On Monday, head coach Greg Schiano said he was working with new offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca to fill the two open coaching spots on the staff. On Thursday, Rutgers announced the hiring of Dave Brock as wide receivers coach. It was first reported by Pete Thamel of ESPN.
“We welcome Dave and his family back to New Jersey and Rutgers,” Schiano said. “He brings a wealth of knowledge having a track record of developing wide receivers at the highest level. This is an exciting time for our program and we are glad to have Dave on board.”
“It’s great to be back home in New Jersey,” Brock said. “I look forward to working with Coach Schiano and Coach Ciarrocca, both excellent leaders who know how to develop talent. I’m excited to meet the players and get to work.”
Rutgers fans will remember Brock for his one season on the banks as offensive coordinator in 2012. Brandon Coleman who tied the program’s single-season record with ten receiving touchdowns. Brock served as head coach at Delaware from 2013-2016 and has almost 30 years of experience in coaching at the collegiate level.
As a wide receivers coach, he developed some big names who went on to have successful NFL careers. They include Marques Colston at Hofstra, Hakeem Nicks at North Carolina and Jordy Nelson at Kansas State. He most recently worked as wide receivers coach for the Atlanta Falcons where he coached star Julio Jones, Calvin Ridley and former Rutgers standout Mohamed Sanu. Last season, Brock was an senior analyst at Texas under former Rutgers head coach Kyle Flood.
Chris Iseman was first to report additional shuffling among the offensive coaching staff. Rutgers confirmed that Andew Aurich is moving to tight ends coach and Damiere Shaw is moving to running backs coach.
Andrew Aurich will enter his fourth year at Rutgers. He served as offensive line coach from 2020-2021 before coaching the running backs last season. He will now reportedly move to coaching tight ends. Aurich worked with former offensive coordinator Sean Gleeson at Princeton, but has longer ties to Schiano having worked for him with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Damiere Shaw is also entering his fourth season at Rutgers after serving as wide receivers coach last season. He was previously director of player development and will now coach the running backs.
The hiring of Brock and reshuffling of the current staff leaves one spot to fill at the offensive line.
Overall, I like the experience of Brock in coaching wide receivers. This is clearly a position that Rutgers needs to get more of and will likely be a young and inexperienced group next season. My only concern is from a recruiting standpoint, as Brock hasn’t recruited at the FBS level since coaching at Rutgers a decade ago. However, his familiarity with the program and Schiano should allow him to hit the ground running.
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NJtilidie
January 20, 2023 at 1:27 pm
I think Schiano with this decision has a backup should Ciarrocca for some amount of time not be able to perform his duties as offensive coordinator. This is only continuing to go in a positive direction for our football program after what happened last year. Now just like Ciarrocca, it’s just a matter of whether this decision to rehire Dave Brock works out.