Schiano Coaching Tree

it’s too early for his former players to be coaches for the most part. There are a few in high school – the OC at Bosco played for Schiano.

Some former assistants though have moved up in the world – Darrell Hazell is the Akron HC (which has more to do with his stint at Ohio State), and Joe Susan is the Bucknell HC.

Right now, I don’t know if there was a player who isn’t still playing that the Knights would really benefit from. Schiano, as much as you could question some decisions, is phenomenal at recruiting people who fit a role well and execute. With a few exceptions, there aren’t many people, players or coaches, that have been awful since he was in charge. Honestly, is there anyone he could have picked up that had both the playing and leadership skills necessary to improve the team?

If there was anyone, I would argue that there was no way to tell that prior to their employment. From the player side, it is easy to measure skills and come up with a general assessment of talent. As a coach, there are more of those dreaded “X-factors” that you find out you have after coaching. Schiano has been mostly conservative with his picks for staff, something reflected in the play-calling and general attitude of the team in the past few years, but I think it’s getting better.

Teams are starting to respect our ability to recruit and train young talent. We will probably catch a few solid but desperate coaches to fill in managerial gaps, and I expect that then former players will be more likely to pursue coaching here, and Schiano will welcome them more readily after he has a steady base.

Plus, can you really see RayRay leaving EnnJay?