Head Coach Greg Schiano Training Camp - 8/17/24

Opening Statement okay guys thanks for coming out uh before we get started uh I just want to send my best wishes to Pat Hobbs as you guys know by now Pat's uh stepping away and I just wish him the best with his health and his future and um we I think we did some really good things together here at Ruckers in the last four years and um again I wish him he and his family the best uh scrimmage today we got a lot of young guys a lot of work that was excellent uh I think we made some decisions and the guys practiced very hard this week it was a tough tough week and uh we decided to hold a bunch of guys that have hundreds and hundreds of reps in Big 10 games to hold them out and start getting ready for the opener so we'll we'll transfer our focus on Monday to Howard and uh start start getting ready for the opener on Thursday night so I'll take any questions I know On the backup quarterback battle you talked about aan before what's the backup quarterback battle like now the backup quarterback battle Yeah Johnny is the backup quarterback and uh he's done a nice job he's getting better um I thought today was an excellent opportunity he had like 80 plays he played a he played a game and uh I thought he did well you know anytime you walk away and you don't turn the ball over it's a great day for the offense now since I'm the head coach I'm not really pleased defensively we got no takeaways but uh we did block a few so that was good a couple weeks ago in On the defense Indianapolis you said that Ruckers is the most vertically aligned um from an athletic standpoint that it's been um with Pat's resignation does that change and what does Pat's resignation mean for your football program well we are On the football program vertically aligned and it starts with our our governing board and we have a great new chairperson or chairman and Amy Towers um you know she's just took over we've had great leadership there and everybody is aligned of what the role of Athletics is at ruter and how we're going to do it uh and then with with President Holloway he's phenomenal I mean he's a a huge supporter of everything ruter and I think what happens is you know the old saying all all boats rise with the tide and everything at Ruckers is getting better including their athletic department so uh you know Pat won't be with us anymore but he did a lot of things to help in that and you know wherever it goes whoever becomes the next athletic director we'll continue on that mission because I know that um that our Administration and our leadership our board are going to make a great hire when it's time just kind of On his involvement in the athletic director search following up on that um what do you expect your level of involvement to be and your level of input in the search process yeah I don't have any expectation really all I'm here to you know I'm focused on getting this scrimmage great ated and then turning the our Focus to Howard and get I have a job I have a job and I'm the head football coach and I plan on trying to do that the best I can Greg you On young receivers mentioned uh before a lot of young guys were standing out to you you brought in a couple young receivers this year anyone specific among that group really standing out yeah I think several of them are you know I think Ben Black's done a nice job KJ Duff's done a nice job and then I always forget somebody when you don't you know um yeah I think I think we're a much improved receiver core hats off to Dave Brock and to and to Johnny I mean those guys uh Johnny Perry those guys do a heck of a job coaching our white outs and our white outs want to be coached you know F Tay made some great plays today you know those are all young football players then you saw stretch making some plays out there in the at the end which was good to see so yeah I'm encouraged uh and I'm encouraged with our older guys as well personally how On relationship with Pat Hobbs would you describe your relationship with Pat Hobs and the time you spent together it was good yeah we worked well together I thought um um you know I have a unique kind of experience at ruter you that whole 11 years and you know when we started it really wasn't very good I mean not just the record facilities everything was awful so uh when you go through that you kind of build experiences you build relationships then I come back out of nowhere you know nine years later um but there were still a lot of the same people in place so I think the combination of my relationships and the new relationships that Pat had formed uh it was good it was good for football it was good for athletic department and we're going to continue going in that direction I know um you know Ryan pasari was named interim athletic director and Ryan is a football guy he's an Athletics guy he's a ruter guy he's a New Jersey guy so he'll bust his rear end to make sure we keep it on track and uh all the senior leadership team over there in the athletic department will work very hard to make sure that you know there's nothing to worry about we're going to make sure this thing keeps moving forward what is your ideal candidate for On next athletic director the next athletic director at Ruckers you know I I'm not going to get into any of that right I want to coach this team I want to get ready to go play this game it's 11 days away right so um look I you always want someone you can work with and that that that is vertically aligned and our institution is vertically aligned so let's get someone that wants to join in and just make it better that's that's it the early bye did you approach training camp any differently coming into this year that's a great question yeah I had to definitely consider that and it's um it's it's interesting we have a very choppy season uh we have the two right and then we play the six and then and and and and then we play the four and there's SP and there Friday nights and there's cross country trips and there's a lot of things to just so we've put together a plan for the season I'm sure we're going to have to adapt that a little bit things change but um yeah that buy was definitely workload player loads all those things knowing that there's a bye after two weeks for sure have you done a captain On captains vote Vote or you have a timeline for that we have done the captain's vote and I know who they are but I haven't announced them to the team yet so I won't do that publicly but uh sometime early in the week we'll make that public M I do yeah On scrimmaging can you just describe uh like what you saw from the scrimish today and why most of your first team reps or First Team guys were mostly wrestling yeah I mean we worked really hard this week you know we do they would have come out and only done thud they weren't going to do live thud is when you just butt them up but no one tackles to the ground no one blocks to the ground and you know we had enough it's my job to what's enough you can always do more that's for sure right but at what cost and I thought we retired they worked really hard it was humid this week we really got after it and I wanted them to have a a warmup today and then the rest of the day off then all day tomorrow off rest and recovery and then get going on Howard so you're talking about a lot of guys that have played you know five to, 1500 reps some of them have over 2,000 reps in Big 10 games so I think we're at the point now where where we got to start focusing our direction to game prep and I really didn't want to risk injury Brian uh what have you seen from On Darell Johnson a darel jab in training camp and kind of where he is in his development right now yeah I think he's made a big move uh defensively as a linebacker he's done great I think had a really really fine camp and special teams he's been a a real standout on all our special teams so talking about a valuable member of the team he's big uh he's strong and he's fast and he's a violent hitter so those are pretty good traits for a linebacker two quick ones have you had a On defensive line depth chance to talk to Pat since he was on we've communicated yeah and what was that conversation like yeah it's personal uh how do you feel about your depth at defensive tackle guys like CH Hamilton coming back but younger guys behind them which really feel like d that yeah I mean I think we have I think we have good depth on the defensive front overall but it's such a violent position you know that changes like that you know so you have to have that depth and you have to be developing young players behind them because like I said remember last year towards the end of the year I mean it got thin real thin and there's nowhere to hide when you don't on either front when you get thin and now you're down to lesser players it changes the way you play the game of football and the way you coach the game so it's critically important that we keep those guys healthy appreciate you coming out guys thanks