Rutgers Football HC Greg Schiano talks Kansas State/Rate Bowl postgame

Rutgers football head coach Greg Schiano speaks to the media after the 2024 Rate Bowl against Kansas State on Thursday afternoon.

Thank you for covering the game. You came all the way from the East Coast and you appreciate it. Definitely disappointed, but not discouraged. We have a really good core in our program right now. We owe a huge thank you to the boys who played their last game today, the seniors. They came to Rutgers when there was nothing to believe in except us. We had no documents to show for this.

And today we unfortunately came up a little short. It was a damn good football game. Two really good teams that played really hard. And I want to recognize the hard work our boys have put into this preparation. I mean, everyone in the program – the coaches, the players, the staff, our administration. Everyone really put in a lot of effort.

I wish we could have given them a win. But as I tell the players, if you do everything in life to do your best, you may be disappointed, but you will be at peace. I know this team did everything they could and fell just a little short. I feel bad. I feel sorry for you, but that’s how life works. So we shake off the dirt and get back to work in a few weeks and continue to build this program.

Q. Greg, what were you able to do against your defense to allow you to score on the big plays that you needed, especially in the second half?

You did a great job. They did some things in the run game that certainly gave us problems. They are a very talented group. Your skills are very good. If the quarterback can be a runner like he is, it changes the whole math. It’s very difficult. I wish I could have done a better job. I wish we could all have done a better job. But here too we did everything we could. It just came up a little short.

Looking back, are there things you would do differently? Secure. But it’s a real luxury to be able to make these decisions. Decisions in life have to be made the way you do. It would be nice if you could do them in retrospect. That’s not how it works. I feel really good about our program. I feel good in our team. And I feel sorry for them, but I feel really good for them.

Q. 82 yards offensively in the second half, one score in the last six drives. You guys were so productive offensively in the first half. What changed in the second half and why do you think there was such a big difference?

Well, like I said, life gets difficult, right? There are a few things. They played better. We had some problems. Some of these were technical problems. Some of them were coaching issues where we had to get coach (Kirk) Ciarrocca out of the box because our headsets weren’t working properly. I felt bad. Certainly one of his secrets is being able to control the game from above and see it so well.

My hat is off to Kansas State. You did a great job. They controlled the game in the second half with their offense and defense.

Q. Coach, how much of a difference was there in not having a clear defensive coordinator preparing for the game and kicking off the game today?

Well, losing Joe Harasymiak certainly wasn’t a good thing for us. But look, everyone worked very hard to try to make it work. I’m not going to rush to hire someone to do this just for the bowl game. We will find the right man for the future here. And we will. We are getting the guy who fits our program, fits our culture and is an excellent defensive coordinator.

I wish I could have done a better job for her. I know the coaches feel the same way. But like I said, you make the best decisions possible. You work as hard as you can. You put everything you’ve got into it and let the chips fall where they fall.

Q: The crowd was mostly K-State, but you had a commanding lead for most of the first three quarters. How proud were you when you saw that because you were basically fighting for yourself and the small group of people that came from the East Coast like you mentioned?

Now, for those of you who don’t know our team, we won the first four, we lost the next four. I lost track of the number of surgeries at the end of the season. On this day of college football, most teams would have folded up their tent and said we’ll deal with it next year.

This group of guys fought back, literally ripped themselves off the screen and fought back and found a way to win seven games and found a way to do it in the Big Ten Conference.

They play for each other again. That’s the secret. When you do that, there is an additional strength that they can utilize. It is very important that we continue to build on this; that guys today, in modern college football, are selfless, that you can have a selfless group of guys that play for each other.

That’s why I say I feel really sorry for them because they’re great people, but that’s life. You’ll win some. I told them that’s how life works. If you want everything to be rosy, live a dream. That won’t happen. That’s why, in my opinion, this game and this sport are the greatest teachers for life.

Q. Greg, you alluded to the current sentiment regarding the program, 7-6 for the second year in a row. Do you feel like you’ve made progress this season?

Without doubt. If you don’t see that, you’re really in trouble. Imagine, this is a football team that could have won nine, ten games if we had stayed reasonably healthy. Not healthy, just moderately healthy. To say we had some injuries would be an understatement.

I haven’t talked about it all year. I never used it as an excuse. I know at halftime when we were 4-4, most people thought we were done. We had no players. People in this day and age, people like this guy sitting next to me, he feels bad every week. Tyreem Powell, every week. Turn Dixon every week. I told you that most college football players wouldn’t play in this year’s games, especially guys who have an NFL future. And that’s how much they cared about each other.

And I told them in the locker room: You have something very, very special. Never let this go. Most people in this world don’t have that. Maybe they have it with the family – maybe. But with people who are not part of their family, it is something special.

Q. According to Athan (Kaliakmanis), what happened during this interception?

I haven’t even talked to him about it. Yes, I had a lot to do today. It was a very busy day out there. And then the headsets fail and we can’t communicate. There was a lot going on.

But it’s great, these are the challenges. When you get into this business, you look forward to all the different things you have to figure out as a competitor. And once again, my hat goes off to Kansas State because they played a great game. And the work they do is very impressive.

Q. Robert, what exactly do you think the problems were for you? It seemed like Kansas State had a few drives where they just moved the ball at will.

ROBERT LONGERBEAM: We didn’t handle certain situations well. This is me, included. We had to make more plays to win the game and we couldn’t do that today.

Q. Robert, obviously not the result you wanted; But you had that huge interception. What did your last game as a senior mean to you?

ROBERT LONGERBEAM: Based on the result, really nothing. But it was an honor to step onto the field with my teammates one last time. This is a group, we’re really close. So it hurts that we ended up like that, but I just enjoyed every moment of playing with them.