Skip to content

Ad Disclosure

Report: Three notable coaches contacted by Rutgers regarding head coaching position

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

Rutgers has already reached out to several potential coaching candidates about the head coaching position following Chris Ash’s firing on Sunday. Some notable candidates were contacted as early as two weeks ago, according to a report.

Stadium’s Brett McMurphy reported on Sunday afternoon that Rutgers has reached out to former head coach Greg Schiano, former Tennessee head coach Butch Jones and former USF head coach Jim Leavitt as to gauge their interest in the position. There have also been other individuals contacted.

Schiano has long had his named tied with Rutgers as a potential candidate to return to Piscataway. He was the leader of one of the most prolific era in Scarlet Knights’ history, guiding the program to a 68-67 record in 11 seasons from 2001-11. The Scarlet Knights reached a bowl game six times and hit eight wins or more in five of the final six seasons.

Jones has 11 years of head coaching experience, most recently at Tennessee. While Tennessee enjoyed back-to-back nine-win seasons in 2015 and 2016, the Volunteers never got over the hump and won an SEC East title. Jones was fired following a 4-6 start in 2017.

Jones was successful at Central Michigan (27-13) and Cincinnati (23-14) and has an overall win mark of .609. He’s guided his teams to bowl games in eight of his 11 seasons as a head coach.

Leavitt was the longtime coach at USF, holding that post from 1997-2009. He racked up a 95-57 record over his career in Tampa and led the Bulls to five straight bowl games from 2005-09. Since his head coaching days, Leavitt has served as a linebacker coach with the San Francisco 49ers (2011-14), the defensive coordinator at Colorado (2015-16), the defensive coordinator at Oregon (2017-18) and is currently an analyst at Florida State.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB