Greg Schiano fires 3 Rutgers football defensive coaches as overhaul begins
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Rutgers football’s defensive overhaul has officially begun.
Coach Greg Schiano on Thursday, Dec. 4 fired three key members of his coaching staff: co-defensive coordinators Robb Smith and Zach Sparber, along with defensive line coach Colin Ferrell.
Smith and Sparber, a Bergen Catholic graduate, were in their first seasons in the position (Smith was in his third stint with the team). Ferrell just finished his second season in his role.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel was first to report the dismissals.
The moves aren’t surprising considering how poorly Rutgers played defensively all season – the results were so poor that Schiano was forced midseason to take a bigger role in the unit.
Schiano said shortly before the season began that the defense was a “work in progress.”
But that progress never truly came to fruition.
“All season long, that's been something that has kept us from winning as many games as we possibly could,” Schiano said after his team’s 40-36 loss to Penn State on Nov. 29, a loss that ended Rutgers’ season at 5-7. “And somewhere in that time, I tried to get more involved. Sometimes it helped. Sometimes I'm not sure it did anything.”
The Scarlet Knights ranked 126th in the nation in total defense, yielding 432.8 yards per game. They gave up a jaw-dropping 750 total yards to Oregon in October.
Rutgers allowed a Big Ten-worst 209.9 rushing yards per game, as well as 222.9 passing yards per game, also among the worst in the conference.
The unit allowed 36 points per game against Big Ten competition, tied for worst in the conference with Purdue.
Schiano now will need to hire a new defensive coordinator to try and improve the unit for 2026.
"Some years, you just don't have it on one side of the ball or the other," Schiano said. "This year we certainly didn't have it when you look at how we performed. So certainly my job to make sure we do have it because if we had it both this year, we're competing for some very exciting stuff. So it definitely feels like a bit of a missed opportunity for sure."
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Rutgers football defensive overhaul begins
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