Schiano, Rutgers aim high with NFL-caliber talent

Adam Rittenberg, ESPN Senior WriterJul 23, 2024, 02:40 PM ET
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- College football reporter.
- Joined ESPN.com in 2008.
- Graduate of Northwestern University.

INDIANAPOLIS — After Rutgers recorded its first winning season since 2014, coach Greg Schiano is telling his team to aim even higher.

Schiano returns arguably his deepest and most talented team during a Rutgers tenure that includes two stints, including the past four years in the Big Ten. Although the Scarlet Knights are only 9-27 in conference play during that span, Schiano thinks this team can take a big step.

“Everybody talks the Power 4 [conferences], but it’s really the Power 2,” Schiano told ESPN, referring to the Big Ten and the SEC. “I say, ‘Look, we’re here to win this league, not to be part of it.’ When we’re ready, we’re ready. I don’t worry a lot about the result. I just worry about making sure that we’re focused on the here and now, every single day.

“I tell them, ‘One day, we’ll look up and you’ll be a trophy.’ If you believe that, it will happen.”

Schiano credited relationships with the players and their willingness to develop in the program, even with the transfer portal available. Rutgers returns almost its entire defense, which finished No. 16 nationally in yards allowed last season, as well as offensive standouts such as Kyle Monangai, a second-team All-Big Ten selection who led the league in rushing (1,262 yards) last season.

Rutgers has “a lot” of NFL-caliber players, Schiano said. The team hasn’t produced more than two picks in a single NFL draft since 2013, when it had seven players selected. Schiano noted that when he left Rutgers to coach the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after the 2011 season, the school ranked in the top 20 nationally in active NFL players.

“We’ve got a bunch of guys that have come of age, that are fourth- or fifth-year seniors,” Schiano said. “What I’ve found is if they keep working, they work themselves into being NFL football players. And when we have a number of NFL football players, then we’ve got a team.”

Rutgers likely will benefit from the dissolution of divisions in the Big Ten, after having to face Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State annually in the East Division. The Scarlet Knights don’t play any of the three this fall, while adding games against three of the four teams joining the Big Ten (USC, UCLA and Washington).

“We’ve made steps,” Schiano said. “At first, it wasn’t that competitive. Then, with the top four teams last year on our schedule, we were either leading, or it was a one-score game, well into the third quarter. We just didn’t have quite enough depth to be able to pull it off.

“As the pipeline gets more full and more established, that’s the next step.”