Several reporters from the Rutgers world got the opportunity to ask Rutgers head football coach Greg Schiano some questions during his 20th annual Charity Gold Classic, which raised $200,00 for charities such as Chop for Change, One Veteran at a Time, POVAT, Athletes in Action, and the Bob Mulcahy Scholarship fund.
After answering several questions about the event and the charities themselves, the conversation then began to turn to the team and the off-season so far.
One of the first questions that
Schiano addressed had to do with how he thinks the new coaches are performing on the recruiting trail. He talked about how when you have staff turnover, you lose some of the connections that the previous staff had. He also talked about how, when two schools are offering a player comparable money, it comes down to who they have a better relationship with and who they believe can help develop them the best. He then went on to talk about how thrilled he was with how the coaching staff was addressing recruiting and praised tight ends coach Scott Vallone for being an “attacking recruiter.”
He also got the chance to praise the recruiting job of offensive line coach Jim Turner in a separate question.
“He’s a great football coach with a big personality. He’s funny, he’s talented, he can sing, he can do everything. Those other talents come through when you’re recruiting. And in the Big Ten especially, you need big men. It’s called the Big Ten, not the Little Ten.”
Turner has already landed commitments from six offensive linemen.
The next question had to do with if they settled on a starting quarterback.
“I don’t know yet, and that’s not for a bad reason. It’s because both guys did well. There are times we’re watching, and one is edging ahead, and then the other comes up. It’s going to go into the summer and into training camp. In this league, Athan played two straight years, which is unheard of. You need more than one quarterback for a long Big Ten season. I’m also really excited about Sean Ashenfelder, who was a high school baseball player in Florida and has made drastic improvements. AJ and Dylan are great young guys. And what I love about our quarterback room, a testament to Coach Ciarrocca, is that even though they’re all competing, they’re helping each other. That’s family.”
Schiano also had a colorful response when he was asked for his take on the new punt formation rule.
“I didn’t think it was a big problem, and it kind of got slid through in January when not a lot of us were paying attention. Shame on us. But you’re right that in our league, it was unanimous, nobody wanted it, and that’s 18 pretty important voices. That’s the rule, though, so now we adapt. You’re going to see a lot of guys putting jerseys on and taking jerseys off, and referees making announcements. Anything you have to make a change for is worrisome. Don’t get me started. We’ll handle it.”
In one of the last questions, Schiano got the chance to talk about how Spencer Brown is doing in his new role as the strength and conditioning coach. Schiano pointed out that it was probably unfair to add him in just one day before summer camp last season, but he has adjusted well, they got through spring camp with no season-ending injuries, and he is excited to see what they can do because of it.
