Skip to main content

In defense of Greg Schiano as a college football coach...

Before the outcry over his alleged ties to former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, Tennessee Volunteers fans were hitting social media over the reported hire of ex-Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano, criticizing his 68-67 record at the New Jersey school. First off, Yahoo's Dan Wetzel, who has covered the Sandusky case more extensively than possibly anybody else, called the charges against Schiano "random, nonspecific (disputed) hearsay." Secondly, Schiano's 68-67 record at Rutgers might be more impressive than Phillip Fulmer's 152-52 record at Tennessee.

In the 86 years prior to Schiano's arrival, Rutgers got invited to 1 bowl game. This occurred in 1978, 23 years before Schiano arrived as coach on campus. In the 11 seasons prior to his arrival, the Scarlet Knights went a combined 40-56-1 (.412), and as I alluded to earlier, were invited to 0 bowl games. After Schiano's departure, the team has gone 33-43 (.434), including a 10-26 (.278) record the past 3 seasons.

Now let's look at Schiano's tenure at the State University of New Jersey. In 11 seasons with the team, he guided the Scarlet Knights to 6 bowl games (54.5%), all coming in the final 7 years he was with the school (85.7%), going 5-1 (.833) in the postseason. After going 12-34 (.261) his first 4 years, Schiano closed his career at Rutgers by going 56-33 (.629). Tennessee, with infinite more talent to recruit and play than Rutgers, has only reached a .629 winning percentage twice in the past nine years ('15 and '16).

So here's how the numbers break down:

Rutgers' first 86 years: 1 bowl game (1.2%)

Rutgers' final 7 years with Schiano: 6 bowl games (85.7%)

Rutgers' last 3 years: 0 bowl games (0.0%)


Rutgers between '90 and '00: 40-56-1 (.412)

Rutgers under Schiano between '05 and '11: 56-33 (.629)

Rutgers the past 3 seasons: 10-26 (.278)


We can debate Greg Schiano's ties to Jerry Sandusky all we'd like, but one thing is for certain, the guy pulled off one of the best coaching jobs over the past several decades when he guided a cellar dweller in Rutgers to 6 bowl games in a 7-year span and a 68-67 record overall.

https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/coaches/greg-schiano-1.html

https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/schools/rutgers/

http://awfulannouncing.com/ncaa/social-media-revolt-stopped-tennessee-hiring-greg-schiano-now.html

https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/schools/tennessee/

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Boycotting jukeboxes because of TouchTunes

I love music and enjoy hitting the bar(s) over the weekend, so naturally, when the mood strikes me, I've never been coy about playing some songs on the jukebox. This past Thursday, a friend of mine turned 50, so several friends of her's, including myself, all met up to celebrate the occasion. At around 9:30, a friend of mine and I both chipped in $5 to play some songs on the jukebox. Four hours and 231 skips later, we gave up on hearing the songs we had selected, and went home knowing we had just wasted $5. This wasn't the first time such a thing had happened to me (and many others), and due to that, I'll be boycotting jukeboxes. Why? The scam known as TouchTunes. You see, here's how the plot typically breaks down. A person (or group of people) downloads the TouchTunes app on his/her phone, consumes one too many adult beverages, and due to this, has less care for spending extra money to hear the songs of their choosing right NOW. That's the thing with TouchTun...

Face guarding is legal in college football and the NFL

I just wanted to remind fans and announcers especially, that face guarding is legal in both college football and the NFL. It all comes down to contact. So long as a defender doesn't make contact with an intended receiver, he doesn't have to turn around to play the ball. I can't tell you how many times every week I hear announcers talk about face guarding being a penalty. It's not. I even heard one announcer yesterday state, "If the defender doesn't turn around and play the ball, the ref will call pass interference every time." That's simply not true. Courtesy of referee Bill LeMonnier, he says this with regard to the rule at the college level (answered on 8/12/13): "NCAA rules on pass interference require the face guarding to have contact to be a foul. No contact, no foul by NCAA rules." In the NFL rule book, this is written:  "Actions that constitute defensive pass interference include but are not limited to: (a) Contact by a ...