Tag: Nunzio Campanile

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Last Saturday, Rutgers football showed flashes of potential on offense for the first time in…well…a long time.

In Saturday’s loss at Michigan State, Rutgers had 460 yards of total offense and produced 25 first downs. It was more total offense and more first downs than the Scarlet Knights had produced in their last two games combined.

And perhaps most impressive about the performance was that the offense didn’t have any turnovers.

Give credit to interim offensive coordinator Nunzio Campanile, who has simplified the playbook, eliminated the gimmick plays and solidified the playcalling. There is a rhyme and reason to the Rutgers offense under Campanile, and Saturday’s performance underscored the need for just that.

“I’d say that it’s definitely made some changes since coach Nunz took over for sure,” running back Kyle Monangai said this week.

“Put guys in different places, maybe talked about things differently, Taught things differently. And I think it just made everything work in a way that we’re all clicking together and everybody’s on the same page. And we’ve made a lot of strides as you know as we cumulate reps as the season goes on. More reps, more practicing things. More you practice, the better you get at it.”

What has been impressive is the fact Gavin Wimsatt showed some consistency in the pocket last weekend. He was 20-of-34 for 236 yards with two touchdowns.

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Wimsatt ran the offense well and efficiently, backed up by a strong ground game that provided some much-needed balance.

“Nunz is a seasoned coach. He’s a leader. He’s been a very successful head coach. So like, being in charge of a group of men is nothing new to him. So he stepped right in and it’s kind of like riding a bike. He went right at it,” Schiano said on Wednesday.

“It’s been a tough position he’s putting put in, but he’s doing a really good job. He’s working incredibly hard. So I’m grateful for that.”

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PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Expect to see Rutgers slow down the tempo a bit more on offense in an effort to play complementary football. It is something that head coach Greg Schiano thinks fits the make-up of his team.

In Saturday’s 24-17 win over Indiana, Rutgers held 38:53 in possession time. That was over 10 minutes more than their previous game, a loss to Nebraska.

Even in the Week 3 blowout win of Wagner, Rutgers clocked a time of possession of 32:09. So to see Rutgers with such dominance in possession was eye-opening.

The switch to a more pro-style offense, where the play clock is utilized more fully, is one of the more notable changes under interim offensive coordinator Nunzio Campanile. His predecessor, Sean Gleeson, favored tempo as part of the spread offense.

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But when the offense wasn’t clicking, this led to very little time on the field and gave the opposition a chance to get the ball back quickly.

“Well, I think when you have a good defense it is. You know, if you’re going to get into a shootout with people, that’s one thing right then time of possession doesn’t matter,” Schiano said on Wednesday.

“But if you have a good defense and you shorten the game a little bit by controlling the football and you know, it’s kind of – I hate to say it’s like Russian roulette, right? You spin the chamber the more time you spend it, the more likely one of them’s gonna have a bullet in it. So if you limit the times that their offense has to spin the chamber and you’re playing good defense, you got a chance. I think the way we’re playing kind of lends to that a little bit more than maybe before.”

In Schiano’s first stint with Rutgers, a benchmark of the program and the offense was clock control. Rutgers ran the ball effectively during those bowl years which allowed them to control the clock and the game.

Saturday’s win over Indiana, even as the offense was a bit one-dimensional towards the run, perhaps hint at where Schiano wants to see the offense go moving forward.

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The switch to a more pragmatic, time-consuming offense hasn’t affected the number of plays that Rutgers is running. Even as they’ve slowed down the pace, the Scarlet Knights are still getting plenty of opportunities to make plays.

Against Nebraska, Rutgers ran 68 plays. This past Saturday, they had 74 plays from scrimmage. So a fast tempo doesn’t necessarily mean more plays if the offense is faltering.

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Conventional wisdom holds that one advantage from this emphasis on time of possession is that it gets the defense off the field a bit more. This allows for a chance to rest, regroup and review their assignments and adjustments.

The players on the defense, however, don’t think it matters much.

“I’m not worried. We’ve got depth,” defensive lineman Wesley Bailey said. “We’ve got two, three, four where all of us are ready to play football.”

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On Sunday night, Rutgers football head coach Greg Schiano made the decision to move on from offensive coordinator Sean Gleeson. It was a move that, Schiano says, was predicated on the belief that this team can still win games this season.

This past weekend, Rutgers dropped to 3-3 (0-3 Big Ten) following a 14-13 loss to Nebraska. The Scarlet Knights were shut out in the second half of that game while managing just 85 yards of total offense after halftime.

The timing of the decision was perhaps a bit of a surprise as coaching changes in midseason are not regular in college football. Schiano elevated tight ends coach [autotag]Nunzio Campanile[/autotag] to the role of offensive coordinator.

Campanile, well-regarded in New Jersey football circles, is the longest-tenured coach on the Rutgers staff. In 2019, he served as tight ends coach under Chris Ash. He then was elevated to interim coach midseason after Ash was let go.

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The decision means that Campanile has half the season to state his case for the offensive coordinator’s role.

“Well, I’ve been doing this a long time; I know a lot of people. My main focus is our football team, right now. There will be time, later on, if that’s the route we have to go,” Schiano said on Sunday night about the search for the next offensive coordinator.

“But it’s not like you don’t have guys already that you always keep on your shortlist. So that’s not an issue. But right now, my focus is 100 percent on our football team.

“I believe that we can win games this year (or) else I wouldn’t have made this change. You can do it the traditional way and wait till the end of the season…But I believe that we can win games this year if we play complimentary football. That’s why it happened now.”

Rutgers has lost three straight games, with two of those losses coming at home. In those two losses, both in the Big Ten, Rutgers has five interceptions thrown as the offense struggled to find its rhythm and flow.

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The Scarlet Knights have a bye weekend and then host Indiana on Oct. 22.

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On Sunday night, Rutgers football head coach Greg Schiano made the call to move on from Sean Gleeson as offensive coordinator. In his place, Schiano has elevated tight ends coach Nunzio Campanile.

Now, the Jersey-born and bred Campanile will be asked to turn around an offense that has scored a combined 33 points in their last three games.

A graduate of Montclair State University, Campanile not only has a very strong resume, but he also has the requisite experience for this role. In 2019, Campanile was elevated to interim head coach after Chris Ash was fired as head coach at Rutgers.

He was most recently the tight ends coach for Schiano.

Now, he is being called on once again to take on an elevated midseason role, this time as offensive coordinator.

“Well, he is a candidate and he has got a seven-week job interview as the coordinator. Why Nunz? I think that he is a very talented quarterback coach. The development of our quarterbacks is going to be an integral part of us being successful on offense,” Schiano said on Sunday night.

“And I think he’s got a lot of experience at running offenses, at coaching quarterbacks. I think he was the man for this time.”

It was a decision that was clearly difficult for Schiano as the Rutgers head coach had repeatedly spoken glowingly about the young offensive coordinator. Gleeson was, by all accounts, a tireless worker and unrelenting in trying to turn the offense around.

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It simply didn’t work, as is sometimes the case in this business.

“Certain things over time build-up and I gave it a lot of thought obviously since the end of the game, Friday night. But it wasn’t a result of Friday night that this occurred,” Schiano said.

“I really gave it a lot of thought all day Saturday, Saturday night. Well into Sunday. I just felt that, at this time, it was the right thing to do, what we needed to do for our football team.”

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