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Joe Judge has turned around the face of the New York Giants in 2020 as they currently stand at 5-7, first in the NFC East. He has already tied the winningest season in the last four years for New York and has brought Big Blue out of the gutter of the NFC East.
This is something that Greg Schiano, someone who has also been reviving a New Jersey football program of his own, can relate to.
Schiano, Rutgers’ third-winningest football coach, has returned to the school this season to start a new leaf with the program. The head coach has seriously turned this Rutgers football team around as they were once the laughing stock of the Big Ten but with two away wins against Purdue and Michigan State Rutgers is no longer a team to take lightly.
Schiano, a special teams specialist himself — Rutgers has ranked among the top teams in the nation in special teams under Schiano reaching all the way up to No. 13 (by Football Outsider’s FSFEI rating) in the country in 2009 — has taken notice to Judge’s expertise in the area.
“When you coach special teams in the NFL and you’re good at it, that means you can really connect with people,” Schiano told NJ Advance Media. “With the exception of a few guys in the league that are special teams players, most of the guys are something else, yet they do special teams because they have to. To get them to do it well is a skill. I think the ability to connect and his three-phase knowledge make him an excellent coach.”
Judge began his NFL career as a special teams assistant with the New England Patriots, a team Schiano is very familiar with. This has allowed the two to know each other for some time.
“I’ve known coach Judge for a while through my relationship with the Patriots and coach Belichick. I’ve always been very impressed with Joe,” Schiano said. “He’s a very smart guy, very well-rounded in all three phases (of the game). In the short time I did work with him in the same building, it just confirmed that. He’s a really sharp guy.”
Schiano had strong words for the capabilities that Judge possesses and for him it is clear that he is the guy for the Giants. For New Jerseyians, they will hope that both Schiano and Judge are the right people for their respective teams as the state has dealt with a lot of losing over recent years.
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