UCLA was on a 5 game losing streak. Didn’t score over 20 points all season. Coaching staff was suffering internal turmoil and their first year head coach was already on the hot seat. Offensive coordinator was fired weeks later. Yet they scored at will and set a high water mark for passing and total yards gained. But we weren’t out coached.
Greg has one of the lowest win percentages of any active coach
- Thread starter RUTGERS95
- Start date
Just for the record, I NEVER suggested Greg should get an extension. To me, there’s really no circumstance where that would make sense after next season. Not extending him, however, is something entirely different from not firing him.
We were 5-7 last year and whether folks think he should’ve been canned already or not is really besides the point. We instead responded by bringing in a whole new defensive staff. If we have a better record and appear noticably improved on defense (without a notable drop in offense) following that outcome then wouldn’t seem to me to be an optimal time for Zinn to start over. Thinking about it from her perspective, pulling the plug on a coach will be a much easier decision to make in a year where things do not improve or get worse (considering the cost involved).
Yea been saying that this entire thread and others . Not sure why you’re trying to explain to me what I and a couple others have been saying all along. If he doesn’t perform this season and next he will likely be gone. 6-6 and 7-5 will not be enough.
You forget that we lost Toure during the summer and Powell and Powell was hurt, two of the best linebackers we’ve ever had. The issue was depth.
We had new linebackers who were acclimating to this level of play. #2 just lost the back on the swing pass. Toure would have read and made the play. Here’s the play.
oh isn't it odd how Greg's teams give up season highs to opposing offenses each year and not even to great offenses to boot?
I posted the numbers, he's no D guru like people want to believe
I mean you gotta admit…that Minnesota game…watching that field house make that clutch Td pass and key defensive stops was a thing of beauty…
Not you. I thought you were referring to me “coming around”. I just wanted to make it clear that my position was never that Greg would deserve an extension, even with an above average 2026 season. Just because I don’t agree with the way the OP (95) positioned Greg’s lifetime career losing record (as if it would be impossible to land someone worse than him) does not mean I don’t think a change should be made at the right time if Greg can’t take us to the next level soon.
Don't forget last year--Rutgers squeaked by Purdue with late game turnover by Purdue and a field goal as time expired. This was a Purdue team that was 2-10/0-9 in the B1G and playing with a first year coaching staff.
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bro, you have reading comprehension concerns. I suggest you read the original post again and then the life of the thread. You're problem, which is abundantly clear with you back peddling and constant need to redress your meaning, is that you either suffer from an inability to articulate yourself well or don't understand what you're reading. Case in point, at no point in this thread did anyone say or intimate that it would be impossible to land anyone worse than him.
what has been said is that Elmer fking Fudd could manage the team to fighting for last place which is inherently different than what you just said
you're close to the moron button here
They also had 56 new members in the program!
they committed 2 very uncommon and inexplicable mistakes to even allow it to be that close!
that game was on the other day, watched it again and no one can say we were the better team or better coached team. Both teams committed mistakes. If not for Ray Ray, we lose that game.
Greg had a bye week before and still looked lost in the first half
year 7 folks, year 7
Comprehension problem? Backpeddling? Your OP bumped below:
Please help me understand how this could be interpreted as anything other than exactly what I said - “record speaks for itself. Regardless of what happens this year should be his last?”
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I think the UCLA loss was probably worse. Not only did we actually lose, but we somehow let that completely immobile statue QB run for a TD. That broken play has to be among the top 10 low moments of the past few years.
Lots of problems with the D reflecting back - even with Joe there as others pointed out. my theory is Greg badly overestimated how much of it was the injuries. Thought he could get away with hiring a figurehead washout type in Smith when he desperately needed a legit rebuild guy last year. So now we’re at defensive Ash level rock bottom and the talent pool might even be worse.
But what’s done is done and a decision was made to put a brand new defensive staff in place rather than start over this coming season. And boy does Johansen have a project in front of him. In my opinion, Greg’s future beyond next season will be directly linked to how successful Johansen and his team are in cleaning up the mess quickly (odds are certainly stacked against). The offense has too many weapons to be awful. Lonergan seems plenty “good enough” in watching his film (to play alongside Raymond and Duff).
Greg didn’t overestimate anything when it came to hiring Smith. Like all of his other recent coordinator hires. It took him almost 3 months to finalize. That tells you one of 1 things. He didn’t have a list of viable candidates at the ready. Or the people he has on the list don’t want to work for him.
Smith wasn't the issue, that's another bs narrative by those afflicted by the schianopox
the defense wasn't better under Greg and that's with the softer part of the schedule
Smith has one of our best defenses ever at Rutgers
Smith had to put together something with Greg's kids, kids picked by Greg
Smith is the scapegoat
Okay. So a 3 time fire by Rutgers is the best we could do. A guy not retained by his last 2 coaches. A guy that couldn’t find a job other than analyst was the choice all along? Maybe he was the fall guy or scapegoat. But he was the only scapegoat that Greg was able to convince in the nearly 3 month job search to come work from him.
Schianopox? Yea don’t have it.
Flounder much? I don’t know what you intend because you waffle so much.
you need coffee, you misread my post
I'm merely pointing out that all the angst over Smith is misdirected.
I posted all the data on the defense last year by game, and Rutgers by year. Smith wasn't the issue
never said you were afflicted by schianopox, you'd know it if I did lol
totally not following your flounder comment. I think you meant this response for someone else
I reread it and you are right. Read your response while doing 3 other things and thought you were a different poster with different intentions. My bad. We are in agreement.
Oh yes, that’s for sure true. Agreed. No way Smith was near the top of his list. What I meant was, it wasn’t a priority for him to relinquish control of the defensive. Unless it was a home run brand name (which he wasn’t ever in the running for) he likely didn’t focus on candidates who would insist on inserting all their own position coaches and stuff like that (i.e. full scale rebuild). Obviously, no way of knowing this for sure I just can’t imagine there weren’t accomplished options from the lower level who could’ve been given the chance Johansen is now getting.
You don’t want to hire unless they want control. You want someone that’s going to take ownership. Coordinators are not middle management. They are c-suite level hires.
Speaking of which…
Wisky became “Wisconsin” because of two things:
- the right leadership up top
who…
- made the right hire for the program
I’m sure we have all heard the story by now when Donna Shalala was sitting in the president’s box at Camp Randall, watching another Badger blowout and said out loud to nobody in particular “this ends now.”
I know, I know. I’ve done it to others so I’ll do it to myself…
We’re all guilty at some point of doing what he does.
But the consistency on his part is something else.
Rutgers Chris has listed multiple obvious examples. Talent wasn't the issue in any of those games. Coaching was. I've listed most of those examples in multiple posts.
Especially in today’s world. In 1.0 Greg got away more with inserting himself in the defense. Still not ideal, but there’s just so much more for a head coach to focus on now that there just isn’t time to get in the weeds for the day to day X’s and O’s.
Rutgers didn't lose to those teams because they were outspent. They lost those games because Schiano was outcoached. For all the money that Penn State spent, they lost to UCLA and Northwestern in 2025, and were a dropped snap away from losing to RU.
RU beat Minnesota rather convincingly the season before, and were beating them rather convincingly for a half the next year. Did these investments kick in after halftime? Is that how they work? Despite the lavish spending by Illinois, it took an epic Schiano brain fart for them to beat RU in 2024. Did their fieldhouse cause that and the utter bedsh@tting by RU the next season with most of the same players?
Iowa, despite their vastly superior recruiting and palatial fieldhouse, was getting dominated by RU until their coaches MADE ADJUSTMENTS and turned the game around. Talent wasn't the issue in those losses. Coaching was.
I would add the blowout losses to Illinois and Washington in 2025.
That statement was directed to 95 himself after saying he thinks all money should be diverted to football. That is what happened under Schiano 1.0. That’s definitely not happening under Keli. She understands the value of a complete athletic portfolio and is investing as such. Similar to how other mature departments in our conference and beyond work.
I’m just telling you my interaction and real world experience. It’s not just talk. I’ve seen it in action. She wants to win and mediocrity won’t be accepted. Will we get there? Time will tell, but so far I’ve personally seen and know of things she’s done or not done that has already separated her from past ADs. She’s going to support coaches. And with that, she expects wins. Nothing is under that spotlight more than football.
Complete bullspit. UCLA didn’t outspend Rutgers nor did Illinois. Or others. The data is all out there.
Must have. Except UCLA doesn’t have one. Worst facilities in the B1G. Yet they even tuned Schiano on his own field with a coach who was promptly fired lol
Then it must be the weather, or something else Rutgers has not given to Greg that made Rutgers inferior to UCLA.
I think you’re on to something something. Needs to bring meteorologists on staff. It’s not like it’s not already bloated.
The beat us with a bunch of walk-ons that year. May as well have been a loss to a MAC team. They were awful.
"You don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows"-Bob Dylan
Thinking about this a bit, I totally agree with you. If Greg had a weatherman on staff, he would not have tried to ice the kicker in the Illinois game. He would have been extended after that game until 2040. And we would not be having this debate!
Talent was an issue in all the games because we played without Toure, Bailey, and Powell. Aaron Lewis played hurt as did Flip Dixon. LB replacements made a ton of mistakes, as shown in the clip above I shared with Rutgers Chris.
The clip you shared didn’t do what you thought it would. 1- Powell was in on that play. I’m sure you’ll say he was hurt so we can move on to 2- that play is a perfect example of a high level coordinator (Eric Bienemy) putting his below average talent team in position to win with good play calling. They ran that play 4-5 times successfully and our coaches could never adjust.
it's unfortunate because key word there is mature
football drives the bus
not impressed by her actions (outside fundraising) thus far
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