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Published May 3, 2020
It's not all dark clouds right now for Rutgers football
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Chris Nalwasky  •  TheKnightReport
Beat Writer
Twitter
@ChrisNalwasky

If there’s a silver lining with the whole COVID-19 pandemic, it's that Greg Schiano spends more time at home with his loved ones.

“The neat thing is I think in any adversity, there's always opportunity,” the Rutgers football head coach said recently. “I’ve been able to have more family dinners over the past month than over the past 20 years.

“It’s been neat kind of having everyone together and to have family dinners has been really fun. That’s been kind of the highlight of my day, each day.”

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Rutgers was forced to cancel its spring practice and it is unclear when college football will return. But like any good leader, Schiano’s priority is doing his best to educate his family, staff, and his players to stay healthy.

“I spend a lot of time making sure our players and their families are safe, making sure our staff and their families are safe, and making sure my own family is safe.

“We have all four of our children at home and my wife and I. I’ve just tried to do what the experts have told us to do and as we know that has changed over time as we learn more. I don’t spend a ton of time watching TV and that’s probably a good thing because of all the conference calls and things I'm on with a Big Ten and their expertise, and with Pat (Hobbs), the administration here at Rutgers and their expertise. So I get all the information I need to effectively help as many people as we can. I don’t get caught up in too much of the constant monitoring of every second. I try to do my job as well as I can.”

Schiano said his day-to-day is similar to what it would be if he and everyone were on campus, except all of the conversations and work is done virtually. That includes meets regarding football with the team.

“I try to keep a very similar routine,” he said. “I start working, planning my day out and it's a series of different kinds of virtual meetings with my staff, the Big Ten, Pat Hobbs or the administrative staff. Very much like when you're the head coach back on campus, except you're not dealing with the players in person. We do have meetings with our players, I've left that more to our assistant coaches to be doing installs with our offense, defense and special teams. I will have staff meetings where we spend a lot of time brainstorming, sometimes on football schemes, but more of that is coaches meetings.”

Recruiting also never stops as well, despite it being a dead period

“Then obviously recruiting, we spend a lot of time recruiting as we normally do,” Schiano said. “That's a year round endeavor. The days are equally as demanding, it's just kind of in a different format.”

Even though he’s been at home with his family, Schiano still works demanding hours, though he does get to have more home cooked meals and makes sure he gets up every once in a while.

“I do have to make sure that I get up and do some things, go get a workout in or go for a walk,” Schiano said. “Otherwise I could conceivably be sitting in my office for 12 to 18 hours on any day.”

Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisWasky.

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