Greg Schiano on bringing ‘CHOP’ and ‘Keep Chopping’ to Rutgers football in 2005

Rutgers football has a long history with ‘CHOP’ and ‘keep chopping’ that dates back to Greg Schiano in 2005.

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Love it or hate it, Rutgers football has embraced the ‘CHOP’ slogan since 2005. In an interesting twist, it is now being used prominently by another Big Ten program.

Over the past few months, Michigan State has been prominently using the ‘CHOP’ mantra. It is an unusual move from the Spartans to actively use something that is so notably linked to a fellow Big Ten program in Rutgers.

Rutgers (3-2, 0-2 Big Ten) hosts No. 11 Michigan State (5-0, 2-0 Big Ten) on Saturday at noon.

Greg Schiano’s use of ‘CHOP’ and the phrase of  ‘keep chopping’ became prominent in 2006 when Rutgers went 11-2 and won the first bowl game in program history. The idea behind the slogan, which was introduced by Schiano to his Rutgers team the year before, is that the only way to take down a forest of trees is one by one.

So, get started chopping.

“You know, we’ve been doing, ‘Keep Chopping’ since 2005 and Dr. Kevin Elko is, is the person who gave it to me – actually gave it to me in 1999 when I was at the University of Miami- he didn’t just give it to me he gave it to our whole staff,” Schiano told reporters on Monday.

“And it’s funny how things get tucked away and then come out and. But that’s become much more than a word in this program. So, we really, you know, live by that. It’s kind of a big part of our culture.”

 

With his return last year, Greg Schiano brought back ‘CHOP’ along with other mantras from his first tenure at Rutgers including ‘F.A.M.I.L.Y.’