A friend of mine from high school, Gary Brackett of the Colts, frequently talked about the impact that Schiano had on him and the mentality of Rutgers football.

I personally think he will do well, but hope the pro game doesn’t chew him up and spit him out. Most ‘professionals’ aren’t looking to be molded and mentored.

What a joke that franchise has become. It doesn’t matter what coach they hire, they won’t be able to compete until they change their business model(which probably requires new owners).

The primary improvement that he brought was from the schedule becoming much easier when UM, VT, and BC left the Big East. Schedule in 1999 when they went 1-10:

at California L 7 – 21
vs Texas L 21 – 38
vs Boston College L 7 – 27
at Wake Forest L 10 – 17
vs Virginia Tech L 20 – 58
at West Virginia L 16 – 62
vs Pittsburgh L 15 – 38
at Temple L 28 – 56
Navy L 7 – 34
vs Syracuse W 24 – 21
at Miami L 0 – 55

Schedule in 2006 (his miracle 11-2 season):

at North Carolina W 21 – 16 (a team that only won 2 Div 1 games, Duke and NC State)
vs Illinois W 33 – 0 ( a team that won 1 Div 1 game- and lost to Ohio)
vs Ohio W 24 – 7
vs Howard W 56 – 7
at South Florida W 22 – 20
at Navy W 34 – 0
at Pittsburgh W 20 – 10
vs Connecticut W 24 – 13 (3-8 against Div 1)
vs Louisville W 28 – 25 (great win, only UL loss of year when they played nobody)
at Cincinnati L 11 – 30
vs Syracuse W 38 – 7
at West Virginia L 39 – 41
vs Kansas State (neutral location) W 37 – 10

So the teams they kept were:
Navy
Pittsburgh
Syracuse
West Virginia

They dropped:
Boston College
California
Miami
Temple
Texas
Virginia Tech
Wake Forest

And replaced them with:
Connecticut
Howard
Illinois
Kansas State
Louisville
North Carolina
Ohio
South Florida

While I understand the need to schedule successfully here I am talking about improvement due to coaching. The 2006 schedule would make Boise State blush. Schiano is not going to be able to allow the Bucs to drop playing the Saints and Falcons and start playing USF and FIU. Think about it, they dropped UM and played USF, they dropped Texas and picked up Ohio (univeristy not state), they dropped VT and picked up Howard.