Five Quotes from Greg Schiano following the Scarlet-White Game

The Scarlet team defeated the White team 16-14 in the spring game on Friday at SHI Stadium. You can watch full highlights here as well as catch up on our five takeaways and a full rundown of the spring awards. After the game, head coach Greg Schiano met with the media. Here are five key quotes from the press conference.

On Quarterback play

“I think it was very similar to what I thought all spring. I thought it was really good at times and then inconsistent at times. We need to have a great summer. And you know, the hard thing about spring is you’re on, you’re off, you’re on, you’re off. These guys in the summertime, they throw with each other every day on their own, and that’s really where the formulation of the chemistry I think occurs. No coaches, just them, running the show. We’ll take a little jump here into recruiting and some other things. But I really am excited about this group going into the training camp part of our preparation, because they are young and they are hungry and they have got a lot to learn but they are really trying to learn it. That’s exciting for a coach.”

The additions of Taj Harris and Sean Ryan at wide receiver

“I think they are really going to help us. You know, they come in, they join Shameen, and then a host of other guys. We lose a really fine player in Bo as he leaves for the NFL. And I think it’s really important that what we did through the portal, supplementing what we already have here. We have some young receivers that are going to be really good but they make take a little while to get there. To have some experienced guys on the squad now that, helps a lot.”

The group of running backs

“Al-Shadee Salaam, haven’t seen a lot of him because he was redshirting, as you said and had some injuries at the end of the year. But he’s very talented guy. Really talented. Fast, explosive, and we just have to make sure we find ways to get him involved. And he’s going to earn those touches. I think between he and Kyle; Kyle I thought had a really good night as well running the football. You know, we’ll get Aaron back and you have some depth there. That’s Ja; if he can stay healthy, Ja has a chance to really compete there, too. So I like our running back room. It’s just going to be fine tuning it and really learning the little details of playing the position.”

The scoring coming to a halt after the first two drives

“That’s a great question. I’m anxious to — who am I — I’m not going to look at it tonight, but I am going to look at it this weekend and see what changed. My hunch would be as we started the game, then we started rotating people. So we already divided the teams and then after two series, I want to make sure everybody gets enough reps. My thing, the spring game, is, yes, the lights are on, and we get to evaluate people that are playing in a game atmosphere. But spring is hard. It’s 14 practices and it covers a long period of time because we are on and we’re off, we’re on and we’re off. So I wanted to make sure that everybody got the reward. Everyone that was healthy got the reward of playing in the spring game. So all five of the quarterbacks got plenty of reps, every receiver, every position got reps. Every lineman, every kid that was able to play in the game; every player that was able to play, played. So when you start really mixing and matching, I think the product dips a little bit. But there’s other reasons, too, I’m sure that I’ll see on the video.”

On Athletic Director Pat Hobbs being extended through 2028

“Oh, I think it’s great. I think continuity here with people that work well together, you know, Pat’s been here I don’t know how many years now, but he’s done a great job and I think he’s got all our — you just look what’s happening with baseball, both lacrosses, what happened with basketball, and I know I’ll leave somebody out if I start mentioning everybody. But you look at the Rutgers athletic department, it’s going like this (indicating upward trajectory) and the leader of that department is Pat. I’m very happy for him. He deserves it. What we need to do is get this operation cooking because this is the one that, as we know, can really push everything up even faster.”

“But everybody’s locked. Everybody in this athletic department at this university, including our president, who got underneath that punt and fielded it right there at the beginning of the half. That was unbelievable. I have got to tip my hat to him. There are not a lot of people our age that can get underneath that and catch that punt, especially the ones Adam hits at night. I’m sure President Holloway was not practicing punt catching. He does not have the time to do that, right. Right from the very top, all the way through our athletic administration down to the coaches and players, I think this athletic department is in a good place, and it’s only going to get better. So I’m thrilled for Pat and thrilled for our department.”

You can watch Schiano’s entire post-spring game press conference here: