Greg Schiano

Gregory Edward Schiano (born June 1, 1966) is an American football coach.

After this game, Rutgers jumped to seventh in the national AP Poll, which was their highest ranking in school history and first Top 25 ranking since 1976.

The euphoria from the win and high ranking quickly faded the following week with a loss to Cincinnati, but the Scarlet Knights bounced back to finish 11–2 and qualify for the inaugural Texas Bowl.

There, they would defeat the Kansas State Wildcats 37–10, capturing their first-ever bowl game win in school history.

Throughout the season, coach Schiano and Rutgers were featured prominently in both the local and national media, and Schiano's motivational phrase "keep choppin'" became part of the lexicon of college football.

He was given the task of turning around a struggling program that had been without a bowl game appearance since the 1978 Garden State Bowl, and had just four winning seasons since 1980.

Although Schiano was producing solid recruiting classes, especially by Rutgers standards, the Scarlet Knights struggled to losing records in his first four seasons as head coach.

He then attended Bucknell University, where he was a member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, and graduated in 1988 with a B.S. in business administration.

Despite being a 190-pound linebacker in high school, Bucknell assistant Joe Susan felt he was a perfect fit for the defense.

Susan would later join Schiano at Rutgers.

Playing at linebacker, Schiano was a three-year letterman at Bucknell.

In his junior year, he led the team with 114 tackles and was named to the All-Conference team.

In his senior year, he was named team captain, and was named to the Sporting News Pre-season All-America Team.

Schiano began his coaching career in 1988 as an assistant coach at Ramapo High School for the Raiders football team.

In 1989, he served as a graduate assistant at Rutgers.

In 1990, he took the same position at Penn State, and later served as the defensive backfield coach there from 1991 until 1995.

From 1996 to 1998, Schiano was an assistant coach in the NFL with the Chicago Bears.

For his first two seasons there, he was a defensive assistant, and then was promoted in his third and final season with the Bears to defensive backfield coach.

Schiano served as defensive coordinator for the University of Miami Hurricanes from 1999 to 2000.

In 1999, Miami finished the year ranked 12th in the NCAA's Division I-A in points allowed per game (17.2), and in 2000 moved up to 5th (15.5 points allowed per game).

His brief 18-month stint at Miami and his roots in New Jersey made him a candidate for his next position as head coach at Rutgers University.

While at the University of Miami, Schiano coached NFL Pro Bowlers Dan Morgan, Jonathan Vilma, and Ed Reed.

On December 1, 2000, Schiano accepted the head coaching position at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

He is the head football coach at Rutgers University, a position he held from 2001 to 2011 and resumed before the 2020 season.

Schiano has the most wins in program history as the head football coach of Rutgers Scarlet Knights football.

It was believed coming into the 2005 season that Schiano was on the hot seat and would need to take Rutgers to a bowl game to keep his job.

Despite the rough start to his tenure at Rutgers, Schiano began to turn around the program during the 2005 season.

Schiano recruited New York native Ray Rice, who was considered the top running back in the tri-state area.

He coached Rutgers to a 7–4 record that season.

The highlight of their season came in a nationally televised 37–29 upset win over Pittsburgh and their coach Dave Wannstedt, a long-time friend of Schiano's, who hired him while coaching the Chicago Bears.

At season's end, Schiano and the Scarlet Knights accepted a bid to play in the Insight Bowl against Arizona State, which Rutgers lost by a score of 45–40.

The 2005 season laid the foundation for a rebirth of the Rutgers football program.

In the 2006 season, Schiano's Scarlet Knights raced off to a 9–0 record, highlighted by their November 9 victory over the third-ranked, undefeated Louisville Cardinals.

For his work in the 2006 season, Coach Schiano was awarded several Coach of the Year honors, including the Home Depot Coach of the Year award and the inaugural Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award.

With high expectations after their "Cinderella" season, Schiano coached Rutgers to respectable finishes and three more bowl game victories to give them four in a row.

Schiano's team experienced tragedy in 2010, when defensive tackle Eric LeGrand suffered a spinal cord injury.

He also served as the head coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL) from 2012 to 2013.

Schiano was born and grew up in Wyckoff, New Jersey, and attended Ramapo High School.

Just prior to the game, Schiano was offered a new contract, extending his contract through the 2012 season.

Rutgers finished the season ranked 12th in the national poll, their best finish in school history.