Rutgers‘ talks to hire Greg Schiano back as the team’s football coach have broken down without a deal, a source confirmed to ESPN.
The source said the sides had agreed to an eight-year, $32 million contract, but it wasn’t finalized after Rutgers refused to guarantee new facilities and other improvements that Schiano was demanding.
Sources had told ESPN earlier this month that Schiano wanted a new indoor facility, upgrades for other facilities and a dramatic increase in assistant coaches’ salaries.
Yahoo Sports first reported on the Rutgers-Schiano deal falling through.
Schiano, 53, was the most successful coach in Rutgers’ long-suffering football history. He had a 68-67 record with the Scarlet Knights from 2001 to 2011. After his teams had losing records in each of his first four years, Rutgers had winning campaigns in all but one of his final seven seasons at the school.
A native of Wyckoff, New Jersey, Schiano left Rutgers to coach the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in January 2012. His teams went 11-21 in two seasons, and he and Buccaneers general manager Mark Dominik were fired in December 2013.
Schiano was the assistant head coach and defensive coordinator under Urban Meyer at Ohio State from 2016 to 2018. Schiano was set to be Tennessee‘s new head coach in November 2017, but the Volunteers backed out of the deal after some of their supporters and others questioned his knowledge of Jerry Sandusky’s sexual abuse during Schiano’s tenure as a Penn State assistant from 1990 to 1995.
Schiano has repeatedly denied knowing about the allegations of Sandusky’s abuse of boys, and Penn State and Ohio State officials defended him following Tennessee’s decision.
He abruptly resigned from a position on the New England Patriots‘ coaching staff in March, citing a “need to spend more time on my faith and family.” His resignation came less than two months after he was hired by coach Bill Belichick.
Rutgers is looking to replace former coach Chris Ash, who was fired Sept. 29 after compiling an 8-32 record in three-plus seasons.
Interim coach Nunzio Campanile is 1-6 since taking over, including an 0-6 record in Big Ten games in which the Scarlet Knights have lost by an average of 33.5 points per game.
Since Schiano’s departure, the Scarlet Knights have had just two winning seasons — 9-4 in 2012 and 8-5 in 2014 under Kyle Flood.