No Greg Schiano, so what now?
Greg Schiano isn't returning to Rutgers to be the head coach of the Scarlet Knights' football team.
Sunday, it was first reported by Yahoo! Sports' Pete Thamel that Rutgers and the 53-year-old Schiano couldn't come to an agreement more than two weeks after they met. According to Stadium's Brett McMurphy, Rutgers was offering the Wyckoff, N.J. native an eight-year deal worth $32 million with $25.2 million being fully-guaranteed. An additional $7.5 million was going to be for his staff.
Rutgers AD Pat Hobbs fired Chris Ash on Sept. 29.
When Schiano took over the Scarlet Knights in 2001, he built the program up into a perennial bowl contender and sent multiple players to the NFL up until he left for the league in 2011. Rutgers won five bowl games in six tries under his watch in seven years.
After leaving Rutgers, Schiano went on to coach the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2012-13 before being the defensive coordinator at Ohio State from 2016-2018. He left his most recent gig with New England Patriots last March less than two months in.
Butch Jones, a former college head coach for multiple teams, took his name out of the hate once it was clear that Schiano was the No. 1 option.
But that fell through.
So where does Rutgers go now?
There's Nunzio Campanile, the current interim head coach at Rutgers, who has gone 1-6 since taking over. He was put in a tough position, but the players have gone hard and have given great effort over the last few weeks.
NJ.com mentioned that Michigan linebackers coach, Anthony Campanile, one of Nunzio's younger brothers, is now a candidate for the job along with Los Angeles Rams assistant Jedd Fisch. Others to keep in mind are Ohio State defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, Mississippi State head coach Joe Moorhead, and Patriots defensive line coach Bret Bielema.
Sources indicated to The Knight Report that talks were progressing. A Schiano return to Rutgers would have done wonders for the program in many areas.
Now the Scarlet Knights are back to square one.
