It’s been two full college football seasons since Rutgers Football head coach Greg Schiano last coached at Ohio State and this weekend he will take on his former Buckeyes team in a primetime matchup on the B1G Network.
Schiano spoke with the media on Monday and answered some questions heading into the game versus some of his former recruits and former colleagues.
“You know, I was involved in everything and it’s all team recruiting these days.” Schiano said in his Monday presser. “So to say just one guy recruited all these guys would be inappropriate, but I was involved in the recruitment of a lot of these players and they're all really good players and equally good people. If you look at it you know what Urban (Meyer) did not only for Ohio State, but what he did for the entire Big Ten. When he took that job in 2012, the Big Ten was not doing what it is doing now and I give a lot of credit for that to Urban. I thought he did, he set the bar at a different level for recruiting in the Big Ten and I think that continued for three great years.”
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Schiano was the defensive coordinator for the Buckeyes from 2016-2018, where he crossed paths with current Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day who was the Buckeyes Co-OC/QB coach in 2017 and full time OC in 2018 before getting the head coaching job.
The two still talk a lot and Schiano considers Day to be a pretty good friend of his even up to this day.
“I enjoyed the time there, great people, great friends and Ryan is one of those friends,” said Schiano. “Ryan's a stand up guys and an excellent coach. I mean I knew who he was before he got there, but when when Urban told me he's gonna hire him, I said man it's gonna be a great hire. Sure enough, you could tell the day he got there that he was a rising star and he's doing a tremendous job with the program since taking it over from Urban. He’s putting his own stamp on it, but he kept a lot of things and he put his own stamp on it. That's really what I think what would do some coaches good. We're close, he's an excellent football coach, he and his family are just great people. You know when we go to compete, we compete, but otherwise we're friends.”
In Schiano’s first two seasons as defensive coordinator with the Buckeyes, his team finished the year as one of the nation’s top ten defenses. However in his last season, 2018, his Buckeyes team struggled and gave up a good amount of points.
Coach Schiano reflected on those couple of seasons working in the Big Ten and reminisces on the friendships he’s made during that time.
“Well we had a really good experience,” he said. “My family and I made some dear friends at Ohio State. Urban was a good friend before Ohio State, but I met a lot of really fine people, from Gene Smith the Athletic Director to Kerry Combs who is a dear friend and as I said earlier Ryan Day, Mickey Marotti. There's just so many guys, Luke Fickell is another, although I only got to work with him for a year, but another stand up guy. There's a lot of really good people that I had the chance to work with at Ohio State that will be lifelong friends, so I look at it as a great experience.”
Stay tuned as coach Schiano will be on opposing sideline against the Buckeyes this Saturday night for the first time since he was the defensive coordinator of Miami back in 1999.
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