Greg Schiano Dec. 4 Press Conference Quotes
Dec 04 | Football
Opening statement: "My apologies for keeping you waiting. The purpose of today's press conference is to talk about the Texas Bowl but before we do that, I wanted to address one situation. For the last six weeks the Miami job has been asked of me often and I've been consistent with what I've said about my situation here at Rutgers.
Yesterday, or last evening, (Miami athletic director) Paul Dee talked to (Rutgers athletic director) Bob Mulcahy and told him he was going to talk to me today, and out of respect for Paul, we did speak today, and during those conversations, he inquired if I would want to be considered as a candidate for the head coaching job at Miami.
Although I am very flattered that the University of Miami would think of me as a candidate, I told them at the time that Rutgers is where I am going to be and Rutgers is where I want to be. I am not a candidate for that job and I won't be a candidate for that job, and to be able to put that behind us now and focus on our bowl game, our second bowl game in as many years, is a very, very exciting thought. To put that stuff aside right now and focus on our team and our players will be very good."
On whether Rutgers has offered him a new contract: "No."
On making decision to stay Rutgers without any assurances on new contract: "Rutgers is talking to my representative, but whatever transpires there transpires. Rutgers has been very good to me. I'm excited about playing one more game with this group of seniors and sending them out as winners."
On whether he knew he would decline the Miami job when he spoke with Paul: "I'm not going to go into it anymore. I talked to Paul because I really respect Paul and what he's done for me, personally, and for my family. Paul Dee is a special guy and a guy who helped me when I was a coordinator at the University of Miami and he really took care of my family and myself, so I felt I need to talk to him out of respect for him and that's all I'm going to say about this."
On speaking to players about his decision: "That's all I'm going to say."
On why he chose to stay at Rutgers: "All along I've said the same thing. What we're doing here, we're just scratching the surface. The sky is the limit here at Rutgers and we're going to do great things and we haven't' done them yet. We've won 10 games and that's great, but the seniors have laid the foundation for really, really big things. We've recruited really great young guys in this program and this is home. This is my state; this is where I grew up. The same things I said at this podium the first time in this room that were true then are still true now. This state and the New York, Philadelphia metropolitan area has all started to come together here and that's only going to get better and it's something that's never been tapped, so to me, this is a great, great situation."
On whether he plans on staying at Rutgers for a long time: "That's what I hope. Hopefully they'll have me, but you never know. How could you? This is what I want to do, this is where I want to be. You never know, you can't predict tomorrow, forget forever, but this is where I want to be, this is the job I want to have and I look forward to being here as long as things keep going well."
On how to make the next step: "It starts with President McCormick, Bob Mulcahy, our whole Board of Governors and Board of Trustees. I think everybody wants to see us keep progressing on everything around here: the academic programs, the athletic programs. There are things here we're going to keep doing. That's a fact. We're not going to stand still. You're either getting worse or you're getting better, and we're going to be getting better. You don't stay the same. You don't say 'we've done this, now let's catch our breath.' We're not going to do that. We're going to keep pushing the envelope but we're going to be responsible about it. We're not going to be haphazard and do things just to do them. We're going to do things that logically give us a chance to keep taking the steps to be the best. President McCormick and the administration are very clear they want to be the best at everything we do and football is part of what we do."
On relief over settling the Miami question: "I'm excited. You guys kept asking if it was a distraction for the players during the season, but I knew once Saturday came that we needed to address it and that's exactly what happened."
On the morale of the team following the loss to West Virginia: "Very, very down, very, very hurt. We got together yesterday in the evening to start to pull it back together. We really started to pull it together in the locker room in West Virginia but the pain doesn't go away. They get back into classes today, they'll lift tomorrow, they're getting treatment today, so slowly but surely they'll work their way out of it. You don't have another game to get ready for. That's the beauty of college football'you lose a tough game and you have to get ready for the next one. You know what's going to happen that next Saturday; you don't have a choice, whereas this week there is no game to get ready for, at least one that's going to happen on Saturday, but I think our guys are going to bounce back strong. We talked to them and said, 'look, we have an opportunity to win 11 football games, go to back-to-back bowl games, and win our first bowl game.' We haven't won a bowl game, so what a great opportunity this is for this team to finish out the year."
On commitments he'd like to see the University make: "Again, I think that sounds as if it's me against them, and I think they're all on board now. We're just trying to figure out ways to get things done. Bob (Mulcahy), the President, the Board, we're all on the same page of what we want to build here and it's just a matter of being responsible, getting it lined up, doing it where it makes sense. One thing we have is we have strong leadership and very, very smart men and women that are running this place and they're going to do it the right way and not find ourselves in a situation where we put the cart before the horse. Let's make sure we do it right."
On what the 'next step' is for the football program: "I think some of the things we're talking about in the stadium. We filled the stadium quite a few times this year and there's a great demand already; in three days they sold over 5,000 new season tickets, so we'll see how that continues, and that isn't even with renewals yet. We've had a flood of people who want to renew and add tickets to their allotments. That to me is a great sign. Again, it's everywhere. It's New York City, it's Philadelphia, and the whole state of New Jersey coming together around this program and we just need to keep moving it forward. As I said, and we've said all along, as long as we keep it going in the right direction we're going to get there. Sometimes it's not as fast as we'd like, but we'll get there and there are people that are committed. That's the number one thing. There are people committed at Rutgers to taking it to the level we're talking about and that's what's important to me."
On whether hunger from last year's loss in the Insight Bowl will carry over into this bowl game: "I think there's definitely a hunger right now with this football team. It (the West Virginia loss) was a very disappointing loss, one that makes you want to get out there and play right now. We have a lot of work left to do between now and Kansas State in the Texas Bowl, but I think we have a committed, focused group of young men that are working towards that goal."
On TV broadcast of Bowl Game on NFL Network: "I'm hoping that gets worked out. There are definitely conversations going on. It's very important. I don't have it (the NFL network) at home, but I have it in my office. From time to time we use the network to take tapes off. Big parties in my office."
On plans for bowl trip: "We already sent our people down; the first flight out this morning our guys were down there setting it all up'the practice facility, the whole deal. This will be a great trip. It's an area of the country not a lot of us have spent time in, so it will be new. My whole philosophy with bowl games is a bowl game is a reward to the players. We're going to work very hard when it's time to work, but when the work is over, it's their free time and I want them to enjoy Houston and I want them to enjoy the time together. Those are special times for those guys. We've talked about when we're going to leave and we're trying to work all that out, but we're probably going to go down there a little early so those guys are together for a little bit longer and we can practice. We're a little behind in bowl preparation. I had all my schedules laid out from last year. We're only playing one day later this year than last year, but today would have been our fifth practice in our bowl preparation and we won't practice (this week) until Thursday or Saturday, probably Saturday, so we're a little behind in our preparation. But, another way to look at it is we practiced last week, we were just practicing for a game, but bowl practices are a little different. The young guys get a lot more work; you try to get your seniors healthy, try to get them feeling good, and try to get them to stay polished."
On facing Kansas State: "We only have one tape in-house right now'the Kansas State-Louisville tape that was from a previous exchange, so I have not looked at them (Kansas State) yet. We're behind on everything. We're behind on recruiting because we were out (in West Virginia). Every other school other than the championship game participants were out recruiting last week. Most schools had a recruiting weekend last weekend which we couldn't because we were on the road, so we're a little behind right now. Between recruiting and all of the things that are going on, I have not looked at Kansas State, but all of the tapes will be in today. We've gotten all the paperwork on them and I've studied all their statistics and things just to get a feel because it is very foreign to me. We have not really looked at them. I saw that one game against Louisville and I saw the second half of the Texas game that was son TV that night and their defeat Texas that was a big win."
On bowl-week itinerary, bowl-area recruiting, and recruiting benefits of earning bowl bid: "It certainly helps if you're in a recruiting area because then young men can come over and watch you practice that maybe wouldn't get that opportunity. The Dallas Metroplex area and the Houston area are two great recruiting areas. We don't go there, but there's great football there and a lot of schools do go there. You never know whose eye you might catch when you're down there and the way we play I think is exciting both offensively and defensively, so you may catch a guy's eye that's looking for a great education, and maybe we'll get an inquiry after the game. Who knows?"
On recruiting in Houston area: "I recruited the Houston area when I was in Penn State a little bit."
On whether Texas Bowl will be similar to last year's Insight Bowl in terms of itinerary and whether it will be calmer this year: "It will be similar. I haven't studied the whole itinerary, but like you said, they have a rodeo they take the kids to, all the common bowl game things'a steak dinner, a rodeo, whatever the flavor of the bowl is, which is going to be exciting. There's not a lot of Jersey kids, nor Florida kids, that do a lot of rodeo-ing, not to mention this Jersey kid, so it should be great to see. No, I've never been on mechanical bull and I don't plan on it either. I'll come limping out at the (bowl) game."
On using the fact Rutgers has never won a bowl game as motivation for his players: "I think it's huge. Like I said, I think we were capable of skipping steps this year because of the chemistry and the way the team came together, but the next logical step, if we go step-by-step, is going to a bowl game, then you go win a bowl game. We had an opportunity to skip a step but we didn't, but hey, enjoy the journey and that's what we're going to do. We're going to go down there, repaper hard, and play in a bowl game, and hopefully if we do everything we're capable of doing, bring home a bowl championship."
On recruiting weekends before bowl game: "We'll have two recruiting weekends this coming weekend and the next. We'll have bowl practice, we'll have final exams, and then we'll fly down together sometime in the low 20s (of December). I don't know what day yet; we're trying to secure the plane. We went down last year on the 21st, I think, and we'll possibly leave the 22nd or the 23rd. I have to see the final exam schedule. Last year we were fortunate that on the last day (of exams) we only had to rearrange two final exams, which as it turned out wasn't a problem. If we have a bunch of kids who have exams on that final day this year, we'll just push it back."
On whether Texas Bowl is a drop-off for the BIG EAST: "That won't be for long. That's a direct result of when the league was re-formulated and the uncertainty that was associated with the league. I think the league is quickly establishing itself as one of the best football conferences out there and when this current group of current bowl contracts changes over, I think it will be more competitive. We may stay with the bowls we're in, who knows, but I think the BIG EAST will be a much more sought-after conference when the bowl contracts come up again. We said it then and we'll say it now, you have to prove yourself on the field, and as I've said before, it reminds before when I was a kid growing up and the Big 10 teams always had a loss because they beat each other up in the league schedule and that's what it reminds me of now with the BIG EAST schedule. It's very close and they know each other very well and it's a very competitive league."
On whether RU may have deserved a more prestigious bowl bid: "That's the way the world goes. You can't cry over that. We're going to have a great trip to Houston and that's what I told our players. It's going to be a great trip and we're going to have a fun time, and we're going to work hard and we're going down there and try and get a win."
On playing in inaugural Texas Bowl game is a positive or a negative: "I don't know. I think the benefit might we can be a part of formulating and helping guide what we want to do with the thing. Our people are down there today'we sent down a contingent of four'and we're working on everything from hotel plans to practice facilities to how we do everything. We're not the easiest group to work with because I'm not the easiest guy to work with because there's a certain way and order we do things and that's not going to change. But there aren't any preconceived notions so that's a good thing."
On young guys getting more practice time: "I think it's critical. I'll never forget when I interviewed all the kids and I asked what the guys did this time of the year, and they said 'we all hit the books,' but to me you hit the books all along. I had to explain that the teams we're preparing for chasing are practicing and preparing for bowl games and we're missing out on those 15 to 16 to 17 practices. Spring practice is 15 practices, so that's another spring practice, or just about. One thing we do a great job of is with our freshmen who aren't playing; they train very hard physically in the weight room and that's why you see some of those freshman have already changed their bodies. Since summer school they've been in 14-straight weeks of training, so we've given the non-travel guys a week off from lifting because we're really going to get after them when we start practicing. I want them to be fresh and ready to go."
On getting a pass from media and funs because of the "come-down" of the Texas Bowl bid and whether Rutgers fans still need to show that they travel: "That's imperative. I will reach out to our fans and tell them number one, forget for the future that it (bowl attendance) shows we travel, but how about these seniors that have done what they've done for Rutgers football and the state of New Jersey? They deserve our support. I fully expect our fans to show up in great numbers and we're going to put on a great show. It's going to be worth coming down there. I fully expect us to travel well. For the future, if you go to the BCS, you play you're way in and it's done, but as the bowl deals go each year, if you're one of those teams on the bubble, it certainly helps when you can stand up and say 'look at our travel history.' Our two travel histories will be ???? of the way across the country, so if someday we're in a competitive situation for an eastern bowl that will separate us, so it is important for a lot of reasons, the number one reason being the support for the seniors, and the whole football team. As you can tell, this senior class means an awful lot to me and this program, and it should mean a lot to all of us because they're the ones who took a chance."
On whether recruits may have been waiting on his decision to stay at Rutgers: "I hope not because I've told them all as we've gone along what I've told you guys'this is where I want to be, but maybe today with me saying I'm not a candidate for the job, maybe that will help. If it helps one (recruit), that's great."
On the study of bowl teams' academic performance and Rutgers' high rating: "I'm very pleased. I already have the report that is going to come out and we're higher than the one you have now. It's not official yet, but just take our number now and we'll be higher next year. Amongst bowl teams, that is a very high ranking, and we take great pride in that. When I and my assistant coaches go into a living room or a kitchen with a recruit's family, we can say 'not every kid on our team is valedictorian of their class, but they come here and they do well academically. They work at it, we make them work at it, and they learn some habits that will help them in life.' I think that's what that number is a very accurate measure of, as opposed to graduation rates that date back six or seven years ago. This is a snapshot in time right now."
On whether his decision to stay at Rutgers was more difficult than he expected: "I'm not going to get into any specifics on that whole process because when the question of me being a candidate (at Miami) arose, I was flattered, but Rutgers and New Jersey is where I want to be."
