Culture is the most important part of yet another Greg Schiano rebuild of Rutgers football.
BEDMINSTER, NEW JERSEY — The patient, pragmatic and at times painful rebuild of Rutgers football is once again on the verge of a dramatic step forward. And as the calendar turns to July, it is clear that Rutgers and head coach Greg Schiano have this program pointed up.
An incredible month of June for Rutgers football saw a staggering 20 commits during the month. There was a buzz about Rutgers, almost palatable at times, with the Big Ten program now ranked top-15 nationally.
As he did at Rutgers during his first tenure as head coach, Schiano has built – or rather rebuilt – this program from the bottom up. No shortcuts, no quick and easy fixes.
Following the program’s first winning season and bowl win since 2014, Rutgers clearly has the pieces to be competitive in the Big Ten. Now this summer has proven that Rutgers can be competitive in the toughest conference in college football.
And what is perhaps most impressive about it all is that Schiano and his staff did it differently than most of the other rebuilds around college football. They didn’t go crazy with the transfer portal. They don’t park luxury vehicles inside their stadium for flashy photo shoots.
Relationships and hard work, Schiano said, have paid off in piecing together a recruiting class that is likely to be the best in program history.
“It’s no secret. We need to be different. We can’t we’re not going to do it the same way that the ‘blue bloods’ do it and just do it better than them and go flying by them,” Schiano said prior to his charity golf classic at Fiddler’s Elbow.
“We got to be different. We got to do it our way and our way is different. So it’s pretty clear like usually players know they want to be part of it, or they know they don’t.”
Consider this class of 2025, which now has eight commits who are ranked as four-star recruits. While the class is star-heavy and talented, not every player in this class has been a high-profile recruit.
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Chase Linton, who committed to Schiano following the first official visit weekend in early June, holds just one Power Five offer (from Rutgers). That didn’t deter Schiano and his staff from getting in early on the Georgia defensive end.
Days after his commitment, 247Sports bumped Linto up to a four-star and made him the No. 28 edge rusher in the nation.
“First of all, he looks right through you and talks right at you – like he planned everything. Maybe he did,” Linton said of his relationship with Schiano.
“He’s more real than a lot of coaches I talked to and direct. It’s part of what (my family) liked a lot about him. And his staff is like that too. They treat me like family, like I matter not like a VIP guest like some other schools but more like family.
“I’m locked in. I didn’t take any of my other official visits and haven’t camped anywhere this whole summer. Now I’m only focused on senior year.”
When Schiano talks about his program, he speaks about culture.
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There were no shortcuts to Schiano 1.0, and that certainly is the case now. In fact, Schiano might be the head coach in Power Five football who is most dedicated to self-discipline and integrity.
For some recruits, that type of mentality doesn’t fit with their understandable priority lists, often times topped by Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) and playing tome guarantees. But Schiano, even when chasing after a bigtime player, doesn’t change the culture of the program to fit the pitch.
Consider Malcolm Ray, a defensive tackle from Florida State.
Ray was heavily pursued by a number of those ‘blue blood’ programs. During his four seasons at Florida State, he had 60 total tackles with 3.5 sacks and two passes defended.
And yet he picked Rutgers despite some big programs coming in for him during his recruitment.
“It was a big risk. So I got to say, with coach Schiano, when we first got on the phone and we were talking like we knew each other from way back when,” Ray said.
“But it was just like the connection that we instantly. We clicked so fast and it was just like ‘How can I not?’ A connection with the head coach is like something you want. So it was just that it felt right.”
