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OPENING STATEMENT
Good afternoon to everybody. We appreciate the work you do covering the team. You all worked overtime Saturday, probably the longest game any of us were involved in, so we appreciate that.
It feels like we were together here, but a couple words about last week, it was certainly good to see our guys get off to a good start and get back up off the mat after a tough week the week before. Happy about that.
I think two other positives, the guys did a good job refocusing, which you have to credit our leaders on that one, during some unusual delays.
The other thing, too, just occurred to me , it's the first time we've been able to work in the rain. Seems like every time it rained in the preseason, it came with thunder and lightning, so we got chased indoors. Really didn't get to work with a wet ball an extensive period, and did that certainly the other night and came out of it okay that way.
Certainly some positives. I thought we had a little rhythm in that first half offensively. A little tougher in the second part of the game where we had a couple delays.
Part of that was the run game got going a little bit and did some good things there. It was good to get Nico back certainly and a couple young guys getting involved with Keagan Johnson and Kaleb Johnson, and then also Brody Brecht, getting him started a little bit, so that was good.
Defensively, good to get the shut-out and good to see some younger guys step in there and do a decent job, and then special teams, thought the punting game was obviously a factor in our punt return, saw some positives there, but then on the flipside -- Drew Stevens also was a plus there.
On the flipside, we had two penalties in the kicking game, and that's always costly, and not what we're looking for in that regard. That hurt, and our kickoff coverage was not good, especially on the one we let the ball out there, and that was kind of disappointing to that that, as well. A lot of good things, but always shows on Sunday a lot of things that we can work on, and that's kind of where our attention has been. Also obviously facing Rutgers coming up here.
Shifting gears, captains will be the same four guys this week: Jack Campbell, Sam LaPorta, Kaevon Merriweather and Riley Moss. It's our first Big Ten game, needless to say that's important. First road game and then another night game.
All those three things factored in, it's a little bit different here, and playing a team that's off to a really good start, Rutgers is playing well with a 3-0 record right now, and they're playing well, so they certainly have our full attention.
I've known Coach Schiano over two decades, and have been familiar with his career for quite a while. One thing about him, he's a tremendous football coach, outstanding person, and has done a really good job in a short amount of time there.
Anything from the last time we played them, it's a whole different ballgame right now. If you look at Coach Schiano's track record, he built that program up in the early part of this century here, the first decade here, 2001 to 2011, really gave Rutgers an identity. He did an outstanding job with the program, and you can see him laying the foundation for that right now, at least from our vantage point. They have a really good coaching staff. They're cohesive based on what we're seeing on film.
They definitely have an identity and know what they're trying to get accomplished, and then more importantly you can see their players embracing what it is they're doing.
I think they've certainly worked hard to improve their roster.
We're back in Big Ten play. The guys we're playing are bigger, they're more athletic, and certainly Rutgers has a lot of guys that can cause problems. They have an outstanding punter, also, and we have to look at him, whatever year that was they came over here, just a tremendous football player and receiver kick return guy that's a really big explosive player overall.
Good football team. We have our work cut out, and we're working on that right now.
Last thing, just real quick, tip of the hat to our kid captain Anjouli Sahoe, and she's a six-year old from Atkins, Iowa, and obviously won't be traveling with us, but appreciate her. She'll be with us in spirit and cheering us on.
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