Rutgers Announces Hiring Head Football Coach Greg Schiano

Earlier this morning Rutgers announced the hiring of Greg Schiano as their new head football coach.  Schiano replaces Chris Ash, who was the first FBS head football coach fired this season.  Schiano previously was Rutgers head football coach from 2001 to 2011.  Since I have part of this time period analyzed, I thought I would take a look at the Rutgers football program over the last four seasons under Schiano.

Below is the Rutgers Scarlet Knights production rank (total, offense, defense, and the average and worst teams) from 2008 to 2011 using the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model from the data provided from www.cfbstats.com.  More details about the program under Schiano is provided below.

Greg Schiano [2001-2011; only 2008-2011 analyzed]

2008
The Scarlet Knights finished the regular season at 7-5 and were bowl eligible, where they defeated by #79 ranked North Carolina State by a score of (29-23) to finish 8-5 overall.  The Scarlet Knights played against an “average” strength of schedule, meaning that Rutgers SOS was plus or minus one standard deviations of the "league" average SOS.  Rutgers best regular season victory was against #20 ranked South Florida by a score of (49-16) and their worst loss was to #80 ranked Fresno State by a score of (7-24).  The Scarlet Knights finished the season as the #23 ranked team overall, with the #25 ranked offense and the #31 ranked defense using the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model from the data provided from www.cfbstats.com.

2009
Rutgers finished the regular season at 8-4, while playing against an “easier” strength of schedule (SOS), meaning that Rutgers SOS was between one and two standard deviations higher than the "league" average SOS.  The Scarlet Knights were bowl eligible and defeated by #61 ranked UCF by a score of (45-24).  Rutgers's best regular season victory was against #45 ranked South Florida by a score of (31-0) and their worst loss was to #95 ranked Syracuse by a score of (13-31).  Rutgers finished the season as the #21 ranked team overall, with the #56 ranked offense and the #13 ranked defense using the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model from the data provided from www.cfbstats.com.  Yet, two of their eight wins were over FCS schools and only two of the six FBS wins were against schools that were not in the bottom quarter of the "league".

2010
The Scarlet Knights finished the regular season at 4-8 and were bowl ineligible and played against an “average” strength of schedule.  Rutgers best regular season victory against #53 ranked Connecticut by a score of (27-24) and their worst loss was to #91 ranked Tulane by a score of (14-17).  The Scarlet Knights finished the season as the #93 ranked team overall, with the #99 ranked offense and the #59 ranked defense using the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model from the data provided from www.cfbstats.com.

2011
Rutgers finished the regular season at 8-4, while playing against an “average” strength of schedule and were bowl eligible where they defeated by #112 ranked Iowa State Cyclones by a score of (27-13) to finish 9-4 overall.  Rutgers best regular season victory against #16 ranked Cincinnati by a score of (20-3) and their worst loss was to #79 ranked Connecticut by a score of (22-40).  Rutgers finished the season as the #47 ranked team overall, with the #96 ranked offense and the #10 ranked defense using the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model from the data provided from www.cfbstats.com.   At the end of the season, Schiano took the Tampa Bay Buccaneers job.