Piscataway - The day most fans and supporters of Rutgers football had hoped for finally happened. Greg Schiano was formally introduced by Rutgers as the next head coach of the program. President Robert Barchi, Governor Phil Murphy, Athletic Director Pat Hobbs and Schiano all spoke during this celebratory event. Here are some key moments and takeaways from the hour long press conference, followed by video of all the speeches and Q&A session with the media at the end of this article.
- Governor Murphy was clearly a galvanizing force in Rutgers and Schiano ultimately entering this second marriage. His enthusiasm and passion for Rutgers University and the football program in his speech at the beginning of the press conference was truly something. Schiano later said how “it’s incredible and it’s going to be one of the reasons that this thing goes the way we all know it’s going to go.” It’s simply not normal to have the Governor of the state giving such strong public support like this, but at the same time it’s an incredible thing for Rutgers to have such a strong advocate in the state house. It’s reasonable to expect that Rutgers will have his support and involvement when some form of help is needed with new facilities in the future.
- Schiano said “shoulder to shoulder” near the start of his address when speaking of his relationship with athletic director Pat Hobbs and said “we are going to make this thing special and I can’t wait to do it with you.” Hobbs spoke about the process of hiring Schiano before coach stepped to the podium and praised his experience and ability to take Rutgers to a better place a second time. It’s fair to still wonder how the two will work together long term, but both men made a serious effort to get things off on the right foot in this public forum. The potential for a tremendous partnership is there and today gave hope that it is possible.
- While Schiano will without a doubt explore every avenue to add talent to this roster, whether it’s in the current and following recruiting cycles, transfer portal and JUCO ranks, but he went out of his way to praise the current players near the start of his address. He said “I want to thank first off, our players. Because I had my phone, I was at my twins’ game or I was at Joey’s game every weekend this fall and I had my phone watching the Rutgers games. So I’d be watching the Rutgers games and watching the kids. What I saw was a group of kids that were in a very tough situation continue to get better and better. That doesn’t happen by accident.” Schiano knows he needs as many current players to buy-in to his culture as soon as possible, but his comments seemed genuine. He also praised Nunzio Campanile, saying he kept team fighting and that he will be a head coach someday. It’s been confirmed Nunzio will have a spot on his coaching staff in some capacity, but it hasn’t been publicly stated as to what his role will be. It’s likely it hasn’t been determined to give Schiano flexibility in filling out the rest of his staff. However, it’s clear Nunzio staying will be key for Schiano in bridging the gap in this transition and help the players that do ultimately stay go all in on the future ahead.
- As someone in the room said after the press conference was over, the difference between former head coach Chris Ash and Greg Schiano is “Knight and Day”. The charisma that Schiano has and the confidence that he projects is something that this program has sorely needed. He carried a true presence at the podium and his ability to generate excitement with the fans, the entire Rutgers community and entire state of New Jersey will be an asset in moving this program forward. As someone else said, “it was like having Bruce Springsteen in the building”. Schiano is going to build the “state of Rutgers” brick by brick and he has a ton of momentum behind him at the start, which is different than in his first tenure.
- Time will tell, but Schiano seemed like a man and coach who has put a lot of thought into his first tenure at Rutgers, what he has learned along the way in his other experiences since he left, and how he plans to apply those lessons this time around seemed geniune. Adaptability is something I’ve stressed as a must for Schiano to be successful in this run and he touched on that. One specific point he made was wanting to stay more focused on the big picture and ultimate goal of making the program successful, while allowing his staff room to do their jobs. He touched on the importance of hiring the most qualified coaches he can find. I think while he will have some potential rising stars so to speak on the staff, he will focus on having as experienced a staff as possible. While Schiano was known as the ultimate micromanager in his first tenure, he gave the impression that he will take somewhat of a different approach this time around and surrounding himself with as many veteran coaches who have been successful before will certainly help that mindset.
Plenty more to come with additional news and takes from today, including Schiano’s impassioned plea to fans, but here is video of the the press conference in full.
Comments
Somebody get me an AX!
The story about his unplanned visit to campus that Friday night and the chopping your way out of a cold dark forest were awesome! Great start to a new chapter!
By Christop311 on 12.04.19 1:13pm
I thought it was hilarious how when he was coach the first time, he had to hide Livingston campus from recruits!
By patelj27b on 12.04.19 1:19pm
As a graduate student coming from out of state in 1999 I lasted 1 semester on the Livingston Campus graduate housing
I quickly moved into a brick oven of a housing unit on College Ave.
By WestCoast_RU on 12.04.19 9:01pm
Ah the Quadjects!
I remember those well!
By IluminatiNYC on 12.05.19 8:20pm
After hearing that speech
If I still lived in NJ, no tree would be safe!
Keep chopping!!
By beowulf7 on 12.04.19 4:54pm
Too bad there's probably no need for an out-of-shape middle-aged guy on the roster
I’m ready to run through a brick wall for the guy after listening to him!
By ScarletItBleed on 12.04.19 1:25pm
Good summary article Aaron
of a great and inspiring press conference.
By thevinman on 12.04.19 1:37pm
Gravitas
Greg just has it. Gravitas. Charisma. Eye of the tiger. Intensity. Passion. Focus. Energy. The ability to INSPIRE.
You name it, he’s got it.
All qualities that good head coaches have. My goodness what a difference from our previous coach.
"Rutgers Football – All In"
By DegazRU on 12.04.19 1:55pm
He won the press conference, which I think we all pretty much expected. He spoke with passion and talked about the lessons he’s learned, while also mentioning that he’s going to let his staff do their jobs.
He already has one solid coach on his staff – now he just needs to knock it out of the park with the other 9 assistants to make sure it’s a staff that can go toe-to-toe with almost anyone. We need to finally hire a top notch OC and DC and pay them accordingly so they’ll both stick around for 3-5 years.
By HowRU on 12.04.19 2:15pm
He has a great story to tell
with Devon McCourty being a two star recruit with only one major college offer and now is a Probowl safety and running out of fingers for those Super Bowl rings.
By FrankME71MBA72 on 12.04.19 2:44pm
I don't know about you guys, but I put a deposit down for season tickets.
Driving 5 hours to get to a game isn’t something I’ve done much of, but Schiano has sparked a desire in me to watch this program grow up close.
Checking out campus and hoping this deal works out. Him signaling that he can’t micromanage like before (always keep the main thing the main thing). Bringing back F.A.M.I.L Y and Chop. Calling out all of Jersey to bring on the support, and telling boosters that their money is important for RU.
Schiano just recruited ALL of us.
BTW, I saw in Fatukasi’s Twitter that his younger brother was Schiano’s first offer.
By Buttgers on 12.04.19 2:51pm
I’m psyched
I’m ready to run through a wall after watching that presser
By RUTGERS08yo on 12.04.19 3:31pm
Just look at the difference between Schiano and Ash
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0_rQzJxEJ0
Jeez. Maybe I’m on the "Hobbs WTF were you doing train" with the Ash hiring.
I initially wrote this comment to copy and paste some links that were said after Ash was hired – which are the same things being said now that Greg is on board, but damn. Watching that intro video and Ash stumble over his words, talk about god damn smiles, and mention "organizational alignment" (for some reason) is truly eye-opening.
By RU in VA on 12.04.19 3:33pm
My experience
with some 30 years of management time some people can just ace an interview but can’t execute after they get the job. I am willing to give Hobbs some slack on that hire as I am guessing most of the pick and shovel work had already been done. He had only been on the job a week. I just think it took way too long to recognize the error as season after season there was no improvement.
By FrankME71MBA72 on 12.04.19 3:43pm
Slack? Maybe a little, but he extended his contract!!
By TrollsDestroyedNJcom on 12.04.19 4:45pm
BECAUSE OF THE IMPENDING SANCTIONS!!!!! IT'S BEEN CONFIRMED BY AGENTS THAT LANGUAGE WOULD'VE BEEN IN THE CONTRACT FOR ANY COACH WE HIRED.
I don’t get why people don’t understand this. Kyle Flood is the one who forced the extension, because it’s his dirty hands that kept us from interviewing Babers or Brohm. They wanted nothing to do with the sanctions and RU. Every coach knew we had NCAA sanctions potentially coming. Thankfully, they weren’t hefty, but we still would have to extend any coach hired because those sanctions "hinder" recruiting and on field performance to an extent.
By Buttgers on 12.04.19 5:08pm
Nobody would take the job because of the sanctions? So we had to extend the contract That is your excuse?
Chris Ash took it, right! Lol
Keeping a losing coach because of sanctions is about as sorry as a comment as I’ve ever seen you make here, And you’ve made quite a few
By TrollsDestroyedNJcom on 12.04.19 6:51pm
But you know what, today is a new day. In the spirit of Coach Schiano…I love you my fellow RU fan(s). We’ve all been through a lot and even though we may not always agree, we all share a love for the Scarlet Knights and want the best.
By TrollsDestroyedNJcom on 12.04.19 6:55pm
An automatic extension in the case of sanctions was literally in Ash’s original contract
It’s been discussed here and on many other outlets that discuss Rutgers football, including the NJ.com podcast.
By secret ASian man on 12.04.19 6:58pm
Yes, there was a "Memorandum of Agreement". It was not a guarantee.
By TrollsDestroyedNJcom on 12.04.19 7:02pm
A few days ago Schiano didn’t sign a contract, only a "Memorandum of Agreement"
A memorandum of agreement is a piece of paper that state the essential provisions of an agreement (salary, term, perks, etc.), an agreement that the parties will sign a "real contract" that incorporates the terms in the memorandum at a later date, and in for sports coaches, language saying that the memorandum creates a binding agreement.
Coaches and universities usually sign these things because a real contract can take weeks or months to negotiate and the coach needs to do be locked down and do coach duties right away and cannot wait weeks or months to finalize a contract that could be dozens of pages long.
So to get back to the original point, anything on Ash’s "Memorandum of Agreement" is binding on the university, if they promised an extension in the event of sanctions and sanctions happen, then Rutgers must extend Ash.
By secret ASian man on 12.04.19 8:58pm
Thanks for making that point
By Aaron Breitman on 12.04.19 9:04pm
I’ve further researched and discovered you guys are right.
I was unaware of the guaranteed extension.
My apologies.
By TrollsDestroyedNJcom on 12.04.19 7:05pm
JFC
How many times did we say the extension was going to be there for anyone in the contract language from the start?!?!?!
Holy hell, the wall that we were talking to finally was run through for you to realize Hobbs’s hands were tied on that issue.
By Buttgers on 12.04.19 8:24pm
I still rec'd you for realizing your error on the matter
I just get worked up when Hobbs gets blamed for the extension, when he really had no choice on the matter.
By Buttgers on 12.04.19 9:07pm