Not the greatest couple of days for RU

A season ticket hike and three of your top recruits de-committing, it has not been the best couple of days for the Scarlet Knights Nation. It all started on Sunday when four star wide reciever Adonis Jennings decided to decommit, then on Monday it was a triple shot of bad new, first a season ticket increase for fans and then a pair of four star recruits decided to take a walk in Kiy Hester (pictured above) and Lamont Simmons.

I can deal with the season ticket increase, better product is coming in the form of a better schedule.

As for the recruits, its very simple until the NCAA has an early signing period this is going to happen. While Simmons is the one that is  the least surprising, the other two are more concerning. 

Hester has been a leader in trying to get more kids to commit to Rutgers. While Jennings has been one of the longer committed kids in the class. Part of me wonders if these two want to just take visits and will get back in the boat heading the Big Ten. Neither of the two have said they have crossed Rutgers off their list, so there is hope 

Two years ago Kyle Flood was able to hold together a class when Greg Schiano bolted for the Bucs. Let's hope that Flood can do that with this class, if not questions are going to abound. 

Our Biggest loss, Our biggest gain

A week ago the Rutgers Football program had their biggest loss, when head coach Greg Schiano left for the Tampa Bay Bucs. Now they have their biggest gain as Don Bosco's 5-star defensive tackle Darius Hamilton commits to Rutgers earlier tonight.

The commitment has a chance to keep the class together and make this the best class in the history of the program.

Time For a Change

So the home slate of games is now over and all that Rutgers has left is a visit to Morgantown in what has been a surprising dissappointing season. Now its time to look at a head and think of ways to improve this struggling offense. For the most part the defense has not been a problem, except for the last two game. The defense has kept the team in most of the games this year. But one thing is clear changes need to made on the offense and those changes might also include a total change in the offensive philopshy of the offense.

For starters the co-offensive coordinator tandem of Kirk Ciarrocca and Kyle Flood need to be let go and overall the only person that I would keep would be recievers coach PJ Fleck. Fleck is a young coach and has done a good job with Harrison, Sanu and Deering. Instead of being a team that prides itself on running the football and playing defense, its time for head coach Greg Schiano to turn over a new leaf and make drastic changes to the offense.

With the skill position that this team has Schiano should look to move away from the running game and to a more uptempo passing game, maybe someone from that Mike Leech coaching. While coaches like Texas Tech offensive Coordinator Neil Harris are not going to look at the job, Schiano should look at someone similar to that, a young energetic coach with personality.

One guy who caught my eye was Bowling Green offensive coordinator and quarterback coach Warren Ruggerio.In 2009, Falcon offense he led a unit that ranked first in the MAC and sixth nationally in passing yards per game (316.2). Standout quarterback Tyler Sheehan finished the year completing 373 of 575 passes for 4,051 yards and 27 touchdowns, all career-bests under the guidance of Ruggiero. In fact, his 4,051 passing yards were only the second time in BGSU's 90-year history that a Falcon quarterback had surpassed the 4,000 yard plateau. In addition to working at Bowling Green, Ruggerio also helped tutor Tampa Bay Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman while he was at Kansas State. This year has not been the best for Bowling Green but that is not been because of Ruggerio but rather rather a lack of talent. While Ruggerio might not be the sexist pick for the job, he might be a good higher and be will to listen to a BCS school that needs an offensive coordinator.

I might have changed my mind

On Saturday, I was leaving the New Meadowlands Stadium after Rutgers come from behind win over Army, talking to rest of the OTWT Tailgating crew about what is going to happen at Rutgers and if Greg Schiano's time as the leader of the Knights has past. Fast forward an hour and we are heading home in the car, listening to Schiano's post game presser and my thoughts totally changed.

Maybe being a football coach is not about winning and lossing but about handling situations that others have never had to deal with. I have always been as supporter of Schiano and his ability to build Rutgers from a program that was nothing to a bowl team every year, but this year that changed with the disasterous start that the Knights had. But my views all changed.

Listening to Schiano talk about Eric LeGrand and his situation made me realize that Schiano strenght might not be his game planning or his recruiting, but rather his relationship with his players. While speaking about  LeGrand, Schiano showed the passion and compassion that any parent would like to see from their sons coach.

An hour before his post game presser, I was talking about how Mike Leach and Glen Mason would be a good fit to take over for Rutgers and then an hour later that tone had changed and now I could not be happier with Schiano and the way he has acted over the last couple of days.

Professinoal Tailgating: Rutgers can't beat a good team

Last Friday the OTWT Tailgating Crew headed to the Rutgers to see the Knights take on Pitt and as Rutgers loss the game and feel to 0-2 in the Big East.

The Tailgating Crew favorite Knight B-Jones

Starwars fans in the crowd before the game

Kid kicks 25 yard field goal during half time, maybe Greg should give him a scholarship

Rutgers loss the game, but the star of the game was Little Jovi

The First 100 are always key

The first 100 of anything are always key, from the first 100 days of a presidency to the first 100 hits of a major league baseball career. The 100 of any thing is a mark to both savor and both grade out someones performance.

On Saturday, Greg Schiano coached his 100 game as the leader of the Scarlet Nation. At the start of his tenure, few thought that he would see this day but now that he has lets grade the leader on his performance of the last nine seasons.

A 100 games in charge, wow after his first four season, in which he won a grand total of 12 game, few people thought that he would make it. The first four years of his career at the State University of New Jersey featured some embarrassing moments including dropping games to Villanova and New Hampshire. But the administration decided to stick with him and good thing they did.

Schiano started to get his recruits in during his fifth season the when the Knights went 7-5 and went to the Insight Bowl and loss 45-40 to Arizona State. But things were starting to look up. The next three season, Knights returned to bowl games.

Aside from the success on the field, Schiano has been a success off the field. After flirting with various jobs around the country, Miami and Michigan, Schiano pushed the administration to add on to Rutgers Stadium.

In addition to the stadium, Schiano has also made Rutgers relevant on the recruiting trail. Take the recruiting of New York defensive end Dominique Easley. Sure Easley selected Penn State, but Rutgers was in it to the end with programs such as Florida and Georgia. Take a look at the top 50 high school players from the region and you will see that Rutgers has been involved with most of them till the end. Under Schiano, Rutgers has been able to make inroads in places that they have never been able to like South Carolina. In the 2010 class Rutgers signed Chas Dodd a quarterback at the famed Byrnes High School in South Carolina. Imagine back about five years, the thought of a player coming to Rutgers from South Carolina was out of the question, now it has become a reality.

While Schiano has a 48-52 record during his tenure and has been a pain to the media, he goes down as the great coach in the history of the school. As for a letter grade, OTWT would have to give him an A, if he would have taken Rutgers to BCS Bowl then he would have gotten the plus. To take a program from where he got to now deserves all of the credit in the world.