Who were the best players that Schiano 1.0 inherited?

[RUPete]

Not sure its weak at all. 5 multi year NFL players. Just not very deep

Depth is the key word. And we weren't very good on the OL. The first time I started to think that we were turning the corner was 2003 when we had guys Ron Green on John Glass on the line.

 

[DJ Spanky]

Shea just didn’t recruit . And the talented guys that he did recruit were not scholars : conover and riddick . Conover didn’t qualify and riddick flunked out after a promising season.
Shea would have benefited from an academic support system to keep guys eligible. Graber too.
Shea was a classy guy that wanted to be and succeed here . Just bad fit .

Shea was a bad fit culture-wise just as Ash was. He never clicked with the HS coaches in NJ, according to what I heard, and just couldn't pull the recruits in. Also, his laid back persona was antithetical to the NJ in-your-face attitude. I think he was a pretty good coach, but if you don't have the horses there's not much you can do. For example, he really developed Mike McMahon, but, unfortunately, McMahon spent a lot of time running for his life.

 

[Yeah Baby]

I wouldn't exactly say that Shea passed along a D2 roster (close .. but ..). If you averaged it out - it probably would've been a lot closer to an underwhelming Group of Five team meets average FCS team. I mean, look at UConn (particularly under Diaco). That's FBS, as hard as it is to believe. Not Alabama but FBS, nonetheless. I'd say that Schiano inherited some decent players - like the ones mentioned above. But, with Shea's poor coaching and - most importantly - lack of player development ok recruits/players become nothing. And, it showed.

In contrast, I'm fairly amazed that Schiano has already improved the Defense as much as he has. And, I don't just mean with regards to transfers. Some of the guys on the field (starters, even) are the same ones who have been in the program now for 3-4 years now. They looked awful under Ash. But, in less than a year under Schiano look good. The DBs know how to turn their head around, the LBs know how to tackle, and the DL can (and do) actually get pressure on the QB.

The D was always up and down under Ash. You can only sell your body out so many times when you know there is no chance to win. When games were close the battled even without any semblance of an offense. When games got out of control their fatigued bodies couldn’t muster the fight.

I also think Schiano is way more aggressive and he added depth up front which is huge. The kids are also a year older and better. Bigger, stronger and faster at 20-22 than they were at 18-20.

 

[patk89]

Shea just didn’t recruit . And the talented guys that he did recruit were not scholars : conover and riddick . Conover didn’t qualify and riddick flunked out after a promising season.
Shea would have benefited from an academic support system to keep guys eligible. Graber too.
Shea was a classy guy that wanted to be and succeed here . Just bad fit .

Exactly Plum. The reason we got those guys is because they had issues, and other schools backed away. If they were fully qualified, they weren't going to play for Shea at Rutgers. LJ Smith the same.