Rutgers names special teams coordinator for 2020
In another personnel move made by head football coach Greg Schiano, the Rutgers football team has named its special teams coordinator for the near future in Adam Scheier.
The move is one of many that the program has announced in Schiano’s first couple months at the Banks, as the team has also filled out its coaching staff with the additions of secondary coach Fran Brown, offensive coordinator Sean Gleeson, offensive line coach Andrew Aurich and defensive coordinator Robb Smith to start out the off-season.
Scheier, who is coming to the Banks with 24 years of collegiate coaching experience, will seek to improve upon a special teams unit that enjoyed a moderate amount of success in 2019, thanks partially to the efforts of junior punter Adam Korsak, who was named as a semifinalist for last season’s Ray Guy Award, given annually to the top collegiate punter.
Starting out first in his coaching career at Dartmouth, Scheier worked for four years with both the Big Green and Columbia before leading the special teams unit at Princeton during the 2000-01 seasons, Lehigh during the 2002-08 seasons, Bowling Green during the 2009-13 seasons and Wake Forest during the 2014-16 seasons.
While with the Falcons, Scheier was responsible for working with a Ray Guy Award semifinalist, former punter Brian Schmiedebusch, from 2011-12. During that time span, Schmiedebusch made his mark with the program, as he received All-MAC honors to go along with a place in the Mid-American Conference record books, finishing eighth in the conference all-time for single-season punting average in 2011.
Along with his success with players at Bowling Green, Scheier also demonstrated his worth to the Demon Deacon in 2014-15 as head of the unit. He worked with former punter Alex Kinal, who ended his collegiate career as a two-time Ray Guy Award semifinalist. Scheier also helped Wake Forest appear in the national rankings, as the program ranked 13th nationally for kickoff coverage in 2014.
To accompany his work with the aforementioned programs, Scheier also spent some time with Schiano at Ohio State in 2017, working as the quality control and kicking coach for the Buckeyes.
After helping the program produce an All-Big Ten kicker, Scheier moved on to Texas Tech to be the team’s special teams coordinator in 2018, where he earned a Broyles Award nomination. The honor is given to the top assistant coach in college football.
Lastly, before his opportunity to coach for the Scarlet Knights, Scheier was able to work with Mississippi State in 2019 as a senior special teams consultant. He will seek to replicate what success was had throughout the years with his new special teams unit at Rutgers.
Though the Knights were not nationally acknowledged in regards to the unit last season (with the exception of Korsak), Scheier will have the chance to work with a new wave of players in the upcoming years as a new era of Rutgers football begins.
As are the circumstances with Brown, Gleeson, Aurich and Smith, along with the rest of the recently hired staff, Scheier’s group will have to develop over the next couple seasons if the Knights wish for any type of meaningful future success.
Its performance in 2020 will be a sign that points to if Rutgers will have that positive fate.
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