Greg Schiano Back As Rutgers Football Coach With 8-Year, $32 Million Deal
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (CBS/AP) — Greg Schiano is back as Rutgers football coach. The university's Board of Governors on Tuesday approved an agreement to bring back the former Scarlet Knights coach to lead the downtrodden program that has lost 21 straight Big Ten Conference games and won seven games over the last three seasons.
Welcome Home, Coach!
— Rutgers Football (@RFootball) December 3, 2019
The 53-year-old Schiano was given an eight-year, $32 million deal.
The agreement, initially announced on Sunday, came a week after talks to bring back Schiano had fallen apart when the two sides couldn't agree on other financial commitments by the school toward improved facilities and infrastructure.
Schiano, a New Jersey native, went 68-67 at Rutgers from 2001-11 and turned the Scarlet Knights into consistent winners after years of being one of the worst major college football programs in the country. Success under Schiano helped Rutgers land an invitation to the Big Ten, and it joined the lucrative Power Five conference in 2014.
"Rutgers University and this football program have meant the world to me and my family," Schiano said in a statement. "I arrived here in 2000 with the goal to build a program that would be a source of pride for the state of New Jersey and develop great young men. I look forward to embracing that challenge once again. This is a great opportunity for all of Rutgers to pull together to get us back to where we all know we belong. It will take everyone on this campus and in the State of Rutgers to get this done."
Schiano left Rutgers in 2012 to become head coach for the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but his tenure lasted only two years.
(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)