There’s a quote in psychology I keep coming back to: the core of optimism is resilience. I’ve thought about that quote for years, and this week, sitting across from Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano, I had a hunch that that very quote would resonate with him. So I did the only thing I do in these Y-Option podcasts: ask questions I don’t know the answer to. I’ve known Coach Schiano for over 20 years. First as a wideout at Pitt, then these last couple years covering Big Ten football. This conversation, though, was different because I was embedded within the Scarlet Knights program for the day and what a day it was. I got to sit in on his team meeting, watch Coach Schiano look his players in the eyes and bridge a football lesson to a life lesson in the same breath. And at the end of an epic day with the team, staff and program he and I sat down, and Coach Schiano took me all the way back to where his leadership began: his kitchen table. And that is where today’s Y-Option podcast, fueled by our founding sponsor 76, keeping you on the GO GO GO, begins. Coach Schiano grew up in an Italian household in Paterson, New Jersey, where his parents taught him and his three siblings one thing above all: you get up, you go to work, and some days it isn’t pleasant but you keep showing up. The standard, even before it was ever spoken, was simple — no matter what, protect your family. That’s not a throwaway line for him. It’s the whole building now. “Family is everything to me in this building,” he said. And he means it literally, as he’s now recruiting the sons of players he coached at Rutgers when they were in the Big East while currently coaching with his own three sons on this year’s staff. Full circle doesn’t begin to cover it. This is the line that stuck with me most: “You can have a goal and at the same time have a purpose.” Greg’s goal is a national championship at Rutgers. His purpose is different. He is driven to make sure that the young men who walk into the Rutgers program leave as grown men. Husbands. Fathers. People who can figure it out when nobody’s telling them what to do next. In this era of players getting paid, transferring and being told things from others that may not be accurate I have to say that watching Coach Schiano teach his players the realities of LIFE and how football can teach all of us how to navigate life was one of the most refreshing parts of my off-season. He didn’t plan on coaching, by the way. He got cut playing in the CFL, came home, signed up for the LSAT, and was on his way to law school when his high school coach — practically a second father to him — talked him into helping out on the sideline instead. That coach later “fired” him, on purpose, so Greg would go be a graduate assistant and learn the business the right way. That GA year? 1989. At Rutgers. Where he told me, without blinking, that even back then, he was building his coaching staff for this program in his head. Chop. If you’ve followed this program at all, you know the word. Here’s where it actually comes from: 1999, Miami, a sports psychologist named Dr. Kevin Elko telling the staff a story about a guy in the woods with nothing but an axe. It sat dormant for six years. Then in 2005, Rutgers blew a 28-7 fourth quarter lead at Illinois and lost in overtime. Greg couldn’t sleep on the flight home. He remembered the story, upon landing he sent a GA to Home Depot for an axe, had it painted red, and walked it into the team meeting still wet with paint. We’re all in the woods. We can lay down, or we pick a tree and chop until it falls. Rutgers went on a run and made a bowl game. The axe, and the word, never left. Finally, Rutgers has both hands free. For most of his 18 years split across two stints as head coach, Coach Schiano described competing “with one arm tied behind his back.” That’s changing. He talked about vertical alignment: from president to athletic director to head coach, all pointed at the same goal, for the first time in his tenure. It’s showing up in real terms: Rutgers retained all three of their must-keep players this offseason, including a receiver who very nearly left before Greg reminded him who he was and where he was from. “You’re a difference maker. You’re gonna leave a legacy,” he told him. He stayed. That conversation with KJ Duff is coming up later this week so be sure to subscribe to our YouTube page. We also talked about his three coaching trees and biggest influences: Joe Paterno at Penn State, Dave Wannstedt and Butch Davis out of the Jimmy Johnson lineage at Miami and Chicago, Dick Anderson at Rutgers. We talked about Pete Carroll and impact of our book, Win Forever, and the sabbatical Greg took in 2014 that reshaped how he leads now. Demanding, but flexible enough to let a coach leave for four hours for his daughter’s recital. And we talked about his three sons, all working in the building, all grinding it out the long way. He just turned 60. Says he feels 30. And when I asked him about the word “legacy” landing on him after everything he’s built here, he wouldn’t take it yet. “I’m only comfortable with it because we haven’t started yet,” he said. “The best times for Rutgers football are ahead of us.” I believe it. Much love and stay steady, Yogi Y-Option: College Football with Yogi Roth is a reader-supported publication. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.y-option.com/subscribe
