PISCATAWAY, N.J. — In many ways, Rutgers football head coach Greg Schiano sees similarities between his Rutgers football team and Sunday’s opponent. Schiano believes that despite a 1-11 record last year, Northwestern is a very good, solid program.
Schiano spoke to the media ahead of Sunday’s season opener at SHI Stadium against Northwestern.
It has been a turbulent offseason for Northwestern with the university firing long-time head coach Pat Fitzgerald. The firing came after allegations of hazing and a racist culture, surfaced in early July. The Northwestern head coach had originally been suspended for two weeks following an investigation into hazing allegations but was ultimately fired in mid-July.
With the season opener fast approaching, Schiano believes Sunday’s game at SHI Stadium will be a big test for his Rutgers team.
“They had — if you look at their results, I know you look, say, it’s 1-11, but when you really dig deep, turnovers are what killed them,” Schiano said.
“When they didn’t turn the ball over they are a very good football team, not much unlike us. If we can keep from turning the ball over, we’ve got a chance.”
Now, David Braun is the interim head coach. Brought onto the staff to be the defensive coordinator this offseason, Braun has never been a head coach.
The firing of Fitzgerald was tremendous for Northwestern. A former standout linebacker at the school, Fitzgerald has been the program’s head coach since 2006. During those 17 seasons, Fitzgerald had 110 wins and 101 losses, owning a 5-5 record in bowl games.
Coach Braun is running the defense and if you look at what they have done in his past, he has climbed the ranks and done it the right way at every stop and he’s worked for friends of mine who speak really, really highly of him.
“So he was brought in there initially to fix the defense and then he got some more put on his plate obviously and then special teams, the same fellow that was running it who does an excellent job, he’s still running the special teams. From a schematic standpoint, I think it’s going to be more of the same,” Schiano said.
“Everybody tweaks and does things, and I know with coach Braun coming from a different school, he’s got to adapt his system to their personnel, but as a coach, there’s certain things that are your go-to things and I’m sure we’ll see those.”
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