At the end of the Rutgers football season, one reality was more than clear. That reality was the fact that the team needed a complete reset of the defensive coaching staff heading into next season. The team set records for poor defensive performance and looked completely overmatched against Big Ten-level opponents. Something had to be done about it.
Not one week after the season had ended, news broke that co-defensive coordinators Robb Smith and Zach Sparber (who was also the linebackers coach) had been let go, along with defensive line coach Colin Ferrell. Even more recently, cornerbacks coach David Rowe left the Scarlet Knights to take the same job at Cincinnati. The only other coaching change that Rutgers has made so far was on the offensive line, as it was decided that coach Pat Flaherty’s contract would not be renewed. However, his replacement was found not long after as the team hired Jim Turner to fill his role.
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However, that all begs the question. What progress has been made in hiring the other open positions? While not much has been confirmed or outright proven, there are a lot of strong, credible rumors providing helpful nuggets of information about the search as a whole. The widespread belief is that once the defensive coordinator is hired, they will bring in assistant coaches who aid and assist their specific philosophy. This is a very common occurrence. For example, Smith brought in, or was the leading voice for, the hiring of Sparber. In short, the timetable of hiring the cornerbacks, defensive line, and linebackers coaches is likely dependent on the hiring of the defensive coordinator.
The case of the defensive coordinator hiring timetable is an interesting one. Last offseason, Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano was seemingly strung along by a few of his top guys for a while before he had to settle for a coach he was familiar with in Smith very late in the process. That late hiring is something that Rutgers is trying to avoid this season.
Schiano supposedly did have a few candidates that he liked for the job, Vince Kehres and Rob Aurich, but they were taken off the board almost immediately by Syracuse and Nebraska. Since then, Schiano has conducted interviews, but according to The Knight Report, he seemingly wasn’t satisfied with how the interviews had gone.
Now it seems that they are looking to interview several position coaches from the NFL, but they won’t be available until their season wraps up. They are still looking at a few college coaches in the meantime. Regardless, it appears that they will not have a coordinator hired by the time the transfer portal opens on January 2nd.
