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What if Greg had stayed at RU....Where would the program be today?

BROTHERSKINNY

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Every few months it comes up in one thread or another about if Greg Schiano came back to coach Rutgers football again. There is lots of debate over what the program would look like if he came back. One question several of us have pondered and which we will never know the answer to but it is fun to speculate, is if coach Schiano stayed at Rutgers what would the program look like? Remember, when Schiano left, he was about to bring in his highest rated recruiting class. If I recall that last class had four or five four star recruits, plus many three stars. So what would the program look like if Greg had stayed, would we be a perennial Top 20 program...Would it look like it did for much of the time after 2006....Annual tertiary bowl trips...or would the program a cellar dweller? Interesting to think about considering that Schiano is now DC in one of the premier program in all of college football. On top of that no less than Urban Meyer has praised GS as a coach and mentor. That's pretty high accolades coming from arguably one of the two best coaches in all of college football. It is only a matter of time before a premier college football program names GS as their head coach, so what if GS had stayed where would we be today?
 
Probably the East Coast version of Iowa. Mid level to NYD bowls every year with a shot at something better every 3 or 4 years. And RU would've went undefeated in 2012 and beat Florida in the Sugar Bowl.
That's a good comp. I'm thinking more like Northwestern. Not as consistently successful as Iowa, but still well ahead of where we are today.
 
Northwestern is the first comparison that comes to mind. Considering schiano routinely got smacked around by Brian Kelly and had trouble beating the Uconns and Syracuse’s of the world, that may be a generous comp.
To be fair Cuse had a legit coach as well. Marrone was damn close to leading the Jags to the SB last year. UConn...agreed with you 100%.
 
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First I have to ask if you are assuming Jeff Haffley stayed as well. With him as the set up man and Schiano as the closer RU recruiting was as good as I have ever seen. I'd be willing to say Iowa and maybe even a little better. Consistent rankings in the #15-25 range with an occasional spot between #10 and #15. But they'd still be in 3rd or 4th place in the B1G East.
 
Northwestern is the first comparison that comes to mind. Considering schiano routinely got smacked around by Brian Kelly and had trouble beating the Uconns and Syracuse’s of the world, that may be a generous comp.
Very misleading info that he had trouble beating "the Uconns and Syracuse’s of the world," as he was 5-2 against both his last 7 seasons:

SU
2001-04: 1-3
2005-11: 5-2

UCONN
2001-04: 0-3
2005-11: 5-2
 
Northwestern is the first comparison that comes to mind. Considering schiano routinely got smacked around by Brian Kelly and had trouble beating the Uconns and Syracuse’s of the world, that may be a generous comp.

There is some truth to what you're saying, but a lot of it built on perception. Cincy OWNED Schiano (& Rutgers) in general from the time they entered the BE. Syracuse and UConn is a tale of two stories. From 2001 to 2004 SU and UConn had their way with Schiano, but that changed in 2005. Since 2005 Schiano went 5-2 against SU and 5-2 against UConn. I know the loss against UConn in 2011 at the end of the season hurt, but for the most part, Schiano had put them in the rearview mirror. Not sure how SU beat Rutgers in 2009. Maybe, SU came out pumped knowing Rutgers was ranked at the time. The loss in 2010 was understandable considering the situation that unfolded with EL injury. The reason I mentioned all of this is that we have to start changing the narrative about Rutgers. We need fact instead of perception.

I don't see Iowa or Northwestern as an excellent comparison to Rutgers. The significant difference between Rutgers and those two has to start with how the media treats Rutgers regardless of the on-field success. That, in turn, will always have Rutgers fighting an uphill battle. Even Schiano dealt with it, but he kept it in check due to his demeanor with the local media. The other difference is playing in the B1G East. Too many "knock-out" games. Knock out games are the ones you lose and your season may take a turn for the crapper because the next game could be as brutal and impactful. Iowa and Northwestern are lucky to be in the B1G West.
 
Every few months it comes up in one thread or another about if Greg Schiano came back to coach Rutgers football again. There is lots of debate over what the program would look like if he came back. One question several of us have pondered and which we will never know the answer to but it is fun to speculate, is if coach Schiano stayed at Rutgers what would the program look like? Remember, when Schiano left, he was about to bring in his highest rated recruiting class. If I recall that last class had four or five four star recruits, plus many three stars. So what would the program look like if Greg had stayed, would we be a perennial Top 20 program...Would it look like it did for much of the time after 2006....Annual tertiary bowl trips...or would the program a cellar dweller? Interesting to think about considering that Schiano is now DC in one of the premier program in all of college football. On top of that no less than Urban Meyer has praised GS as a coach and mentor. That's pretty high accolades coming from arguably one of the two best coaches in all of college football. It is only a matter of time before a premier college football program names GS as their head coach, so what if GS had stayed where would we be today?
Let it die already!How many Schiano threads can this board endure?
 
If Schiano had stayed, he would have given us 7-9 wins a year, minus exceptional senior and junior classes like in 2006. He would never coach us up to a National Championship maybe BCS bowl every so often.
 
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hmmm.. interesting question

I'll do the easy work... here are our records since Schiano has left. I think we need to add a few things to this to paint the picture with agreed upon facts. From there we can make jump to conclusions from more solid footing.

We should add recruting rankings for all years.. including Schiano's last years to identify trends. Then maybe offense and defense rankings.. maybe even APR rankings.. if eveyone adds something to this list it will be complete soon.

*2009 9–4 (3–4 Big East) St. Petersburg Bowl, W 45–24 vs. UCF
*2010 4–8 (1–6 Big East) **Eric Legrand injury year.. Keep Believing!
*2011 9–4 (4–3 Big East) Pinstripe Bowl, W 27–13 vs. Iowa State
2012 9–4 (5–2 Big East) Russell Athletic Bowl Virginia Tech L 10–13OT
*** announced Rutgers to join Big Ten (November)
2013 6–7 (2–5 The American) New Era Pinstripe Bowl Notre Dame L 16–29
2014 8–5 (3–5 Big Ten) Quick Lane Bowl North Carolina W 40–21
2015 4–8 (1–7 Big Ten)
2016 2–10 (0–9 Big Ten)
2017 4–8 (3–6 Big Ten)

My impression is that Rutgers' conference situation caused recruits to shy away from Rutgers even with Schiano at the helm.. and that is why he left... that and millions of dollars in the NFL in Florida.

So, until November of 2012, Rutgers recruiting classes would have been worse than when the Big East was more or less stable when GS was able to recruit well enough to get us to bowl games on a regular basis.

I think GS, with some retention of coaches.. would have done better than Flood did in those conditions. Better recruits than Flood but 2012-2014 results might be a game better each year.. I think GS beats PSU and Franklin at home in 2014 and that might have had a big and lasting effect on recruiting.

We would have been 6-0 going into the Ohio State game ( a blowout loss) and I think GS's D keeps it closer. OSU, Nebraska and MSU blew us out that year. I think GS keeps them all closer... maybe we get a better bowl with another win (vs Penn State).

On the field 2015 and 2016 might have been down years.. not sure we'd have gone to another bowl under GS.. because of the recruiting stream of several down-years in the past. Think we'd have won more games and avoided embarrassing losses.

I think 2013's recruits (to be frosh in 2014) would have been slighty better but 2014 and 2015 fully better recruiting the whole year as a Big Ten GS-lead team.

We'd be looking at a talented, experienced squad this year.. and quite likely scandal-free.

I know defensive side recruits would have a reason to come to Rutgers. And I doubt GS would have tolerated the joke our offense had become.

Under GS.. I think we'd be in a much better position right now. More stability in every area. More fan support, etc. And we'd definitely be looking at a bowl years by now as GS's recruits as a Big Ten team become upper classmen.
 
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If Schiano had stayed, he would have given us 7-9 wins a year, minus exceptional senior and junior classes like in 2006. He would never coach us up to a National Championship maybe BCS bowl every so often.
Do you think Schiano would make a better head coach today after serving under Meyer?
 
Schiano wasn't staying at Rutgers forever. Him leaving right before NSD was obviously problematic but otherwise how much of a better position could he have left the team in. If a better head coach (and later AD) took over we probably wouldn't be having this conversation.
 
As long as we're playing "what if", what if Schiano and Haffley had stayed and Ralph Friedgen ran the offense from the booth in 2014-5.
 
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Who knows?

Rutgers played FIVE OOC cupcakes every year when he was HC. That would be reduced to 3 at best or 2 most likely.

The Big Ten is a lot tougher than the Big East was most years. He never won the Big East. His record against teams with winning records was pretty bad.

I would like to think that we would have gotten better and become the east coast Iowa, great defense, ok offensive, big pain to play against, random WTF lost to drive the board crazy, epic underdog win to make everyone love him, and for the most part win more than we lose. Bowls every year.

But we will never know for sure.

The one thing that we can say is the program wouldn't had been completely destroyed the way it was under Flood and just by avoiding the Flood error we would have been MUCH better off that we are today.
 
These Greg suck fest threads are so played out its insane. Hes gone...not coming back.
 
Schiano would have won 3 national titles, now that West Virginia is out of the conference
 
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Probably the East Coast version of Iowa. Mid level to NYD bowls every year with a shot at something better every 3 or 4 years. And RU would've went undefeated in 2012 and beat Florida in the Sugar Bowl.

This...perhaps even a little stronger.
He would have attracted many top NJ Recruits with our entry into the B1G.
 
My impression is that Rutgers' conference situation caused recruits to shy away from Rutgers even with Schiano at the helm.. and that is why he left... that and millions of dollars in the NFL in Florida.

So, until November of 2012, Rutgers recruiting classes would have been worse than when the Big East was more or less stable when GS was able to recruit well enough to get us to bowl games on a regular basis.
How so? If you look at the recruiting trends even with Big East defections it was a sharp incline up. 2011 was #32 ranked then 2012 our best class was #24 ranked and would have even been better as 4 star Fuller was all but sealed up until Schiano left. Then the 2013 class was looking equally impressive but do to "Senor Incompetente" there were 14 decommits. Thus the beginning of the classes full of reaches.

It's not like we were stuck in the AAC forever and the B1G announcement came pretty quickly after the syracuse and pitt defections. This team would have been loaded with talent by now as they just started buying in the last two years of Schiano's tenure. Enough talent to give the big boys a run and sometimes catch em by surprise.
 
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hmmm.. interesting question

I'll do the easy work... here are our records since Schiano has left. I think we need to add a few things to this to paint the picture with agreed upon facts. From there we can make jump to conclusions from more solid footing.

We should add recruting rankings for all years.. including Schiano's last years to identify trends. Then maybe offense and defense rankings.. maybe even APR rankings.. if eveyone adds something to this list it will be complete soon.

*2009 9–4 (3–4 Big East) St. Petersburg Bowl, W 45–24 vs. UCF
*2010 4–8 (1–6 Big East) **Eric Legrand injury year.. Keep Believing!
*2011 9–4 (4–3 Big East) Pinstripe Bowl, W 27–13 vs. Iowa State
2012 9–4 (5–2 Big East) Russell Athletic Bowl Virginia Tech L 10–13OT
*** announced Rutgers to join Big Ten (November)
2013 6–7 (2–5 The American) New Era Pinstripe Bowl Notre Dame L 16–29
2014 8–5 (3–5 Big Ten) Quick Lane Bowl North Carolina W 40–21
2015 4–8 (1–7 Big Ten)
2016 2–10 (0–9 Big Ten)
2017 4–8 (3–6 Big Ten)

My impression is that Rutgers' conference situation caused recruits to shy away from Rutgers even with Schiano at the helm.. and that is why he left... that and millions of dollars in the NFL in Florida.

So, until November of 2012, Rutgers recruiting classes would have been worse than when the Big East was more or less stable when GS was able to recruit well enough to get us to bowl games on a regular basis.

I think GS, with some retention of coaches.. would have done better than Flood did in those conditions. Better recruits than Flood but 2012-2014 results might be a game better each year.. I think GS beats PSU and Franklin at home in 2014 and that might have had a big and lasting effect on recruiting.

We would have been 6-0 going into the Ohio State game ( a blowout loss) and I think GS's D keeps it closer. OSU, Nebraska and MSU blew us out that year. I think GS keeps them all closer... maybe we get a better bowl with another win (vs Penn State).

On the field 2015 and 2016 might have been down years.. not sure we'd have gone to another bowl under GS.. because of the recruiting stream of several down-years in the past. Think we'd have won more games and avoided embarrassing losses.

I think 2013's recruits (to be frosh in 2014) would have been slighty better but 2014 and 2015 fully better recruiting the whole year as a Big Ten GS-lead team.

We'd be looking at a talented, experienced squad this year.. and quite likely scandal-free.

I know defensive side recruits would have a reason to come to Rutgers. And I doubt GS would have tolerated the joke our offense had become.

Under GS.. I think we'd be in a much better position right now. More stability in every area. More fan support, etc. And we'd definitely be looking at a bowl years by now as GS's recruits as a Big Ten team become upper classmen.

I'd have to say this. Since Schiano left us for the money in the NFL (and not in the nicest way for the program) if he had stayed he'd have left for the next 1st tier college job that offered. He was out the door for WVU before he changed his mind or am I remembering the wrong team?

Sooner or later a power 5 team would have offered and Greg would have been out the door. So there's really no way to fairly ask how we'd be if he stayed - it was up to him to stay and he left us once for the NFL and almost for another college.

Greg flat out wasn't staying.
 
This just occurred to me.. but, internally, did we KNOW we had the invite to the big Ten the day Schiano left? It was , what, 10 months later the invitation was announced and accepted?

Did he KNOW and choose to leave to the NFL anyway?

I get it if he did.. great opportunity.. but I would think of him differently if he had known it was a sure thing.
 
I'd have to say this. Since Schiano left us for the money in the NFL (and not in the nicest way for the program) if he had stayed he'd have left for the next 1st tier college job that offered. He was out the door for WVU before he changed his mind or am I remembering the wrong team?

Sooner or later a power 5 team would have offered and Greg would have been out the door. So there's really no way to fairly ask how we'd be if he stayed - it was up to him to stay and he left us once for the NFL and almost for another college.
But he had offers to Miami and Michigan he turned down. (yeah, I know, no one actually "offered".. wink-wink, nudge-nudge).

If he turns down an NFL job for Rutgers.. c'mon.. why would he leave? Miami was a former employer.. he had ties.. and Michigan is a storied program.

If, in this scenario, he turns down Miami, Michigan and then the NFL.. he is ours until budget issues are such a huge concern that he cannot compete. That might be realized sooner rather than later in the Big Ten East... still.. he did turn down the big time and Michigan. (I don't count Miami.. since they got guaranteed revenues in the ACC they haven't been the same "MIAMI".
 
If Greg had stayed would Rutgers be getting NJ's best players?
We would be back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back national champions. Can we stop with the freaking Almost daily we need Greg back or where would we be if he was still here threads. He bailed on us,
 
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Gregg recruited Florida very well because of the connections he made at Miami. He got under the radar Fla recruits who were not quite rated high enough for Florida, Miami and Florida State, but who excelled in the Big East conference. He also got a break when Pasqaloni got axed by the Cuse. At the end of his tenure at RU, UCF and USF were getting the under the radar Fla recruits.
 
We would be back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back national champions. Can we stop with the freaking Almost daily we need Greg back or where would we be if he was still here threads. He bailed on us,
Whoa dude, Take a chill Pill! We all know Greg is not coming back, It is just a fun exercise in these dog days of summer to Imagine "What if" scenarios. If you do not want to participate then don't. God forbid the rest of us have a little fun!
 
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Answer, much better

Bowl games, competing with the big dogs and not getting destroyed every time, and would have beaten Pen St as least once by now

Our best chance to beat Penn State was in 2014 and the defense did their job. Is Schiano going to prevent Gary from throwing 5 picks? I forgot he was a genius at developing QBs
 
I don'y know what our record would have been but I know he would not have allowed the University to hire a strong AD such as Hobbs. Yes he had that much power.
 
This just occurred to me.. but, internally, did we KNOW we had the invite to the big Ten the day Schiano left? It was , what, 10 months later the invitation was announced and accepted?

Did he KNOW and choose to leave to the NFL anyway?

I get it if he did.. great opportunity.. but I would think of him differently if he had known it was a sure thing.
If you saw his smile the one time something like that was asked....
 
Forget Greg, what if we got Saban or Meyer to be our coach? What if the people in power had the money to get a capable successful head coach with experience instead of someone without any head coaching experience? What if we hired Hermann instead of Ash?

You can drive yourself nuts with all the what if scenarios, just like be with the present situation and hope for the best. There’s no magic light switch you can flip, infrastructure is being built, money will be available soon, changes on the horizon for the positive.
 
Gregg recruited Florida very well because of the connections he made at Miami. He got under the radar Fla recruits who were not quite rated high enough for Florida, Miami and Florida State, but who excelled in the Big East conference. He also got a break when Pasqaloni got axed by the Cuse. At the end of his tenure at RU, UCF and USF were getting the under the radar Fla recruits.
Then how do you explain away the 2011 class ranked #32 and the 2012 class ranked #24(even without 4 star Fuller who was quoted as saying he was all set to sign until Schiano left). Then the 2013 class was looking good until you know who received 14 decommits. Or was it that he got lucky again because of Wannstedt? Seems like a pretty lucky guy, something we could use again around here.
 
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This just occurred to me.. but, internally, did we KNOW we had the invite to the big Ten the day Schiano left? It was , what, 10 months later the invitation was announced and accepted?

Did he KNOW and choose to leave to the NFL anyway?

I get it if he did.. great opportunity.. but I would think of him differently if he had known it was a sure thing.
My guess is that when Nebraska was added, and the B1G/PAC-14 deal fell apart, Schiano was gone. Our add came too late for his time table.
 
Our best chance to beat Penn State was in 2014 and the defense did their job. Is Schiano going to prevent Gary from throwing 5 picks? I forgot he was a genius at developing QBs
He would have pulled him after pick three. Schiano was known to pull QB's quite often. To a fault? Probably. Would our backup have won the game? We'll never know, but El Doofus did have the propensity to keep guys in no matter what. Thinking their psyche was as fragile as a carton of eggs or that of a 5 yr. old.
 
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