Cleveland Indians sign Robbie Grossman, Felipe Paulino to minor league deals
December 11, 2015The Magic-less Kingdom: Cavs-Magic, Behind the Box Score
December 12, 2015When Chris Ash left Ohio State and his role as co-defensive coordinator to be the Rutgers head coach, Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer knew he needed to fill the vacancy with a well known, respected, and very good coach, and it seems as though he has done just that. Ohio State has hired former Rutgers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Greg Schiano as his new co-defensive coordinator and associate head coach, the school announced Friday.
“Greg Schiano is an excellent coach,” Meyer said of the new hiring. “He is someone I have known for quite some time now and someone who is going to align with our staff extremely well. I think he will be outstanding as a coach and mentor in our program and I am pleased to have him on our staff.”
Schiano, who is a friend of Meyer, last coached in 2013 as the head coach of the Buccaneers. After leading his team to a dismal 4-12 record in his second season in Tampa Bay, he was fired (was 11-21 overall with the Buccaneers).
Before taking his first and only NFL job, 49-year old spent 11 seasons in Piscataway, New Jersey, as the head coach of Rutgers (was 68-67 overall). He led the Scarlet Knights to their best seasons in program history, including leading the Scarlet Knights to a 11-2 record in 2006, the year that which he was named the Eddie Robinson, Walter Camp, and Big East Coach of the Year. In 2011, Rutgers earned their first Top 25 ranking (ranked as high as No. 6). In 2006, the Scarlet Knights had the 8th ranked scoring defense; he also had the 12th ranked scoring defense in his final year at Rutgers in 2011.
Besides being the head of Rutgers for 10 years, the former Bucknell linebacker has seen his fair share of football on the east coast. Schiano started as a graduate assistant at Rutgers in 1989, before coaching the defensive backs at Penn State (1991-95) and the Chicago Bears (1996-98), he then was the defensive coordinator at Miami (Florida) (1999-2000) before accepting the head coaching job back at Rutgers.
With his experience working with defensive backs, he will fit perfectly in Ash’s role, which was mainly to work with the Buckeyes defensive backfield, while co-defensive coordinator Luke Fickell is mainly in charge of the front-seven.
Due to the fact that Schiano has plenty of coaching experience both at Rutgers and in Tampa Bay, he also brings yet another tremendous recruiting chip to the Buckeyes coaching staff, one that will help with both the east coast recruits and down south. So yes, Meyer somehow added another coach that will help him recruit the top talent across the country, as if he didn’t already do so.
While Schiano has been seen around Columbus during fall and spring camps, it looks as though the coach has finally landed a job with the scarlet and gray. According to the school, his hiring is pending the approval from the Board of Trustees and the completion of his background check.
10 Comments
This guy is a dumpster fire that alienates players and creates tension where none existed in the past. Know him well from his time at Rutgers and when he was here in Tampa. He is a good recruiter, but he’s also good at running his players ragged and is such a control freak that he mandated thermostat setting for NFL players in Tampa and manipulated it so he and his staff could go into players’ rooms while they were sleeping to ensure they were using the mandatory thermostat setting. Seriously.
And this is the guy now next in line if anything happens to Meyer, a guy probe to panic attacks if things get bumpy. With all the talent going to the NFL, next season could get a bit bumpy and Urban could freak out – and the next guy in line is Mr. Control Freak. Terrible move.
my thoughts turn to Luke Fickell. What’s going on with that guy that he can’t get an offer? he was the freaking head coach at Ohio State for a year, for goodness sakes!! But he is STILL sharing coordinator duties, too? Just really confused by his position and by his seeming willingness to accept it.
I like the Schiano hiring a lot. He is a tough coach who can be abrasive at times. However, he isn’t calling the shots so I hope that part of him will get smoothed out by Urban.
I don’t agree with anything as it relates to your comments about Urban Meyer. As for Schiano given the way the players acted on and off the field this past season perhaps a task manager was necessary.
I think these players played, looked, acted and sounded like a group who was playing on reputation and because of it one game, three points, kept them from defending their national championship. So perhaps a task manager was needed.
There’s task managers and then there’s Schiano. I understand desiring more discipline, but Schiano can go to extremes.
As for Meyer, I know a lot about what happened at UF. Went to school there and know several people who are boosters. When coaches started leaving, players start leaving, and the competition begins to heat up (he succeeded here while Florida State was way down – there rise made it harder on the recruiting trail), Meyer suffered panic attacks that led to him trying to take a leave of absence and then leaving the next year. I doubt those problems have been fixed. He’s a brilliant coach, but as the burden grows on his shoulders as expectations are raised and things get tougher, he has a tendency of breaking down badly. He was at Florida for six years. I’m not sure I expect him to be at Ohio State any longer than that. So I think he’ll be in Columbus for two more years before it becomes too much for him again and he needs another break. Maybe they’ll give him a year off to regroup. UF tried that, but the fans got into such a funk over it he came back and the rails came off.
The hire they need is an OC. That was their downfall this year.
“This guy is a dumpster fire that alienates players and creates tension where none existed in the past. ”
LOL This is exactly what Urban does. He constantly pits these guys against each other to create competition. The weak leave, and the elevated stay and reap the NFL rewards. He just does it a little better. Schiano made the mistake of thinking you could do this in the NFL and not treat the players as accomplished warriors instead of rank and file, but make no mistake, he uses the exact same M.O. as 95% of the good coaches across the country.
Schiano works better at the college level, but there were problems at Rutgers. At least it gives Meyer someone that can coach for him when he freaks out and needs another leave of absence. Wouldn’t be surprised to see Schiano elevated to head coach within two years. Wouldn’t be surprised to find out he was hired with that being the plan.
I doubt Meyer will be around after 2017.
They’d bring back Herman first.
Fickell makes $600,000 a year. Maybe he enjoys what he is doing and didn’t like the stress/responsibility of being head coach