Rutgers Football: Why Scarlet Knights will be good in 5 years

Greg Schiano’s history as Head Coach of Rutgers Football

To understand why I think Greg Schiano is such a good fit for Rutgers, it would help to take a look back at his history with the program. It seems like a long time ago, but Schiano was head coach of the Scarlet Knights just under a decade ago. Since then, he has head coached for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and assistant coached at Ohio State.

But we’re rewinding all the way back to the year 2000. At the age of 35 years old, the young coach accepted the task of reviving a dead program that hadn’t been to a bowl game in 22 years. It was arguably the worst possible situation he could have been thrown into, but regardless, he worked this team back into winning ways.

He wouldn’t have a season with more than five victories until his fifth year at the helm, when he won seven games en route to the Insight Bowl. The Scarlet Knights wouldn’t turn back from here, having a winning season for five of his next six seasons in the position. This would include an 11-win season and two nine-win seasons.

During this stretch, he was awarded multiple coach of the year honors and eventually received an offer to coach the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, an offer that he would accept.