When John Robinson first became head coach of USC after the 1975 regular season and the departure of John McKay to the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he inherited a powerhouse program. USC was coming off a down year, but the Trojans had won two national titles in the three seasons before 1975. The cupboard was not bare, to put it plainly.
When Robinson came back to USC in the early 1990s, he stepped into a completely different world. USC’s brand and stature had been eroded by the latter years of Larry Smith’s tenure, also by the Ted Tollner years. Smith had three really good seasons from 1987-1989, but from 1983-1992, USC was more often mediocre than good. Robinson struggled to create the juggernaut he maintained in the 1970s.
The first and second tenures for Robinson were dramatically different.
Greg Schiano, like Robinson, coached at a college program once, then went to the NFL, and then came back to that same school for a second go-round. He coached at Rutgers from 2001 through 2011, then went to the NFL and the Buccaneers, only to come back to Rutgers in 2020.
In this case, the first and second tenures were (and are) pretty much the same.
Schiano inherited a Rutgers program in 2001 which had hit rock bottom under previous coach Terry Shea. RU was 3-8 in the Big East in 2000 before Schiano came aboard.
In 2019, Rutgers went 2-10 in the Big Ten under Chris Ash. Schiano had to once again build from the ground up.
Rutgers Wire editor Kristian Dyer talked about the similarities between the first and second Rutgers tenures of Greg Schiano on our USC Big Ten Tour podcast episode:
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