While not a super flashy hire, Prince is a pretty solid addition to the Scarlet Knights coaching staff. He has very good track record coaching offenses from his time as the coordinator at Virginia (2003-05) and the head coach at Kansas State (2006-08), and an extensive background running a pro style offense. As a former offensive line coach, he prefers to run the ball down your throat, and although his offenses have been successful for the most part, he has drawn some criticism for being too conservative. Being conservative is not necessarily a bad thing though, and Rutgers is capable of being very good offensively while relying heavily on their rushing attack. They have done a great job recruiting premium offensive lineman the last few years, and Savon Huggins is a work horse type back who gets stronger as the game goes along. Including Prince, Rutgers will have five current or former offensive line coaches on their staff, so expect for the offense to be very tough and physical.
Kyle Flood sees Prince as someone who can utilize all of their personnel packages and get the ball into the hands of their play-makers. That very well could just be coach speak, but Prince's NFL experience likely taught him a lot about deploying personnel packages and that should help Rutgers quite a bit in this department. The coaching staff struggled getting some people, i.e. Miles Shuler, the ball last season, so it's nice to see them make a concerted effort to fix it.
Personally, I was hoping that Rutgers would hire someone who is very good at developing quarterbacks, since Gary Nova (who clearly has talent but needs to be coached better in order to take the next step) will be a big part of what Rutgers does the next two seasons, but I've gradually talked myself into liking Prince since the rumors started. He has had some pretty good quarterbacks under his watch in Matt Schuab, Marques Haggans and Josh Freeman, but he is not very hand on with them, and he had really good quarterback coaches working with him in Mike Groh (who is now an assistant at Alabama) and James Franklin (who is now the head coach at Vanderbilt).
Prince's reputation has been mired a bit lately due to his poor tenure as a head coach, but his track record with offenses make him a pretty solid hire. He has plenty of experience calling plays and he will keep the pro style offense intact while putting his own spin on things. He also happens to be a pretty good recruiter, and he is someone who will likely stick at Rutgers for more than one season. Prince almost certainly will be an upgrade over Brock. He inherits a talented group that struggled at the end of last season, and it's up to him to get them to succeed up to their capabilities.
Elsewhere on the coaching staff, Dave Cohen was promoted to defensive coordinator, as expected. Cohen was a very successful coordinator at Delaware, but he did struggle a bit at Western Michigan for a multitude of reasons (some not his fault). He did a solid enough job coaching linebackers last year to earn the promotion, and he should be competent enough to do a good job. He knows what he's doing in this role and he should be able to keep the same scheme Schiano and Robb Smith ran in place. He will certainly have plenty of talent to work with.
And in a very surprising turn of events, tight end coach Darnell Dinkins has left the program to "pursue other opportunities." He seemed to be developing into a very good recruiter in Florida, and the timing of this is very odd. I suppose he may have a job lined up in the NFL or something, but there's a possibility he could have been let go for some reason. This is very strange, just totally out of left field.
Replacing him on the coaching staff is Anthony Campanile, who will coach wide receivers in addition to tight ends. I'm not sure why Prince wasn't given tight end responsibilities (a lot of offensive line coaches coach tight ends), but an assistant coaching two position groups isn't unheard of, especially when the two positions are very similar like tight ends and receivers are. Campanile was a graduate assistant at Rutgers last year working on the defensive side of the ball, but he does have experience coaching offense from his time as the offensive coordinator at Don Bosco. His promotion should be a huge boon to Rutgers recruiting wise, since he has the makings of a top recruiter with his very strong ties to the power house high school programs in North Jersey (he coached at Bosco, his brother is the head coach at Bergen Catholic and his dad was the head coach at Paramus Catholic).
In addition to all these moves, running back coach Norries Wilson was given the title of assistant head coach. That essentially just means he's second in command.
Kyle Flood didn't expect to have any changes to his coaching staff at the beginning of the offseason, but as often happens in the coaching profession, things changed in a hurry. In finalizing the staff, Rutgers brought in a new offensive coordinator who is probably an upgrade (Prince), and two very good recruiters (Campanile and Darrell Wilson), while also promoting a capable coach to defensive coordinator (Cohen) after Robb Smith left for the NFL. I think Flood did a really good job with all of these hires, and Rutgers will be better for it on the field and on the recruiting trail.
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