| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rutgers University head football coach Greg Schiano will be difficult to replace as he leaves to coach in the NFL, but the program he helped build in 11 years on the sidelines will continue to attract the support of New Jersey's business community.
That was the word from two Garden State business executives involved with the program, as they reacted today to news that Schiano accepted a head coach job with the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Schiano's move to the NFL is a "huge event," said real estate executive Finn Wentworth, who last year co-founded Knights of the Roundtable, a private-sector fundraising group to support the football program. The 45-year-old coach "put Rutgers football on the map, and this only makes that map more apparent."
"Can you argue that it's a setback? It's definitely a big change," said Wentworth, founding managing principal of Normandy Real Estate Partners and former president of YankeesNets. "But with the organization and the platform that he built, you can absolutely say that they can build on top of that platform."
Wentworth said in December that the founding of the fundraising group was inspired by how Schiano supported Eric LeGrand, the Rutgers defensive tackle who suffered a spinal injury last year. But he said today that "the infrastructure and support is there," referring to growth that occurred under Schiano in the program's academic standards and facilities, as well as the interest from the business community.
Schiano "did a great job in building that Rutgers brand," said High Point Solutions Inc. co-founder Tom Mendiburu, whose company last year signed a 10-year, $6.5 million deal for naming rights at the football team's Piscataway stadium.
"We hate to see him go, but over the last 12 months, we've come to know the faculty, the administration and the students, and we wouldn't change a thing about it," Mendiburu said.
Both Wentworth and Mendiburu said they were confident Tim Pernetti, the university's athletics director, would find a strong successor to Schiano, who has helped build the university's recruiting efforts and brought national attention to the program.
|
