Oct. 17, 2015 Recap | Box Score | Notes
Rutgers Head Coach Kyle Flood
Opening Statement:
"Let me start by complimenting Indiana. I think they've got a really talented football team; they're very difficult to handle at all three phases of the game. They play really hard, and it really took everything we had today to be 1-0. I'm proud of my team, I was proud of how we fought back in the first half to get to where we were at halftime. And I'm really proud of how they finished. By the end of the game, our young secondary was even younger, and they continued to play. We found a way to get some stops and made a play on special teams, scored on special teams. We had a couple of PATs blocked in the game, and won the game on a field goal, so there's some irony in there as well. But I'm really proud of the effort, really proud of how the players fought more so than really any of the plays they made."
Was there a message, down 25 points with 18 minutes to play?
"There's no specific message. The message is really series-to-series-keep learning, keep getting better-and that's what we did. When you get into a game like that, you know that you're going to need some scores. I imagine that there will be a question as to why I went for two at one point. I just felt like, in terms of possessions, I couldn't guarantee that we were going to get as many stops as we did, so I started going for two a little earlier than I normally would. That probably could've come back to get us, but it didn't. We were fortunate to kick the field goal at the end. I'm really pleased with how Chris [Laviano] handled that last drive, managed the clock, and allowed us to kick the field goal when the time ran out."
How does it feel to be back on the sideline and to get this kind of victory today?
"Being on the sideline feels the way it always does. It's one of the best days of the year, and we're only guaranteed 12 of them per year. It was great to be out there. I love being out there with the team, it's a great group of young people to work with."
How do you explain the 52 points allowed in two and a half quarters, followed by four straight defensive stops? Does it have to do with adjustments?
"There's no doubt. It's adjustments, and it's guys making plays. I know Isaiah [Johnson] had an interception and then, on the first play of the next drive, Anthony [Cioffi] had an interception. We were closer on some others earlier in the game, and others we weren't. I think it's just a matter of continuing to compete, and it's not easy to do. It takes tough-minded people, and I think we have that."
Indiana Head Coach Kevin Wilson
Opening Statement
KEVIN WILSON: Disappointing loss. A lot of good to build on, but a lot of correctable things to work on. Some individuals played well, had a lot of momentum. That slipped away. Call the game better, manage it better, make a play.
Great job by Rutgers. Their kids didn't quit. We talked a lot about that. I thought we got a little -- some things on the sideline I didn't like. Saw some eyes and attitudes where I think we've got to stay humble and keep playing. We didn't and they did, and congrats on them on a great comeback. Good football game that we let slip away.
How does the team move forward from here?
KEVIN WILSON: I don't know, I think there was a lot of good, and at the same time some correctable things, so when you get in the locker room, we didn't go -- we've got a great shot next week going to East Lansing, playing a great Michigan State team. Then from there an open date and four to go, and I think we saw, we've been kind of, quote, anemic on offense, it had been nowhere, and we've kind of cranked it back up. We've got to get our defense going. They were a little stale and flat for today I didn't like, but I think just really appreciate, again, the way our kids have battled, played. We talked this week about just a lot of energy, the kids flying around, having some fun. I thought we had it early in the game. I thought we had it really on offense a while, got a little stale at the end offensively. Again, we've got to try to keep the pedal to the metal. My deal is for us to be good, we've got to create energy, and we're going to create it again this week, so I'm not going to sit there and blame those kids or anything.
We'll coach them better. We'll keep making adjustments, trying to keep learning the best we can, but we're going to keep those kids going. It's a great group of dudes, love them a bunch. Play hard. And like I say, we just unfortunately got enough errors today starting with the kick out-of-bounds. That gave them great field position, and we have a 25-point lead. So that was the first error. We were offsides and we kicked it out-of-bounds, and that's where maybe we just got a little too big for ourselves.
We mismanaged a couple offensive deals, and I did a couple things I needed to do a little bit better with some play calling that hurt us. But again, those kids have battled. They'll be very resilient. We'll come back tomorrow and have a good Sunday. We're going to get ready for Michigan State, and we're going to keep playing.
You mentioned some specific things there, but losing a 25-point lead in the second half, big picture what was the problem?
KEVIN WILSON: Again, to me it started with a kick out-of-bounds, good field position, let us work them on a drive. We came back, and right at the end, didn't do -- I didn't like our last drive of the third quarter. Ran the ball one time, I think, very poorly. Didn't make a good call. I think it got us behind the chains, and from there we punted, and that's where the punt snap goes over the head, I believe. Maybe I'm wrong. Might have been the next one. I forget if it was that one. Maybe it was the next one. I'm not sure.
From there I thought our defense got a little vanilla. Offensively we want to keep the pedal down, so we came out and had a good drive going there where we threw, I think, a slant to Ricky and we threw a fade shot down the sideline and then we didn't manage a 3rd and 4th situation. Our 3rd downs weren't very good, and again, I just think -- Danny France, a little injury to Michael Cooper, got rode up, came back, kind of hurt us at tight end. Jordan Howard went up there. We were not the same team we were at Western Kentucky where we could kind of mulch it out at the end of the game. We were having to play a little bit more of a space spread game. That's just kind of the dynamics of we kind of felt with the way the running game had been going. Our best player, it was put the ball in No. 7's hand, let him make the plays for us.
That being said, it probably got us a little bit more one-dimensional as you're trying to ice it, but at the end of the day that was still kind of felt how we needed to play it. We can manage that better, call it better. You can always second-guess what doesn't work.
All we've got to do is get some stops, too. Defense just let them off the hook way too much and got a little bit too vanilla and really gave up a 25-point lead in the last 20 minutes, because I think it's five minutes and 15 seconds in the third quarter, so we gave up -- we scored 52 points and then we get shutout the last 20. So, I mean, offense has got to keep playing.
We had some special team blunders. But again, liked a lot of that football game. We're going to keep building on it, and not beat them up and go backwards. We're going to keep building. A lot of ball to be played, but we're going to go play a tremendous Michigan State team this week up at their place.
Talk about the emergence of Mike Majett.
KEVIN WILSON: It was good to see. I'd like to tell you I thought it was going to happen and didn't know. I mean, he looked okay in practice but you don't scrimmage, so it was just nice to see. I think that ignited Ricky, because again, we had knocked -- I want to say at one time Ricky went 11 carries for 28 yards; we've been averaging two, three yards a pop in there, so he had one big run. He's got to be more efficient, but it was nice to see Mike get going. When you don't -- when you have a freshman that you haven't played a lot, it's kind of hard to know how many times do you want to give him the ball, trusting him with the ball. But as we've now played, and you play the No. 1 team in the country, you've played at Penn State, these guys have now played in some games, so it is nice to see them come through. They're really not freshmen anymore when you're going into your fourth game of Big Ten East. They've been exposed and they're playing a little bit more like men, and it's good to see Mike, and appreciate him playing well.
You said you saw some things on the sideline you didn't like. Was it more when you were up big?
KEVIN WILSON: Well, up big. I saw some smiles I didn't like, and to me we've been -- we were the shining examples. I want to say Georgia-Tennessee last week was 12 and 13. There's been a lot of examples of that, and we go through and say, in this day and age of college football you need to keep playing. You need to keep playing.
And unfortunately they kept playing, we did not. Whether it be play calling, execution, management, whatever, just as a collective group you've got to play the full 60 minutes, and we didn't.
What did you think of Nate's performance?
KEVIN WILSON: Yeah, I mean, one was we cut a coverage loose to I think it was either 3rd and 9 or 4th down, whatever, on a crossing route, then we took a shot that just kind of held up on him, so I thought he played well. What was he, 32 of 42? Had three guys with a 100-yard game. It was good to get those receivers going. Still going to keep bringing the young guys along.
How is Nate's ankle?
KEVIN WILSON: Yeah, I don't know if it's full speed, but he had a better week of practice leading up to this game than he did prior to Ohio State when he had hurt his ankle the week before. So he'll be okay. Jordan Howard is getting close, so we'll see where he is.
Handling situations like yours in the second half, is it a matter of maturity?
KEVIN WILSON: Man, I don't know if it was mature enough so much as just keep playing. I mean, you keep learning, keep going. I mean, all I know is we'll come in tomorrow and we'll look at the correctable things. We're not going to point fingers and blame. We're going to look at things as coaches we can do better. Everybody has got a job to do. Everybody has got a collective part to help the team.
We'll look at it, and we expect everybody to get better, and we will.
Kids are much more resilient than coaches and fans. They'll bounce back tomorrow and they'll be good to go, and we'll have a good week and we're going to play a tremendous team.
Indiana Cornerback Rashard Fant
On what allowed Rutgers to come from behind for the win...
"A little bit of loss of focus. Also, Rutgers played great. They kept coming, played hard. They played a little bit better than us and made a couple more plays down the stretch.
On Rutgers WR Leonte Carroo...
"Definitely a top guy. I hate to see him get injured at the end. He played a great game up until he got injured and I hope he comes back strong. He's really good.
