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Rutgers University Football Media Conference
Saturday, November 14, 2015
Kyle Flood
HEAD COACH KYLE FLOOD: Good evening. Let me start with Derrick Nelson. I think everybody saw that at the end of the game there. Right now he's at Robert Wood Johnson.
Before he left the field he had full movement in his hands and his feet and his extremities. So again, I make that announcement in case his parents were watching. He told me before he left the field his parents weren't here, and we're in the process of trying to get in contact with them. But all the initial signs were positive.
Any injury of that type needs to be handled with the greatest of caution. So that's why he's at Robert Wood right now being cared for. And when I'm done I'll head over there.
In terms of the game, we're disappointed. We've got things we've got to continue to work on. We had some opportunities in the game. We got it to a one score game in the second half, we certainly had opportunities. But we need more consistency. More consistency of good play, which we didn't have today.
Q. You said he was responsive and talking to you while he was down? What was your feeling?
HEAD COACH KYLE FLOOD: I don't want to get into all that. I'm not a medical person. Again, I want his parents to know if they're watching that he had full movement and communication skills and that kind of stuff. What we're doing is precautionary right now.
As a coach it's the most important thing, the health and safety of your players is more important than anything else that we do. And I feel really good right now that he's over at Robert Wood. He's in great hands.
Q. (Inaudible.)
HEAD COACH KYLE FLOOD: I just didn't feel good about putting the defense back out there. At some point you're going to run out of possessions. It didn't work. So that's the difference. They did a great job holding them to a field goal afterwards. They really stepped up in that situation.
But again when you call those things, and when they work, you feel really good, and when they don't there's always a little bit of risk reward for sure.
Q. What's your assessment of the defense overall?
HEAD COACH KYLE FLOOD: I felt they battled, at times opportunistic. Three drives in a row that ended in interceptions. The one touchdown on the scramble in the second quarter, the quarterback gets out of the pocket and a young half field safety comes up to secondary contain it, which is really not his responsibility. And the ball goes over his head for a touchdown. So we're still having some of those growing pains back there, for sure.
I don't think we necessarily put them in the best situations throughout the game. But certainly have to credit Nebraska. They've got a good football team, and they've got talented players and good coaches. And they did a good job with their game plan, as well.
Q. How do you explain the struggle the last two games? And Nebraska came in with a weaker pass defense?
HEAD COACH KYLE FLOOD: A weaker pass defense gets better in a hurry when the pass rush is effective. And so to me, without looking at the film, and you say what was the biggest issue we had on the field today, it was the defense. They had six sacks, though we didn't do a very good job of protecting the quarterback at all. And it just gets really hard.
Q. Was there anything different Nebraska did defensively with the line, the linebackers, that maybe you hadn't seen in some other games?
HEAD COACH KYLE FLOOD: Every week I think every team has a little wrinkle in their third down package. How we do it. How they do it. But there's other times where I think we're breaking down one-on-one. And I've got to look at that on film and see if I'm right. Those things are tough to evaluate live on game day.
Q. Paul James, was he mentally tired?
HEAD COACH KYLE FLOOD: Paul could have played. He didn't have a full practice week. And I felt like if the other guys stayed healthy through the game, I'd like them to give him the opportunity to go out and practice. I expect Paul to be a big part next week.
Q. What's your reaction to getting booed at home during the PSA?
HEAD COACH KYLE FLOOD: I don't have any reaction to it, at all. My job is to coach the football team. I get great support from so many people and in so many places. The reality of major college football is if you're not playing well and not performing well, those things are going to happen.
Q. A few players on the defense made some plays tonight, despite the 31 points. Lewis and Hampton and Cioffi.
HEAD COACH KYLE FLOOD: Hampton and Cioffi both had interceptions. Turnovers are critical in the game. Saquan had 13 tackles. Career-high. That's good. That's really good. It's important. He's in the middle of our defense for a reason. For him to be productive, that's a good sign.
Q. I think what Steve is referring to, can you empathize at all with the fan frustration, is that what you in the locker room and coaches are feeling right now?
HEAD COACH KYLE FLOOD: I think everybody in the program is frustrated. We want to be 1 and 0. There's no question. We've got real competitors in that locker room.
We have very high expectations for ourselves. We're not pleased with how we played tonight. We'll go back to work tomorrow to fix it. Ultimately that's what we can do. I think I said this before, we're frustrated. You can't let the frustration turn into discouragement, because discouragement stops you from going forward, and for us it's important to go forward.
Q. (Inaudible.)
HEAD COACH KYLE FLOOD: I'll find out tomorrow, but I don't have any concern about it. We've got players that want to compete. And when we show up next week up at West Point we'll be ready to do that. If you've got competitors in your locker room, it's a week to week season. And they'll go out and compete. I have no doubt about it.
Q. Chris Muller, how did he deal with the injury? Did he suffer anything?
HEAD COACH KYLE FLOOD: Not to my knowledge.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
Rev #1 by #178 at 2015-11-15 01:17:00 GMT
Before he left the field he had full movement in his hands and his feet and his extremities. So again, I make that announcement in case his parents were watching. He told me before he left the field his parents weren't here, and we're in the process of trying to get in contact with them. But all the initial signs were positive.
Any injury of that type needs to be handled with the greatest of caution. So that's why he's at Robert Wood right now being cared for. And when I'm done I'll head over there.
In terms of the game, we're disappointed. We've got things we've got to continue to work on. We had some opportunities in the game. We got it to a one score game in the second half, we certainly had opportunities. But we need more consistency. More consistency of good play, which we didn't have today.
Q. You said he was responsive and talking to you while he was down? What was your feeling?
HEAD COACH KYLE FLOOD: I don't want to get into all that. I'm not a medical person. Again, I want his parents to know if they're watching that he had full movement and communication skills and that kind of stuff. What we're doing is precautionary right now.
As a coach it's the most important thing, the health and safety of your players is more important than anything else that we do. And I feel really good right now that he's over at Robert Wood. He's in great hands.
Q. (Inaudible.)
HEAD COACH KYLE FLOOD: I just didn't feel good about putting the defense back out there. At some point you're going to run out of possessions. It didn't work. So that's the difference. They did a great job holding them to a field goal afterwards. They really stepped up in that situation.
But again when you call those things, and when they work, you feel really good, and when they don't there's always a little bit of risk reward for sure.
Q. What's your assessment of the defense overall?
HEAD COACH KYLE FLOOD: I felt they battled, at times opportunistic. Three drives in a row that ended in interceptions. The one touchdown on the scramble in the second quarter, the quarterback gets out of the pocket and a young half field safety comes up to secondary contain it, which is really not his responsibility. And the ball goes over his head for a touchdown. So we're still having some of those growing pains back there, for sure.
I don't think we necessarily put them in the best situations throughout the game. But certainly have to credit Nebraska. They've got a good football team, and they've got talented players and good coaches. And they did a good job with their game plan, as well.
Q. How do you explain the struggle the last two games? And Nebraska came in with a weaker pass defense?
HEAD COACH KYLE FLOOD: A weaker pass defense gets better in a hurry when the pass rush is effective. And so to me, without looking at the film, and you say what was the biggest issue we had on the field today, it was the defense. They had six sacks, though we didn't do a very good job of protecting the quarterback at all. And it just gets really hard.
Q. Was there anything different Nebraska did defensively with the line, the linebackers, that maybe you hadn't seen in some other games?
HEAD COACH KYLE FLOOD: Every week I think every team has a little wrinkle in their third down package. How we do it. How they do it. But there's other times where I think we're breaking down one-on-one. And I've got to look at that on film and see if I'm right. Those things are tough to evaluate live on game day.
Q. Paul James, was he mentally tired?
HEAD COACH KYLE FLOOD: Paul could have played. He didn't have a full practice week. And I felt like if the other guys stayed healthy through the game, I'd like them to give him the opportunity to go out and practice. I expect Paul to be a big part next week.
Q. What's your reaction to getting booed at home during the PSA?
HEAD COACH KYLE FLOOD: I don't have any reaction to it, at all. My job is to coach the football team. I get great support from so many people and in so many places. The reality of major college football is if you're not playing well and not performing well, those things are going to happen.
Q. A few players on the defense made some plays tonight, despite the 31 points. Lewis and Hampton and Cioffi.
HEAD COACH KYLE FLOOD: Hampton and Cioffi both had interceptions. Turnovers are critical in the game. Saquan had 13 tackles. Career-high. That's good. That's really good. It's important. He's in the middle of our defense for a reason. For him to be productive, that's a good sign.
Q. I think what Steve is referring to, can you empathize at all with the fan frustration, is that what you in the locker room and coaches are feeling right now?
HEAD COACH KYLE FLOOD: I think everybody in the program is frustrated. We want to be 1 and 0. There's no question. We've got real competitors in that locker room.
We have very high expectations for ourselves. We're not pleased with how we played tonight. We'll go back to work tomorrow to fix it. Ultimately that's what we can do. I think I said this before, we're frustrated. You can't let the frustration turn into discouragement, because discouragement stops you from going forward, and for us it's important to go forward.
Q. (Inaudible.)
HEAD COACH KYLE FLOOD: I'll find out tomorrow, but I don't have any concern about it. We've got players that want to compete. And when we show up next week up at West Point we'll be ready to do that. If you've got competitors in your locker room, it's a week to week season. And they'll go out and compete. I have no doubt about it.
Q. Chris Muller, how did he deal with the injury? Did he suffer anything?
HEAD COACH KYLE FLOOD: Not to my knowledge.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
Rev #1 by #178 at 2015-11-15 01:17:00 GMT
RUTGERS PLAYER QUOTES
Player Quotes-Rutgers
November 14, 2015
Wide Receiver Leonte Carroo
Q: Being a captain how do you handle an injury like that to one of your teammates?
A: It is just hard but you have to make sure to keep the guys heads up and let them know that Derrick is going to be alright. A bunch of guys are already on the way to the hospital to see him --- I’m going after this so just pray for Derrick and just make sure the team stays strong.
Q: What did it feel like to get back out on the field tonight?
A: It felt great just to be back out there, just to have the game atmosphere and play with my teammates was fun. It has been a rough two weeks --- these last weeks being out but it felt good to be back out there.
Q: Would you say you are at 100%?
A: No but I’m still going to go out there and do whatever I can to help my team win.
Q: You said you weren’t 100%, what areas were you deficient in?
A: Just the simple fact that I haven’t practiced in about two weeks so just being out there and finally running full speed against a different opponent was difficult.
Running Back Robert Martin
Q: Does the frustration level seem to be getting bigger week after week?
A: I think we are okay. I think we all have good spirit, we train [well], we practice [well], we just have to come out and execute like I told him. I think the spirit is there.
Q: Obviously you heard fans booing can you sympathize with them?
A: They want us to win as bad as we want to win so we know how they feel but we block that stuff out come game time. We are just trying to do our job so we can win and make each other happy --- make the locker room happy.
Q: Robert, you did it at Indiana and at Maryland but to fall behind 20 points --- what kind of hill is that to climb? You can’t do that regularly right?
A: Yeah you definitely can’t go down big, especially in the Big Ten because it is a really good conference. We just have to stay on task. I felt like we were moving the ball pretty [well], we just have to not hurt ourselves and shoot ourselves in the foot and give up penalties and stuff like that but like I said we have got to get in and watch the film, listen to the coaches and get back to it.
Safety Anthony Cioffi
Q: What was that scene like at the end with Nelson going down?
A: It was tough to see because you are already down about the game in itself and then you see one of your family [members] go down like that it is tough but we are all praying for him and he is going to get the best care.
Q: When you make that pick and return it down to the five did you feel like you still had a chance to win the game?
A: Yeah I feel like it shifted momentum but we just need to capitalize on every opportunity we have on offense and on defense.
Q: How tough is it on the defense going out when it seems like they have good field position drive after drive?
A: It is tough but we have to continue to go out and [play] no matter if the offense scores or if they have to punt the ball. We are still with [the offense] throughout the ups and downs.
Cornerback Saquan Hampton
Q: What did you see on the scramble touchdown there in the corner?
A: The quarterback was scrambling and threw a good ball, the receiver made a good play --- we have got to come back from that.
Q: Was there a blown coverage in there?
A: It wasn’t a blown coverage it is just crazy when the quarterback is scrambling, there are guys running all over the place.
Q: Obviously that is seven losses. How does the team bounce back from that realizing there will probably be no bowl?
A: We just have to bounce back tomorrow. We have to lift in the morning so we just have to come back, keep fighting and finish strong.
Q: What was going through your mind when you see Derrick Nelson down there at the end?
A: Yeah that is sad to see him go down. You just have to hope for the best and send your best prayers to him and hopefully everything is okay.
Defensive Lineman Kevin Wilkins
Q: As a defense you guys brought this team back into the game with those turnovers --- how key was it finish on those plays?
A: It was good. I think my teammates, my brothers we pride ourselves on playing hard no matter what the situation is and that is what we are going to continue to do.
Q: What kind of adjustments did you make as a defense at halftime?
A: Just doing your job as best as you can.
Q: Mentally what are your thoughts now after another tough loss?
A: Well right now our team’s concerns are with Derrick. We are going to make sure he is all right so that we can get him back with us. He is a big part of our team and a close friend of mine and that is what we are focused on.