On Friday afternoon, Rutgers announced that Patt Hobbs will get a six-year extension as athletic director. It is an extension that is certainly deserved by Hobbs, who has overseen a highly successful rise of the athletic department in recent years within the Big Ten.
It was news about Hobbs that football head coach Greg Schiano greeted on Friday night. There is no doubt that Hobbs has made a dramatic turnaround of the athletic department at Rutgers.
This past year, field hockey won the Big Ten Tournament, women’s soccer won the conference regular season, men’s basketball made consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time since 1976 and both lacrosse programs are nationally ranked. Plus, football made a bowl game for the first time since 2014 and baseball is competing for a Big Ten regular season title.
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Schiano, who casts a giant shadow across the athletic department, the university as a whole and the entire state, was pleased with the extension for Hobbs.
“I think it’s great. I think continuity here with people that work well together, you know, Pat’s been here I don’t know how many years now, but he’s done a great job and I think he’s got all our — you just look what’s happening with baseball, both lacrosses, what happened with basketball, and I know I’ll leave somebody out if I start mentioning everybody,” Schiano was asked following the spring game.
“But you look at the Rutgers athletic department, it’s going like this (Schiano moves hand up) and the leader of that department is Pat. I’m very happy for him. He deserves it. What we need to do is get this operation cooking because this is the one that, as we know, can really push everything up even faster.”
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There is a sense of momentum around the football team. The class of 2023 was a top 30 class in the national recruiting rankings. And football’s 5-8 record represented the most wins for the program since joining the Big Ten in 2014.
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