Rutgers Recruiting has been on a roll lately using an unconventional tactic that does not seem as unusual as it actually is. Greg Schiano has gone on the record to say that him and his staff only recruit on culture and philosophy, not on rankings and stars.
“I think the reason (is that) our coaches do a great job of identifying the guys that are right for us. We don’t worry about their stars or who else is recruiting them. We really do a deep dive and evaluation on each kid- and it takes a lot of time. “- Rutgers Head Coach Greg Schiano in an interview with RutgersWire.
For college head coaches, when they offer a recruit who has a high talent it is common to say that their are other factors at work that they include in addition to their ratings before offering them. What Schiano is saying here is that the grades each player is given by the rating sites do not matter to him because his coaching staff goes off script a little bit and rates thing their own way through their various experiences and connections.
“It’s not only evaluating their film and evaluating their measurables but it’s evaluating the person. Are they a cultural fit for a program? And that takes the most time because how do you find that out those questions until you find out if this guy is a potential fit for our program.”
Culture of Chop
Schiano needs guys who are not only talented but who also buy into his philosophy, and what exactly is his philosophy? His philosophy is chop, his culture is chop, and his coaching style is chop. What is Chop and how does it relate to the culture that Schiano has built at Rutgers?
![Rutgers Recruiting 2025: Culture not Ratings 1 File:Greg Schiano 2023.jpg - Wikimedia Commons](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Greg_Schiano_2023.jpg)
“(One chop) is not going to do much,’’ Schiano said. “You’ve got to look at that spot with great focus and great concentration and do it again and do it again, and do it again, and eventually, 400, 500 strokes later, you’re going to start to hear something — poof. That’s when you take a rest, pat yourself on the back, and then pick a new tree and start on that. Pretty soon that dark forest, a little light starts to show. You keep doing it, before you know it, you’re where you want to be.’’ Greg Schiano to NJ.com
Chop is the culture. Chop means doing your job at the highest level every play, every practice, every game. It means consistent work towards a goal and trusting the process to achieve that goal. Schiano wants recruits who will buy into the Chop culture.
Rutgers is not one of those programs that can consistently bring in top of the line talent and consistently have first round draft picks graduating every year. They need to maximize what they can get out of their players talents that they have, which as mentioned before is not top of the line. That’s why Schiano needs them to buy into chop culture. Chop culture is not just a mantra for attacking work but it is also a mantra for player development.
Schiano calls Rutgers a developmental program where they attempt to maximize the output of the athletes that come to them. However, he needs them to be strong character pieces that embrace the Chop culture so they can give back into the program what they are taking from it. A big part of what got these recruits to come to Rutgers is the player connections that they formed with current team players taking on the role of semi-recruiters. When it comes their time to do the same, Schiano needs players who will.
Schiano needs players who buy into the Chop for the chop to work, and it has worked when players have bought in, so he needs to bring in players who will buy in. That’s why he largely ignores the ratings players are given out of highschool and instead opts for in house research on the players he can bring in. This in house research is key in building this teams culture.