Rutgers defensive coordinator and secondary coach Robb Smith has left the program to become the linebacker coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tom Lucci broke the news last week, and Smith will become the 10th former Scarlet Knight assistant to join old boss Greg Schiano's staff. He will take over the role former Rutgers assistant Bob Fraser had before being promoted to assistant defensive coordinator. (The Bucs now have Fraser as the assistant defensive coordinator, Bill Sheridan as the defensive coordinator, and Butch Davis as a consultant, in addition to Schiano, who is very hands on with the defense and calls the play. Talk about too many cooks in the kitchen.) Losing Smith is a huge blow to Rutgers' coaching staff, both on the field and on the recruiting trail. He did a great job in his lone season as defensive coordinator in 2012, devising very good game plans and making necessary in game adjustments. He oversaw a Scarlet Knight defense that finished in the top 10 nationally in both scoring and total defense and was named a semi-finalist for the Broyles award for his work. Smith was also one of Rutgers' top recruiters, responsible for mainly Central Jersey and Jersey Shore prospects.
Smith began coaching at Rutgers in 2009 as the special teams coordinator, and he was promoted to defensive coordinator before last season. He was the last remaining disciple of Schiano's fast, attacking style of defense on the staff, and he kept that scheme in place while also putting his own spin on things. He didn't blitz as much as Schiano had in the past, and he tinkered with a few different fronts, including the 4-3 under which they used a lot latter in the season. His best game as defensive coordinator was probably against Arkansas, when he switched to a three man front in the second quarter after the defense had some early troubles defending the deep ball. The extra defensive back or linebacker in the base defense helped slow the high powered Arkansas passing attack down, allowing Rutgers' offense the opportunity to come back and win. He did a really good job holding things together on the defensive side of the ball after an off season full of turnover, and I wish him the best of luck in Tampa.
In replacing Smith, Kyle Flood will most likely elect to promote from within, to keep the fast, attacking style of defense in place. Rutgers has successfully run this type defense for over a decade, so why fix it if it ain't broke? Linebacker coach Dave Cohen is the favorite to fill the position, and hopefully he learned enough in his one year under Smith to keep the current scheme fully intact.
Cohen was very solid as Rutgers linebacker coach in 2012 and he has plenty of coordinating experience from his time at Delaware and Western Michigan. His defenses struggled at Western, but he didn't exactly have a ton of talent (even by MAC standard) on an inexperienced group in that weird, high scoring league. He did have a lot of success with the Blue Hens though, enough to earn him the head coaching position at Hoftra. If he is promoted, graduate assistant Anthony Campanile would probably take over as the defensive backs coach. Campanile was a linebacker/safety at Rutgers from 2001-2004, and has the makings of an ace recruiter, based on his youth and ties to New Jersey's top high school programs (he was an assistant coach at Don Bosco, his dad was the head coach at Paramus Catholic and his brother is the head coach at Bergen Catholic).
If they do decide to hire from outside the program, former Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Bradley is probably the best option available. Former Boston College defensive coordinator and head coach Frank Spaziani, who is a New Jersey native, is another possibility.
Promoting Cohen is probably the best choice for Rutgers right now. He is a qualified for the position, he can potentially keep the defensive schemes Rutgers has run for a long time intact and promoting him would save money you can spend on an offensive coordinator. Bumping Campanile up into a full-time assistant role would likely improve Rutgers instate recruiting as well. Losing Smith sucks, but Rutgers still has a lot of talent on defense and they should be alright moving forward with whoever the coordinator is.
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