Rutgers Football Head Coach Greg Schiano talks 2026 Offseason

Rutgers Football head coach Greg Schiano hosted his 20th annual Charity Golf Classic this past Monday and the event raised $200,000 for various foundations, which you can read more about here.

During the golf outing, Schiano spoke with the media about the offseason, his ongoing quarterback competition, the 2026 schedule kickoff times released and much more.

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Q: What charities does this golf outing benefit?

Greg Schiano: We have some great charities, starting with Chop for Change, which is our players’ project. One Veteran at a Time, POVAT, which helps the people that defend our country. And Athletes in Action, which is in our building working all the time with our players. And then we have a memorial scholarship in Bob Mulcahy’s name, which is really special to me personally — he was my first AD as a head coach.

Q: How did this event come together, and what role does Pat Morris play?

Greg Schiano: The guy who makes it all happen is Pat Morris. He does an incredible job. I show up that’s really what I do. He’s been doing it for a long time and literally takes nothing for it. It’s just out of the goodness of his heart. I can’t thank him enough. We’ve got 330-something golfers out there now. It’s turned into a real event.

Q: Can you share a memorable Bob Mulcahy story?

Greg Schiano: Bob is as good a human being as I’ve ever been around. No matter how dire the circumstances, he had a classic line that he’d say, ‘Keep smiling.’ He was steady as she blows, and a great listener. One time, we had played Navy and won, but their cut blocking left our guys with divots in their shin bones. I went to Bob ready to make the case to get out of the series. He looked at me and said, ‘Well, why don’t you just wear shin guards?’ And from then on, we did. Paul Johnson hated it so much that he actually got to the officials before a game to tell them shin guards weren’t registered equipment. But I had already copied the relevant page out of the rule book. The official confirmed we were fine, and I just kept walking. Paul was hot, boy.

Q: How has Chop for Change grown since it started?

Greg Schiano: It really has grown and done so much good in our community in New Brunswick, Piscataway, but also at other Rutgers campuses in Camden, Newark, and up in Paterson. It’s very Jersey-centric. It goes back to Kevin McConnell and the George Floyd murder, when our players were in a spot I hadn’t seen in all my years of coaching. They were scared. We didn’t want to overreact or just do something to do something, so the team’s leadership gave it real thought. We came to the conclusion that we wanted to start an organization that wasn’t going to fizzle out after the moment passed. During COVID it was listening devices for kids in apartments with no quiet place to study. Now it’s coat drives, food drives, all kinds of things across different cities. I’m most proud that our players, when they leave Rutgers, continue doing this kind of work through their own foundations.

Q: How has the NIL and administrative landscape changed your offseason focus?

Greg Schiano: When I took this job there was no such thing as NIL, and then all of a sudden it became a very big thing. For whatever reason, we weren’t set up for it, so we did our own fundraising — which takes so much time away from the thing I’m actually hired to do: recruit and develop young men to win football games. When President Tate and Keli came in, they quickly analyzed the situation and said, ‘You don’t need to do that anymore. You coach the team and we’ll handle that.’ That’s been a heaven sent. This has been the first offseason I didn’t have to do that stuff, and I’ve been really able to focus on building a better football program.

Q: How are the new coaches performing on the recruiting trail?

Greg Schiano: When you have staff turnover, you lose the established relationships the previous coaches had. But recruiting isn’t just about money anymore, everybody has money. If the numbers are similar, it comes down to who the player trusts and who they think can develop them best. That happens over time. I’m pleased our new staff hit the ground running, and our existing staff, Scott Vallone especially is just an attacking recruiter. I’m really thrilled with the commits we have so far. It’s taken a good six years to get the roster systematically where we want it, but I like the eyes looking back at me in that meeting room.

Q: What have you seen from new offensive line coach Jim Turner in recruiting?

Greg Schiano: As you guys get to know Jim, you’re going to find out he’s a special guy. He’s a great football coach with a big personality. He’s funny, he’s talented, he can sing, he can do everything. Those other talents come through when you’re recruiting. And in the Big Ten especially, you need big men. It’s called the Big Ten, not the Little Ten. You need talented humans playing up front, and Jim is excellent at developing that.

Q: Have you settled on a starting quarterback?

Greg Schiano: I don’t know yet and that’s not for a bad reason. It’s because both guys did well. There are times we’re watching and one is edging ahead, and then the other comes up. It’s going to go into the summer and into training camp. In this league, Athan played two straight years, which is unheard of. You need more than one quarterback for a long Big Ten season. I’m also really excited about Sean Ashenfelder, who was a high school baseball player in Florida and has made drastic improvements. AJ and Dylan are great young guys. And what I love about our quarterback room, a testament to Coach Ciarrocca is that even though they’re all competing, they’re helping each other. That’s family.

Q: Rutgers has extra rest for each of its first four P4 opponents, can you talk about how helpful even an extra day during the season is for preparation and health for players?

A: It makes things a little choppy. But as a head coach, your job is to build a plan so everybody’s on the same page. We deal in football days, everybody in the program knows what each day represents, regardless of what day of the week it actually falls on. Uncertainty makes football coaches and players uneasy. They’re creatures of habit. So my job is to make sure the routine is clearly communicated.

Q: What’s your take on the new punt formation rule?

Greg Schiano: I didn’t think it was a big problem, and it kind of got slid through in January when not a lot of us were paying attention. Shame on us. But you’re right that in our league, it was unanimous, nobody wanted it, and that’s 18 pretty important voices. That’s the rule, though, so now we adapt. You’re going to see a lot of guys putting jerseys on and taking jerseys off, and referees making announcements. Anything you have to make a change for is worrisome. Don’t get me started. We’ll handle it.

Q: What has strength and conditioning coach Spencer Brown brought to the program?

Greg Schiano: Spencer’s done a great job. The strength and conditioning coach wears a lot of hats, it’s the physical development that keeps players healthy, but it’s also the bond the team builds while training together and the motivation he provides. He and I are really aligned in how we want to lead this team. He’s the head coach of the summer, he’s with them far more than we are. Was it fair to throw him in a day before the summer program started last year? No. But he adapted well. Now he’s had an entire year to plan, and I’ve witnessed some of it. I’m very excited. We had a really good spring with no season-ending injuries, and a lot of that comes from the environment he’s building.

Q: How has growing up as a coach’s son prepared AJ Surace for this quarterback competition?

Greg Schiano: “AJ is just a football man. He loves football and grew up around it. I know several coaches who have coached at Princeton for a long time and they laugh because they remember him running around the field house chasing his dad. The kid grew up doing that stuff. He’s fun to coach because he loves the game. I’ve said it many times — if you love football, there’s nowhere better to play than Rutgers. AJ Surace loves football, and he’s a really talented young man. It’s going to be an exciting competition.”