Report: Former Rutgers HC Greg Schiano Met with Team About Open Coaching Job

Rutgers has failed to replicate the success it enjoyed when Greg Schiano was its head football coach, and it reportedly could look to turn back the clock and hire him for the vacant position.

Sources confirmed to Mark Schlabach of ESPN.com that Schiano met with Rutgers officials on Tuesday, although he did not accept the job that is open after the Big Ten team fired Chris Ash. Instead, he requested facility upgrades, including a brand-new indoor facility, and increases for assistant coaches' salaries in negotiations.

Schlabach also cited a source who said the program has a "very short list" of candidates, including former Tennessee head coach and current Alabama offensive analyst Butch Jones.

Schiano was the head coach at Rutgers from 2001-11 and has since been the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and defensive coordinator of the Ohio State Buckeyes. He was set to be an assistant on the New England Patriots staff but resigned in March just two months after he was hired.

Yet, his success with the Scarlet Knights is what stands out.

He went 68-67 in his 11 seasons at the helm, making bowl games in six of his final seven seasons after a rough start. Rutgers, which was competing in the Big East at the time, found itself ranked in the Top 10 of the Associated Press poll during the 2006 and 2007 seasons and won five of those six bowl games.

That level of consistency is a far cry from the current-day Rutgers that is often seen as a punchline as it struggles at the bottom of the Big Ten East standings. The Scarlet Knights are just 13-44 since the start of the 2015 campaign and haven't won a conference game since November 2017.

It is no surprise the program would want to harken back to the success of the Schiano era and bring in the coach who helped generate it.