Urban Meyer is not only a believer in what Rutgers football has done so far this season, but the former Ohio State and NFL head coach believes that the rebuild of the program “will be a success.”
Meyer, who won three national championships as a college head coach, likes the direction of where head coach Greg Schiano has Rutgers headed. Schiano once served on Meyer’s staff at Ohio State as a defensive coordinator.
Rutgers is off to a 2-0 start this year, with a season-opening win over Northwestern followed up by a Saturday night win over Temple. Saying that “Rutgers is doing a great job,” Meyer spent time with Big Ten Network analyst Gerry DiNardo where he talked about why Rutgers is off to a good start this season.
Meyer offered a long and detailed answer as to why he is buying the Rutgers rebuild.
“Rutgers is 2-0. Two big wins. A conference win against Northwestern and against a good Temple team,” Meyer told the Big Ten Network.
“I was talking to him and he made a comment to me…It’s his second stint at Rutgers.
“His whole focus now is finding that edge. What’s the edge? If I’m Ohio State, you know what my edge is? I’m going to get Nick Bosa and Chase Young and a bunch of other great players. He’s at Rutgers, he’s got quality players, he has a heck of a quarterback right now. But he has to find that edge in the program.
“He’s come up with three things. Number one is the ball, which is the most important thing in the program. If they take care of the ball on his mind and in his player’s mind, they won’t lose.
“Right now, they’re plus-two in the turnover ratio and they’re 2-0. The second one is swarm. They want to out-effort everybody. He feels that they will not go into a game this year that the team on the other sideline will outplay them.
“You watch them play right now, there is effort all over the place. He considers himself the ball coach, the swarm coach and then number three is CHOP. It’s been around Rutgers for a while. That’s Greg’s word that he uses.
“He trains his players to focus on the moment. In the game of football, one of the worst things you can do is to be thinking about something that happened before. A turnover, a mistake – that paralyzes a player. The second thing you don’t want to do is worry about the future, what’s happening next. Why am I not getting the ball?
“Live in the moment, play as hard as you possibly can in the moment. That’s their edge.”
DiNardo agreed with Meyer’s assessment, saying that Schiano’s mentality and “that he is a fanatic” about his program’s principles.
◾️ Take care of the ball
◾️ Out-effort every team
◾️ Live in the moment @CoachUrbanMeyer expands on his three keys to @RFootball‘s 2-0 start on the latest 𝘜𝘳𝘣𝘢𝘯 𝘈𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘺𝘴𝘪𝘴. 🪓 pic.twitter.com/NHfOriET1t— Big Ten Football (@B1Gfootball) September 14, 2023
“They’re 2-0 and you know what? You look at his first stint at Rutgers, that was a success,” Meyer said. “This will be a success as well.”