Rutgers football is ready to begin seeing the benefit of their rebuilding project. So says head coach Greg Schiano who tells WFAN that the talent level in the program is coming along.
Schiano’s comments came on Friday during an appearance on ‘Tiki and Tierney’ on WFAN, the flagship station for the Rutgers football program. The show is hosted by former NFL running back Tiki Barber and Brandon Tierney, a popular voice on WFAN as well as SNY.
In speaking with Barber and Tierney, Schiano was asked about the status of his rebuilding project at Rutgers. In what will be his fourth season back with the program, Schiano believes that the Scarlet Knights are prepared to turn a corner in terms of their talent level and development.
Doing so in the Big Ten’s Eastern Division, arguably the most competitive conference in college football, is certainly no easy task for a rebuilding program.
“The league is a great league. It’s where I always felt Rutgers belonged,” Schiano said on WFAN.
“So we’re in the right place. But you know – you (Tiki) know better than anyone that you have to accumulate talent. In college football, you have to do it over a course of time. Because these are 18-year-old kids that are coming in. They have to get in the program, they have to get developed. So you have to fill the pipeline. And then once it starts coming out the other side, then things start to click and we’re getting close – probably have about one more recruiting class to fill this pipeline.
“And I really like the trajectory, we’re getting better. But you know what happens over a long period of time it kind of happens all of a sudden, in college football, you know?”
Rutgers hasn’t been bowl eligible since 2014, their first season in the Big Ten. That year, they finished 8-5, beat Michigan for their first Big Ten win in program history and then played in the Quick Lanes Bowl where they defeated North Carolina.
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That roster was comprised largely of recruits from Schiano’s final recruiting class at Rutgers. Schiano left in 2012 to become head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
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