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Sean Gleeson got a vote of confidence from head coach Greg Schiano on Monday as the Rutgers football offensive coordinator has come under increased scrutiny in recent weeks.
The Rutgers offense has struggled the past four weeks, putting up just 46 points in four straight losses to start Big Ten play. Gleeson was praised a season ago for turning a once dour Scarlet Knights offense into something respectable in 2020.
Rutgers (3-4) plays at Illinois (3-5) on Saturday.
Injuries to several key players, a drop in production from several playmakers and the woeful performance of the offensive line have all come together to make Gleeson’s job far more difficult this season.
“I think Sean’s doing a very good job. I think we have to, we have to coach it better, we have to execute it better. That’s for sure,” Schiano told reporters on Monday.
“But, you know, Sean’s an excellent coach and he has good plans. I think his feel on game days very good; I have the utmost confidence.”
Gleeson was praised throughout college football last year for the job he did revamping the Rutgers offense. He even earned some whispers as a possible head coach candidate early this season when the Rutgers offense was flourishing with some impressive non-conference wins.
But the offense has hit a hard stretch the past four games, all losses in Big Ten play. The injuries certainly have hurt Gleeson’s ability to put out a competent offense, with three-fifths of the starting offensive line out.
There simply is a lack of depth currently on offense for Rutgers, making Gleeson’s job a difficult one in what is the most competitive division in college football.
This season, Rutgers is ninth in the Big Ten in scoring offense (24.1 points per game) and No. 11 with 335.6 yards of total offense per game.
Both numbers are down from last season when Rutgers averaged 26.7 points per game (eighth in the conference) and total offense (339.1 yards per game). Making last season’s number even more impressive is that Rutgers played just a Big Ten schedule and didn’t have the benefit of out-of-conference games to boost their numbers.
Rutgers two biggest offensive outputs came in non-conference wins over Temple and Delaware.