that's what you call it. I am really, really excited about where we're headed.
Now, it's a day-to-day thing, man. In this day and age of college football, you've got to work your tail off every second. It won't be much of a break right now. We'll have transfer portal visitors next week.
I'm looking forward to relaxing a little tonight, get back to New Jersey tomorrow, and then setting up everything, recruiting, personnel, everything we have to do.
It sure is a lot more fun coming off a bowl championship.
Q. Can you talk about the special teams punt block? I know you put so much into it. It seemed fitting that that switched momentum. Talk about what that did for you guys on the sideline and how it kind of changed the trajectory of the game.
GREG SCHIANO: I thought our special teams did a great job up until that last play, or that last special teams play; right? You know, football is a game of momentum, and anybody who tells you it's not really I think they're living in a dream world.
We certainly jumped out and grabbed the momentum early, but then it kind of was getting away from us, and we had an opportunity there with the block. Trevor Yeboah-Kodie is a classic example of chop, followed by Timmy Ward, who is even a more classic.
So the story behind Trevor Yeboah-Kodie, I coached his dad and his uncle at a different school in Pennsylvania that's in our league. His dad reached out to me and said, My son has another year of eligibility. He was a Lacrosse player at Brown. Really good Lacrosse player.
I said, Yeah, let me look at his tape. All he had was his high school tape. I looked at it and said, Oh, I wish I had gotten him out of high school. He is a really good player.
He came, and he was really a special teams specialist. He was on almost every -- I think he was on every special team. You could see the joy that he got by playing football because he hadn't played it for four years. Last time he played it he was a senior in high school.
Every practice, every game, and for him to block it, and then the guy that recovered it, Timmy Ward, you local guys know the story, but Timmy Ward, high school kid, gets cancer, beats cancer, comes to Rutgers, and wants to play football at Rutgers.
So he starts as an equipment manager. He is an equipment manager for like a year and a half. He goes to the walk-on try-outs, and my guys who run the walk-on try-outs come to me and say, Hey, look, the equipment manager, he can run. He is a good athlete. We ought to give him a chance.
I said, Yeah, let's give him a chance.
He is the brains of the outfit now. He runs the punt block team. He makes all the checks. For him to recover that and score the touchdown, those two guys are kind of very symbolic of who we are. Just a hard-working group. We believe in chopping and doing your work, and preparation gives you a chance when the opportunity presents.
I couldn't be more happy for two guys that deserve it.
Q. What can you say about Kyle Monangai's 163-yard performance tonight?
GREG SCHIANO: He is special. Kyle, I think he had 160-something yards today. It's his seventh 100-yard-plus game. I believe I'm right. Seventh.
But he just runs so hard. I mean, you can see it. And I love -- when he starts the games breaking tackles like that, you know he's on. He's got it.
I was really proud of Sam too. Sam kind of gave him a breather, and Sam ran like the Sam that I have seen before. I'm real excited about Sam. He put that one ball on the ground. I'm sure that haunts him, but he's going to be a great player too.
Again, I think Benji, Benji didn't get in much. He got a few plays, but I was really happy for Kyle because to win the MVP and to come back the way he has decided to do, I think we're going to have I areal good running back -- I know we are. We're going to have a real good running back room. Coach Shaw has done a good job developing those guys. I'm excited to see where they can go.
Q. So obviously you guys have been one of the best rushing teams in the nation, but I was wondering, did you see something in your film work that you thought you could exploit in Miami's defense?
GREG SCHIANO: No, we really didn't. I'll tell you, I thought their defense getting ready for them -- they do a lot of movement. They jump in and out of fronts. They really are very multiple. So it took every bit of our preparation just to kind of be in the right area.
There are some plays today, you saw they had some TFLs. They're going to the way that they play defense. They're very aggressive.
But I think it's a testament to our O-line. Coach Flaherty and the offensive staff, they got the O-line to really play with great discipline today. All season really, but today was really special because the amount of challenge that was on their plate was huge. Tight ends included.
I think Sean did a great job. I mean, that's not an easy -- against that defense to play tight end and have to block and cut off all those back side runs, he did a great job.
Without seeing the tape, I don't know, but I know when Kyle runs like that, some of those runs by Kyle were insane; right? He came out of nowhere and popped it out. That was really good stuff. I'm excited for him.
Q. After a long journey coming back to Rutgers, what did it mean to stand on that stage as a bowl champion?
GREG SCHIANO: It meant a lot, yeah. I mean, we did it before, but that doesn't mean you can do it again. And the "it" has changed; right? Just going to bowl games and winning bowl games, that isn't the "it."
This is a step. As I said to everybody when we were bowl eligible and then we lost four straight, I said when we became bowl eligible, it's literally a mile marker on the road to where we're going. It's not the exit. This is exciting. This is the start.
It's not only the end of the '23 season, but it's the beginning of the '24 season. Especially in this day and age. I think this will be great to fuel us in the wintertime and in the springtime to get ready for 2024. We better be. Because, as I said, we play in the best league in the country.
Q. This was obviously just another solid defensive performance. What have you seen from that unit all year long, and the fact that you have so many guys coming back, just the foundation that that sets going into next year.
GREG SCHIANO: I'm excited about our defense. We were able to keep Coach Harasymiak here. He had a lot of attention, a lot of opportunities to leave. He decided to stick around with us, which is huge. He's a great coach, has a great staff.
Coach Hetherman really did a great job, Coach Orphey, you go down the staff, Coach Lascari. You're talking about really good football coaches that are getting a lot out of these guys. I tell you what, the players, they believe in them. They believe in what they're being taught.
Miami has some explosive athletes. You look at some of their receivers, and it was a shame what happened to 22 early in the game. He's a really good running back. Big, big and strong. I'm not sure what happened, but he wasn't able to play anymore.
Yeah, my hat's off. I ought to do this before I forget to do it. The coaches did an incredible job in this preparation. You end the season in whatever it was, November 26th, and they don't get a day off. They've been going straight through recruiting, flying back in to do as much work on the Miami preparation as they can. Coach the young guys in developmental practices and fly back out. Literally did not have a day off. I'm grateful to them.
We have a great staff. Really, really worked hard for this, and I hope that they can take all of about four or five days off and then have transfer portal come in next week.
Q. You talked about the coaching staff. I wanted to ask you about Pat Flaherty, how he did preparing these guys for today, and really the whole season rebuilding that offensive line room?
GREG SCHIANO: Flats, as you know, I go way back with Flats. He is an excellent line coach. I think the kids -- I know the kids love him. I mean, he is a quintessential line coach. He lives in that room with them. Everything he does is for them.
His wife, Lynn, they're a football family, and they really, really have been a super addition to our staff. Again, to all the wives, right, because if your husband is away -- he is working every day from the end of the season until today. That's a sacrifice that the wives and families make for our program, and it's not unrecognized by me. That's for sure. I thank them for that.
Q. For you personally, Coach, you are very close to the Miami program. What does that mean for you for the program for Rutgers to get your program's first win against Miami?
GREG SCHIANO: I've been on the other end of those too many times. I was at Miami and really had a great experience there. Loved coaching at University of Miami. Really shaped a lot of my philosophies when I worked for Coach Davis and got to meet so many South Florida kids.
We became -- that became a huge part of our recruiting at Rutgers, and still is. You look at all the Florida kids on our roster and the ones coming next year.
Miami has had a big impact on me. I've been on the other end. My wife was laughing. We were just in the locker room. We were laughing. She said, Remember that first one? We played in the second game of my tenure here. Steve would remember. 61-0. Yeah, it was quite a humbling experience.
To finally get one against a storied program like University of Miami, it does feel good. Mario is building it the right way. They're going to be -- you just look at the accumulation of talent that they're getting there and they work so darn hard. That program is going to go through the roof.
Today it was great to get a victory against them.
Q. You talked about being on the road to where you're going here with this program and this being an important step. Can you take the next step without getting more from the quarterback position, or are you satisfied with what you got from that today?
GREG SCHIANO: What we did today is we took care of the football. We knew that if we could take it away -- I count punt blocks as a take-away, where it was a pick six or fumble six when you block a punt.
We knew if we could win the turnover margin that we felt very confident we would win the game. Did we play a little tight to the vest? Sure, we did, because we felt that was the kind of game we had to play.
We'll develop. Like at every position, we'll continue to develop, including the quarterback position. We'll just keep getting better. Like you said, that's part of the -- today I thought a developmental program was on display. You look at some of the young guys.
Famah Toure, who you haven't seen all year. I love the rule that you can play with guys in the bowl game, and it doesn't count towards their eligibility in postseason. Bo Mascoe, finally able to play, and he did a great job. Abram Wright with the interception. No one has seen much of Abram. Zaire Angoy, who has been here a little longer, but he has really come on to the scene the last four or five weeks of the season and now in the bowl game. Moses Walker, a guy who I thought he is going to be a great player and played some linebacker and showed exactly why he was such a highly recruited guy.
Yeah, the developmental part of the program, the pipeline that I speak about, I'm thrilled. Can't wait.
I love bowl games as a program developer because we had seven practices were strictly developmental. That's half of spring ball, right, seven practices that we got to develop those young guys. They got all our coaching. They were the ones on the video. Not the older players and not the guys that have played.
To be able to coach them off of those tapes and to have them all winter, we can make cut-ups for them. It's huge. That's why winning begets winning at this level. When you win and get to go to bowl games, it pushes it forward.
To answer your question, yes, we need to get better at everything, but I don't think it's -- anymore every position has to get better. We need to improve as a program. But I love doing it with another trophy in the case.
Q. You spoke to it right now just a little bit, but consistently throughout the season you have said "yet." We're not there "yet." How does today factor into "yet," and eventually turning the "yet" into what you want to see this program?
GREG SCHIANO: Miami is one of those programs that whether they're there right this second, I don't know, it's not my place to judge that, but they're a traditional blue blood program. We had an opportunity to win a game against them today.
We're not there yet, no. But this is a big mile marker because I think we do a good job in bowl games. I learned from the best. Coach Paterno was the best at preparing his teams for bowl games. You just look at his record. We do it the same way. We work really hard when we work, and when we don't, it's a lot of fun.
You develop. You have fun. You learn a lot. We learned a lot in this trip together. Then to win, that's what makes it special. Thrilled.
Q. Flynn and Robert each got -- Flynn and Robert both got hit late on a couple of plays. Just your view on that. And just generally it seemed like a pretty chippy game, more than a usual game. Did you sense that? If so, why do you feel that was?
GREG SCHIANO: I'm not really sure. Maybe they haven't played in a while, maybe they had a little extra testosterone stored up. I didn't really see either one of them. The guys were screaming on the headset, so I figured something bad happened.
Yeah, there was a lot going on out there today. I was concerned a little bit, but I think our guys really understand that there's a certain way we do things as Rutgers football, and the standard -- the thing they hear all the time is the standard is the standard. There's no exceptions. I don't care how good of a player. The standard is the standard.
I'm glad that they lived up to the standard today the way they behaved and the way they played and the fact that they won the game.
So really proud of our team. Like I said, a couple of days, and then look forward to keep going down that road. Eventually we'll get to that exit. Just not yet.
Thank you, guys.
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