It has been an unprecedented year for Rutgers athletics, ranging from the return of the football team to a bowl game to consecutive NCAA Tournaments for men’s basketball and the success of field hockey, women’s soccer and both lacrosse programs as well as wrestling (not to mention baseball’s current run).
And the question now becomes given the success of Rutgers athletics over the past two years, what exactly is the ceiling for the different programs, especially in the ultra-competitive Big Ten?
When Rutgers entered the Big Ten in 2014, it faced a deficiency in terms of facilities and infrastructure. That much is clear and obvious.
But now with everything from the Rodkin Academic Success Center (an initiative from athletic director Pat Hobbs) to the new training facility for the soccer teams (see Hobbs, Pat) to naming rights for the basketball arena (again, Hobbs) to the facility for the basketball programs (Hobbs yet again) and the proposed football facility (Hobbs…Hobbs…Hobbs…), Rutgers is gaining traction in terms of the arms race to be competitive in the Big Ten.
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It is something not lost on New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, who told RutgersWire last week that the need to be competitive in the Big Ten is both academic and athletic when it comes to infrastructure.
“Absolutely and by the way, it’s not an either-or with a Rutgers,” Murphy said last week in an interview.
“If you’re a Big Ten university, you can and probably must be both a great research institution of higher education and you have to be competitive as it relates to your sports presence and all the stuff that goes into making those presences competitive.”
There is also talks of upgrading the baseball facility, something that Hobbs hinted at recently in an interview with the Big Ten Network.
Murphy also spoke about the importance of having Greg Schiano back as head coach of Rutgers football. Now in his third season back with the Scarlet Knights, Schiano has back-to-back recruiting classes that are highly ranked and has pieced together improvement in each year with the program.
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In the process of bringing Schiano back, Murphy was instrumental in the process of recruiting the man who once resurrected the program from the ash heap of college football. Schiano is now charged with the same objective yet again to rebuild Rutgers football from the Ash heap.
“It’s a big deal. And I think most of the great moments for that football program are before us,” Murphy told ‘Rutgers Wire’ last week about the direction of the football team under Schiano.
“Coach Schiano is a game-changer. He’s one of the best recruiters in sports. He’s put together a heck of a staff. They’ll win more games this year than they win last year and they won last year more games than they did before. I think it’s on a great trajectory.”
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