When you have been in the football universe, especially the college football world, for as long as Iowa Hawkeyes head coach Kirk Ferentz has, you usually have crossed paths with most people at least once.
Such is the case for this Friday night when Ferentz and the Hawkeyes head to New Jersey to take on Rutgers, which is led by head coach Greg Schiano.
In his presser this week, Ferentz was asked about Schiano and went on to share his appreciation and respect for the Rutgers head coach.
“Greg went to Bucknell and had some experience at Penn State, and yeah, we practiced against the Bears at one point. We kind of overlapped a little bit, some mutual friends, that type of thing. But I’ve always admired him as a coach.
“I think it was the year after we took this job I think he went to Miami as a coordinator and then went to Rutgers as the head coach first time around. Just watch the way he does things, and then Dallas played for him down in Tampa when he was in Tampa. Guys on some of our younger staff, Rob Smith, who’s now the coordinator, is a young guy that joined him. Just a lot of respect for the way he goes about things, and to me — over the years, you develop a feeling for programs and how they do things, and to me, Greg has just done a great job of setting the tempo there.
“I can tell you from being out in that part of the country, Rutgers is not an easy place to coach, or it wasn’t, at least, when he went there, and he really built them into a legitimate team. Had that big game against Louisville, whatever year that was, like ’07, ’08, something like that, and since he’s been back, he’s done a great job there, too.
“Now we get four or five days here to look at their film every day. Unfortunately they’re doing too good a job. A lot of respect for Greg, and he’s a tremendous person on top of it, most importantly,” Ferentz said in appreciation of Schiano.
Schiano is in his second stint at Rutgers as the head coach. He was at the helm from 2001 to 2011 and returned in 2020. During his time at Rutgers, he has led the Scarlet Knights to a 97-101 overall record with nine postseason bowl trips.
Contact/Follow us @HawkeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Iowa news, notes and opinions. Follow Riley on X: @rileydonald7
This article originally appeared on Hawkeyes Wire: Iowa football’s Kirk Ferentz discusses his respect for Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano
Reporting by Riley Donald, Hawkeyes Wire / Hawkeyes Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
