PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Pat Flaherty’s return to Rutgers this offseason marks a fresh start for an offensive line coach who has made his name in recent years not on Saturdays but on Sundays.
For Flaherty, who spent the past two decades as an offensive line coach in the NFL, there is bound to be a transition. Not only is Rutgers a college football program, but they are still very much rebuilding under head coach Greg Schiano.
Having gotten his coaching career started in college, including eight seasons at Rutgers beginning in 1984, Flaherty has always felt close to the program, even as his career took him all over the NFL. While offensive line coach with the New York Giants, he built a home in 2004 in northern New Jersey.
So when the opportunity came up to work with head coach Greg Schiano, Flaherty jumped on it.
“You know, I coach these guys like I coached any player I’ve ever coached, including the Pro Bowl players, the All-Pros. It hasn’t changed. It really hasn’t,” Flaherty said on Tuesday.
“The game of football is a game of football. You have to be able to execute the blocking part of it. You have to come off the ball and your techniques and the techniques that I’ve taught for, you know, 40 years are the same techniques that we’re talking about today. And it’s not changed.”
Flaherty likes this because the continuity of his lessons from his time in the NFL are now being taught and coached at the college level.
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At this stage in his career, Flaherty certainly has a lot of experience he can offer his players. As an extension of this, he is able to share insight from first-hand experiences having worked with Pro Bowl and All-Pro offensive linemen in the NFL.
“That’s exciting because a lot of times in the NFL, you get veterans that come in from other teams, and you sit down to speak with them, you know, they have their own way to get in the stance, they have their own things and I always tell always told the veterans if it works for you, I’m not gonna fool around with it. But if it doesn’t, we change it,” Flaherty said.
“With the college players, you know, we teach the stance, OK? Same stance I’ve always taught. And, more importantly, we coach a stance, and I said that the other day at the coaches clinic, because I really believe this, that as coaches, we teach a lot of things, but sometimes we forget that we need to coach it, right? And that’s one fundamental that we will always coach here at Rutgers.”
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