On Wednesday afternoon, Rutgers Football’s new running backs coach Augie Hoffmann spoke to the media for the first time since joining the staff earlier this year.
For those of you that don’t know, coach Hoffman made the transition to the college game after coaching six seasons at St. Joseph Regional High School in Montvale, NJ where he helped lead the Green Knights to four state championships, two which they won.
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One of the biggest adjustments that coaches have to make when moving from high school to college is learning about the college recruiting aspect of things and while it’s been a little bit of a challenge with the recent quarantine, he feels the staff and himself have done a good job early on.
“I think the biggest challenge is not getting out and being face-to-face with guys,” Hoffmann told TKR. “The recruiting piece is very essential to every program, it’s probably the biggest piece actually. I think one of the things that our staff is going to be great at is building these interpersonal relationships with these kids. I can say that we’ve done a tremendous job in quarantine recruiting and that’s obvious with the number of commits that we have. Once we are able to get out and get in person and these guys can get a feel for us in a way, it’s only going to further those relationships even further.”
When Hoffman was first hired, there was an expectation among fans that the Big North high school recruits would just flock to Rutgers. While that hasn't been the case just yet, coach does think Rutgers provides a great opportunity for some of those top-tier kids.
“I think there is an added pressure because you know the league that we (Nunzio and Augie) both came from is such a hotbed of talent,” said Hoffmann. “I think everyone just expected oh you know they're going to go there, but what people fail to realize is these kids have a tremendous amount of opportunities. Schools are coming in left and right, and I always as a head coach preach to them that you got to find the best fit for you. It may not be what the public opinion says is best but it's got to be what's best for you. So, obviously there's a pressure. Do I think that this is a tremendous opportunity for them? Absolutely. But yeah, I mean it's definitely going to be hard. It's not gonna be easy to recruit them.”
Coach Hoffman himself was at one time a high school football recruit out of North Jersey too and he believes that his experience there will help him relate to kids when it comes to recruiting for Rutgers.
“In terms of my experience, the one thing that I will say that I tried to always press upon my players was it's not about what people think is the best fit,” he said. “It's not about what the public says is right or who or who's winning the most games. It's got to be what's right for you and I can remember vividly when, when I chose to go to Boston College they were not, they were coming off a two, four, and seven win seasons and I had a pretty good amount of offers and people would say why aren't you going on Notre Dame or Ohio State. It just came down to a fit and it came down to where I felt comfortable and I've always tried to impress upon them. Everyone's gonna have their opinion, but at the end of the day when you, when you feel it in your gut you feel it in your heart, you're gonna know what's the right place for you and it's always the people for me, that made it up. Football is a tremendous game for a lot of reasons, but it's the people that we get to be around on a daily basis that make it special. So, the place is important, but to me it's always been about the people and I think that's why Rutgers is going to be so successful because we have great people and we have a great leader.”
Stay tuned for more on Hoffman and others right here on The Knight Report!
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