Greg Schiano Quotations

When you turn the ball over four times, you don't have a chance to win. We played pretty good football when we weren't screwing it up.

When we got here, we declared an area we wanted to recruit. That was the state of Rutgers - the tri-state area and South Florida. We really didn't have much success in New York and Long Island at first. The whole Metropolitan area is critical to our success. We're doing everything we can to make New York and New Jersey one.

We're going to do our best to maintain possession of the football. It doesn't mean just running the ball, but being efficient in our passing game and play a little keep away. That is part of our plan. But when push comes to shove, we need to play defense against a very good offense, and our guys are ready to do that.

Ultimately, I didn't know which path he would take. I thought Brian did it in a great way. He played a tremendous bowl game, and he had the ability to kind of put it on the shelf until it was time to deal with it.

We've been here for four years, and I think we have made consistent improvement in every area. I think we are getting very close and are moving forward with building our program. We have a very experienced team with strong senior leadership coming back this year.

We need to make sure they get all the right reps, not just reps. Our goal is to make sure we're running the right plays for our quarterbacks to get better and see what they need to see.

One thing that makes Mike the player that he is, he has a great demeanor about him. He sure is a cool customer. Sometimes in life if that's the way you appear, even if you're not, it makes everybody else comfortable and allows you to do your job better. I think he's a great competitor.

One thing about having success is that the stakes get higher each and every game. That's fun to be involved with here at Rutgers again. It's been a while for me personally and it certainly gets the juices flowing.

I am humbled and appreciative of the support shown by the leadership of Rutgers University. We will continue to build Rutgers into a championship-caliber football program that will serve as a source of great pride for our university and the state of New Jersey.

I look forward to seeing that many more times to come.

I don't think about the 13 years, or the three-game winning streak. I think about one play at a time, and that's what I preach to our football team. I'm proud of our kids because they just continuously fought.

If any team should have no issues and go out and play their best football, it's us. We're building a program here. That's a challenge that has to be overcome. I didn't like the idea two years ago. But I don't think our kids think, 'Oh, that's a I-AA team.' I think they think it's just another game.

He looks like Underwood. He's lean, tall, and just goes after the ball.

We just have to keep recruiting to the finish. That's it.

HISTORY' means the goal this year was to go make history and win a bowl game. Rutgers has never won a bowl game. So we'll try to make history. That's been (the goal) since spring ball.

We may still have as many questions after the game as we had before the game. But not much has changed. Last week we were 0-1, this week we're 1-1. This team still has to define itself.

We have to adjust, certainly. That's one guy we couldn't afford to lose. What Eric brought was athleticism and speed.

I think the expectation levels, if they don't continue to rise, then we're not doing the right things in building this program.

I think we can correct the mistakes, but the word can is a dangerous word. I think we will, but that remains to be seen.

I think this class is really going to help this program take the next step. We wanted to recruit the 'State of Rutgers' and we feel we had success with that. There are a lot of winners in this class. This is a very well balanced, well-rounded class.

I think there's no question in the second half that we got tired. They made it more difficult on us. They ran a hurry-up no huddle even when they had an incomplete pass. I think they thought of trying to get us to wear down.

Right now, with where we are with this program ... we still have a lot of things that are out there on the table for us. One of them is to secure a bowl bid and play good football.

My biggest fear, if there was one, was getting into a shootout with this team. There's been nobody that's really stopped them.

My biggest fear, if there was one, was getting into a shootout. There's been nobody that's really stopped (Arizona State).

William Beckford came off the edge, he's going to be hard to block in pass rush situations.

We continue to recruit guys that are guys with character, and that is the most important thing to me.

We're certainly going to miss (the 19) seniors. They are the young men that put Rutgers football back on the map and laid the foundation.

We haven't. Our strength and our best, most experienced players are on the offensive side of the ball. I don't feel that we've really gotten enough from them to be the team we want to be.

We're kind of a team that's finding ourselves right now.

Yeah, he is the number one going in. Mike has more experience. Mike's been around the program now for two years. And I think has a better understanding of our entire scheme.

We don't know what Connecticut plans to do with him offensively. The flip side is their line is healthy and they have some of the best running backs in the conference and perhaps in the country. I think they're going to do what they do in the run game because they're very good at it. What they end up doing in the pass game, that's probably yet to be seen. We need to prepare for everything.

We really didn't play like ourselves. We didn't really capitalize on anything. I don't think we played as well as we could and that is what we need to work on.

When you have a guy with experience, he doesn't get rattled. He had great composure, and he's gotten away from the peaks and valleys.

There definitely will be some special plays. It's never easy to prepare for an opening game with a new staff filled with NFL experience.

We feel we have to get our quarterbacks as many snaps as we can in all the different things we're going to do.

Everything to our players is new, unique, and exciting. When you've been to a bowl every year of your college career, by bowl three or four, you're like, 'OK, that's better than that bowl.' It becomes almost compare and contrast. Right now with us it's like every gift they receive, every event they're scheduled to go to, you see a genuine excitement on their face.

Every game is its own game. We need to win this game. It happens to be against Connecticut.

I've never had a make-or-break year in my life. I'm going to coach football, it's what I do. This program, to me, everything is pointing in the right direction. So we're going to work as hard as we can and be as smart as we can.

Things went our way in the first half, and it seemed we could do no wrong. In the second half it was tougher. But that's the way football games are won and lost across the country every week. In the end it was 37-29 Rutgers, and we move on.

Sometimes you make a play like that interception in the end zone and you stem the tide and find a way to win. We interfered.

Ryan has grown as quarterback in that he really understands what defenses are trying to do to us and he understands his own game.

Ryan has been a consummate team player and really helped Mike and helped the offense. We just felt overall that (Teel) gives us a better chance to be a successful offense. It was a tough, tough decision. And if it was that hard and we still did it, there's a strong a strong belief in what Mike Teel can do.

Ray is a mature young man. You can talk to him like a man and he listens. And there's competition. Competition always keeps everyone's head on straight.

Competition always keeps your head on straight. He knows Dimitri (Linton) is a good running back. He knows we're bringing in one of the better running backs in the country. That's the beauty of competition, right? It keeps everybody pressing on.

And that's not even saying anything yet about his athletic ability.

This is not a one-year stint; they laid the foundation for our football program to move forward. My biggest disappointment is for those guys because I wanted them to complete the experience, to be a bowl champion, not just a bowl participant. It's something that hasn't been done around here for 27 years. We'll be back.

There were points in the game where the momentum could have swung in the other direction. It was the first time the entire team had a fighting, chopping wood attitude the entire game.

They're a team we really don't know a heck of a lot about so we just need to prepare for everything and adjust on the run as the game evolves.

They're playing with a different confidence level. You can definitely see a change from last season till now.

They're both doing things at different periods that show you that they can be the guy to help us in that situation. Mike's got a little stronger arm, can get the ball down the field a little better and Ryan's experienced.

It's no secret Mike threw 10 interceptions last year. We have to find a way to make sure that goes away.

It's only week five. We'd be negligent if we didn't start getting more people ready, because we're running out of people. I'm not naive to the fact that when you play true freshmen, hold onto your hat, there's things that are going to happen that are beyond explanation.

It's been awhile that we were involved in a game like this. Not that it means a heck of a lot, because at the end of Saturday there's still a ton of football to play.

That's something that gets overlooked by a lot of people. Clark did a great job when he filled in, but he hasn't done it in a while. We'll need to make sure we put a lot of pressure on him this spring and get him ready.

I've done it before with better talent, given up 400 yards. Maybe it's the coordinator.

It was a hard day to judge any skill position with the wind and the rain.

It will be a true test right off the bat.

The twins will get a lot of work. Jason will play, and Devin may play.

Once that ball leaves the hand of anybody, it's hard to judge it. But early on, when we were going with the wind, I thought Mike threw some good balls. I did see Ray at the beginning of the game, and he ran the ball well.

I'm not putting him in Elvis' class. But that's the kind of impact we think he can make. I think he's going to be a very productive player at that position. I just wish I would've done it sooner.

I interviewed one or two guys and then just looked at it and said at this stage in the program, I just didn't know if it was the best thing for us to go through a transitional thing. So far I've really enjoyed it, and hopefully it will produce good results.

I'm happy we rebounded from a very emotional loss last week. I'm happy that we could go out and win a game we were supposed to. Having said that, I'm not sure we answered any questions after the game that we had before the game.

I'm happy that we were able to rebound from a very emotional loss. We went out and won a game that we were supposed to win. It's a great feeling at this point in the program. Offensively, I am pleased that we have completed two games without a turnover. Our offense is the strength of our football team. And we need to keep slugging away, and continue to get better and better.

I know he's excited to go play in front of the home-town fans. I think one of the things he has to guard against is if he gets too excited. But Brian's kind of a low-key guy who will go out and do well I'm sure.

I just have a funny feeling that Ray is the kind of guy who likes the big lights.

I haven't lost any confidence that Ray can do the job. He's fine.

I really didn't have any complaints with the way it was last year.

If you're willing to risk a timeout for it, it's probably worth it. Having instant replay in any form is better than not having it.

If you start saying, 'We have to do this, this year, and we have to do that next year,' that's when you get in trouble. I've never coached like that and I'm never going to coach like that. I'm blessed. My job is my hobby. I'm never going to let it get to where I start coaching tight. That's not me.

He's just a guy who came in and was a mature guy. He had his sights set on being the guy. And he has incredible balance and vision, but it was his maturity and focus that allowed him to do that.

If he's ready, we'll have a package for him. And I hope he's ready, because when he has the ball in his hands, when a play breaks down and he starts to improvise, it's something else.

I couldn't be more proud. Ryan is an emotional guy, he kept himself in check the entire game. I thought he did an excellent job of operating our offense and managed the clock well, all of the things we asked him to do.

I am very much at peace with where we started, where we are now and where we are going.

He really has a great demeanor about him. I can't tell you what's going on inside but to all the players and coaches he sure is a cool customer. Sometimes in life if that's how you appear, even if you're not, it makes everybody else comfortable.

As I talked to our team, we are going to believe that Eric is going to walk onto that field again.

The running backs are the strengths of their football team. They have quality players who can do a number of things for their team.

We may still have as many questions after the game as we did before the game. But that's OK. Good teams answer their questions as they go, but they do it with wins. We didn't get it done last week - we found a way to get it done this week.

Dads are the leaders in their homes, and our kids need leaders.

There are two things every man in America thinks he can do: work a grill and coach football.

The greatest in their game have their off days.

All the corners are playing better. I think it's as a direct result of the competition.