2026 Big Ten Media Days: Head Coach Greg Schiano Press Conference
Jul 28 | Football
Big Ten Media Days - Chicago
Head Coach Greg Schiano
GREG SCHIANO: Thank you, Commissioner Petitti and everybody at the Big Ten staff. It's great to be back in Chicago. Chicago is really a transformational place for me and my family. In 1996, I came here to work for Dave Wannstedt and Bob Slowik of the Chicago Bears. I was an enthusiastic, green, young assistant, and they transformed me into a defensive coach.
My wife, Christy, and I, we got transformed into parents, too. We had our first child here right up the road at Lake Forest Hospital, and yet the biggest transformation was discovering my faith in God and the people that He put into my life when I came here. A lot of memories rolled through my mind when we pulled up to the hotel last night.
Now, why am I telling you all this? I don't think it's any coincidence that the city where I experienced professional, personal and spiritual transformation is where I can announce -- one of the few people that have been around Rutgers football for 25 years, that I can announce that Rutgers football is experiencing a foundational transformation.
What's changed, you say? Why do you say that?
Well, we have alignment at our institution. From our board president, Amy Towers, through our new president, William Tate, to our new AD, Keli Zinn.
Now, vertical alignment to me isn't a slogan; vertical alignment is when you have a board president or a board chair, a president, an AD and a head football coach who look at winning at Rutgers the same way and also look at the investment needed to do it.
We have a deep and talented roster, the deepest and most talented I've had since I've been back, and it's only going to get better now with the resources now starting to match the expectations that you have when you're in the Big Ten conference.
The players we brought today really are highlighting that. KJ Duff, Kobe Asamoah and Antwan Raymond, these guys represent what the Big Ten is all about -- elite academics and elite football. They're all players that are All-Big Ten level caliber players, but they're also great students and great representatives of our university.
I'm really excited about the team we have coming back. I'll close with this: A great New Jerseyan, Bill Parcells, I heard him say once: You are what your record says you are. We were 5-7 last year; that's unacceptable. But we knew what we had to fix and we spent the last eight months fixing it. I really look forward to coaching this team.
I'll open it up to questions.
Q. We talked last year about protecting the football, and Rutgers has steadily built momentum. What has changed inside the last year with the program that people on the outside don't see?
GREG SCHIANO: Well, that's a great question, and it's still something that I believe very, very strongly in, is protecting the football but also taking the football away. We did a great job protecting the football, and I expect to even do better.
It's a programatic theme that goes throughout our entire coaching staff, every player, everybody involved, our trainers, our equipment managers, anybody is allowed to coach ball security in our program. What we need to do is we need to get better at taking the ball away. We need to get better at defense, period, and that's why we hired Travis Johansen as our new coordinator.
I am really thrilled and excited not only to see the level of play rise but the feeling between those players, that chemistry between the players and the coaches. I see it developing every day, and it's an exciting thing to me.
Q. Indiana comes to Rutgers this season, will be probably the biggest home game for you guys this year. What kind of an opportunity is that? And what have you noticed that Cignetti is doing in coming off a championship?
GREG SCHIANO: Well, first, congratulations to Coach 169729-1-1222 2026-07-28 17:19:00 GMT Page 1 of 2 Cignetti and the entire Indiana program. What a great job. We're all very proud, three national champions in a row, different schools. That's what makes -- one of the things that makes the Big Ten conference the best in the country.
Excited about the opportunity to coach against Coach Cig. I haven't had that chance. Family relationships, I've worked with his brother Frank, so we're familiar with each other.
Look, it's going to be another one of the great Big Ten football games that I expect to be competitive in, and I really think our program is in a place where it's time to do that. Much respect to what they did, and looking forward to the competition.
Q. Speaking of Travis Johansen, will you keep more of a nickel package with 3-4 multiple, or will you adopt something he's done in his past, and will the defense replicate what we've had at Rutgers previous seasons?
GREG SCHIANO: Yeah, it's going to be a little different. It's going to be a mixture of a lot of things. I think Travis has a great understanding of what we need to do with the personnel that we have. That to me is coaching, using the players, putting your players in the best position to make plays. And I think Travis is a really, really talented coach, and not only the Xs and Os. Like I said earlier, the chemistry that he's building is special.
I have two really fine coordinators in Kirk Ciarrocca and Travis Johansen. And our newly appointed special teams coordinator, Eddie Allen, is doing a tremendous job. I'm really excited about the course where we're headed.
Q. You spoke about your faith in your opening statement. How has the Lord shown Himself at any moment in your coaching career?
GREG SCHIANO: He's shown Himself in a lot of moments. 1997 on a little cul-de-sac in a suburb north of here, I accepted Christ, and it's changed my whole life, changed everything, my coaching style, my coaching career.
When God brought me to Chicago to be an assistant with the Bears, I was 29 years old. I literally thought everything was about climbing the ladder. I literally thought, I'm going to Chicago, I'm going to be the youngest head coach in NFL history, and God had a whole 'nother plan.
He brought me around some men that were special men, guys like Danny Abramowicz and Mike McCartney and Dave Wannstedt, Bob Slowik, guys who showed me the way of being a man and a Christian man, and I'm forever indebted for that.
Q. Why did you choose to bring these three players today?
GREG SCHIANO: I chose these three players because they embody everything that I think Rutgers football is about and I think what the Big Ten is about. Like I said earlier, tremendous student-athletes. They do things the right way. They handle their business the right way, and they're exceptional football players.
I've had experience in the National Football League; these are all National Football League players and really great representatives of our league and of our institution.
Q. You talked about your faith earlier and obviously being a leader amongst men, but beyond the coaching, how are you able to manage so many personalities in that locker room where you'll be able to enhance the culture that you've set forth?
GREG SCHIANO: That's a great question because it's becoming more and more of a factor as college football grows. To me it's about relationships. It always has been about relationships. There's nothing about relationships that are easy, as we all know. It takes time. It takes investment. You need to be willing to do that.
One of the things that thrills me about the vertical alignment at Rutgers now is I get to spend more time doing the thing I love to do, and that's investing in the players' lives.
My goal is to win a National Championship at Rutgers, but my purpose is to make sure that every young person that's put under my watch, that we're developing them as husbands, as fathers and as productive members of society.
And to be able to do that now because I'm not running all over New Jersey and New York trying to raise NIL funds, that's what I mean when I say vertical alignment. That gives us a chance, and it gives me a chance to do what I love to do and what really I feel I was hired to do.
Head Coach Greg Schiano
GREG SCHIANO: Thank you, Commissioner Petitti and everybody at the Big Ten staff. It's great to be back in Chicago. Chicago is really a transformational place for me and my family. In 1996, I came here to work for Dave Wannstedt and Bob Slowik of the Chicago Bears. I was an enthusiastic, green, young assistant, and they transformed me into a defensive coach.
My wife, Christy, and I, we got transformed into parents, too. We had our first child here right up the road at Lake Forest Hospital, and yet the biggest transformation was discovering my faith in God and the people that He put into my life when I came here. A lot of memories rolled through my mind when we pulled up to the hotel last night.
Now, why am I telling you all this? I don't think it's any coincidence that the city where I experienced professional, personal and spiritual transformation is where I can announce -- one of the few people that have been around Rutgers football for 25 years, that I can announce that Rutgers football is experiencing a foundational transformation.
What's changed, you say? Why do you say that?
Well, we have alignment at our institution. From our board president, Amy Towers, through our new president, William Tate, to our new AD, Keli Zinn.
Now, vertical alignment to me isn't a slogan; vertical alignment is when you have a board president or a board chair, a president, an AD and a head football coach who look at winning at Rutgers the same way and also look at the investment needed to do it.
We have a deep and talented roster, the deepest and most talented I've had since I've been back, and it's only going to get better now with the resources now starting to match the expectations that you have when you're in the Big Ten conference.
The players we brought today really are highlighting that. KJ Duff, Kobe Asamoah and Antwan Raymond, these guys represent what the Big Ten is all about -- elite academics and elite football. They're all players that are All-Big Ten level caliber players, but they're also great students and great representatives of our university.
I'm really excited about the team we have coming back. I'll close with this: A great New Jerseyan, Bill Parcells, I heard him say once: You are what your record says you are. We were 5-7 last year; that's unacceptable. But we knew what we had to fix and we spent the last eight months fixing it. I really look forward to coaching this team.
I'll open it up to questions.
Q. We talked last year about protecting the football, and Rutgers has steadily built momentum. What has changed inside the last year with the program that people on the outside don't see?
GREG SCHIANO: Well, that's a great question, and it's still something that I believe very, very strongly in, is protecting the football but also taking the football away. We did a great job protecting the football, and I expect to even do better.
It's a programatic theme that goes throughout our entire coaching staff, every player, everybody involved, our trainers, our equipment managers, anybody is allowed to coach ball security in our program. What we need to do is we need to get better at taking the ball away. We need to get better at defense, period, and that's why we hired Travis Johansen as our new coordinator.
I am really thrilled and excited not only to see the level of play rise but the feeling between those players, that chemistry between the players and the coaches. I see it developing every day, and it's an exciting thing to me.
Q. Indiana comes to Rutgers this season, will be probably the biggest home game for you guys this year. What kind of an opportunity is that? And what have you noticed that Cignetti is doing in coming off a championship?
GREG SCHIANO: Well, first, congratulations to Coach 169729-1-1222 2026-07-28 17:19:00 GMT Page 1 of 2 Cignetti and the entire Indiana program. What a great job. We're all very proud, three national champions in a row, different schools. That's what makes -- one of the things that makes the Big Ten conference the best in the country.
Excited about the opportunity to coach against Coach Cig. I haven't had that chance. Family relationships, I've worked with his brother Frank, so we're familiar with each other.
Look, it's going to be another one of the great Big Ten football games that I expect to be competitive in, and I really think our program is in a place where it's time to do that. Much respect to what they did, and looking forward to the competition.
Q. Speaking of Travis Johansen, will you keep more of a nickel package with 3-4 multiple, or will you adopt something he's done in his past, and will the defense replicate what we've had at Rutgers previous seasons?
GREG SCHIANO: Yeah, it's going to be a little different. It's going to be a mixture of a lot of things. I think Travis has a great understanding of what we need to do with the personnel that we have. That to me is coaching, using the players, putting your players in the best position to make plays. And I think Travis is a really, really talented coach, and not only the Xs and Os. Like I said earlier, the chemistry that he's building is special.
I have two really fine coordinators in Kirk Ciarrocca and Travis Johansen. And our newly appointed special teams coordinator, Eddie Allen, is doing a tremendous job. I'm really excited about the course where we're headed.
Q. You spoke about your faith in your opening statement. How has the Lord shown Himself at any moment in your coaching career?
GREG SCHIANO: He's shown Himself in a lot of moments. 1997 on a little cul-de-sac in a suburb north of here, I accepted Christ, and it's changed my whole life, changed everything, my coaching style, my coaching career.
When God brought me to Chicago to be an assistant with the Bears, I was 29 years old. I literally thought everything was about climbing the ladder. I literally thought, I'm going to Chicago, I'm going to be the youngest head coach in NFL history, and God had a whole 'nother plan.
He brought me around some men that were special men, guys like Danny Abramowicz and Mike McCartney and Dave Wannstedt, Bob Slowik, guys who showed me the way of being a man and a Christian man, and I'm forever indebted for that.
Q. Why did you choose to bring these three players today?
GREG SCHIANO: I chose these three players because they embody everything that I think Rutgers football is about and I think what the Big Ten is about. Like I said earlier, tremendous student-athletes. They do things the right way. They handle their business the right way, and they're exceptional football players.
I've had experience in the National Football League; these are all National Football League players and really great representatives of our league and of our institution.
Q. You talked about your faith earlier and obviously being a leader amongst men, but beyond the coaching, how are you able to manage so many personalities in that locker room where you'll be able to enhance the culture that you've set forth?
GREG SCHIANO: That's a great question because it's becoming more and more of a factor as college football grows. To me it's about relationships. It always has been about relationships. There's nothing about relationships that are easy, as we all know. It takes time. It takes investment. You need to be willing to do that.
One of the things that thrills me about the vertical alignment at Rutgers now is I get to spend more time doing the thing I love to do, and that's investing in the players' lives.
My goal is to win a National Championship at Rutgers, but my purpose is to make sure that every young person that's put under my watch, that we're developing them as husbands, as fathers and as productive members of society.
And to be able to do that now because I'm not running all over New Jersey and New York trying to raise NIL funds, that's what I mean when I say vertical alignment. That gives us a chance, and it gives me a chance to do what I love to do and what really I feel I was hired to do.
Players Mentioned
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