Report: Greg Schiano is the Patriots New Defensive Coordinator

Well, this is awkward. Because not much more than a week ago, Jim McBride’s co-worker at the Globe, Ben Volin reported Bret Bielema was telling people he was getting the Patriots DC job:

So now it’s now there are two battles going on. Between two high profile former head coaches over who Belichick trusts more and between two Globies over which one is getting fed bad intel.

Truth be told the rumors about Bielema or Schiano getting the job have been having a Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots-like duke out ever since Brian Flores went on all his job interviews during the playoff bye. Bielema makes sense because as soon as he was fired at Arkansas (after a 4-8 season), he landed on the Patriots staff as an assistant without a title and undefined consultant duties, though they included a lot of scouting of college prospects prior to last year’s draft. Still, that’s a year in the Patriots system, and with the exception of that one season (2008) that Dom Capers spent on the staff, Belichick has always promoted from within.

Which makes Schiano an interesting choice. But by no means a surprising one. Assuming this report is true, of course. Schiano and Belichick have never hidden their bro love for one another. They share the common bond that can only exist between two men who coach similar football systems. They know each other’s schemes. They use the same nomenclature. They can feel one another’s checks and reads and adjustments. Coaches who understand one another on that deep, X’s & O’s level have something between them few other humans get to experience.

It’s why Belichick has been able to get so many plug & play defenders out of Schiano’s Rutgers program. Guys who have made direct impacts on multiple Patriots Super Bowl winners: Devin McCourty, Logan Ryan, Duron Harmon and now Jason McCourty. (Sorry, Steve Beauharnais.) Because these guys get it.

And Schiano will presumably be a fit here. Especially when you consider my favorite Schiano/Belichick moment of all time. When he was the head coach of Tampa Bay and the Bucs and Pats were conducting joint practices. Either 2012 or ’13, I forget which. During a water break between drills, Belichick was addressing his players about some coaching point or other, and Schiano was overheard telling his own players something to the effect of “Listen up, guys. You might learn something.” So he gets it, too.

And just to address the issue that will undoubtedly come up (again, if this is actually happening), SChiano lost out on the head job at U. of Tennessee due to a public backlash on Twitter due to him being “linked” to the child rape scandal at Penn State. I’ll let John Ziegler of Mediaite handle the heavy lifting on this one:

As someone who has researched this entire story far more vigorously than anyone else, and who has no connection to the school, I can say without hesitation that the accusation against Schiano is completely lacking in any credibility or even rationality. In fact, it is overtly laughable. …

The backlash against his hire, fueled largely by Tennessee based radio talk show host Clay Travis (he is the guy who recently became “famous” for saying he loves “boobs” on CNN), is based mostly on the claim that Schiano “knew” about Jerry Sandusky’s abuse and did nothing about it. This allegation was based solely on a deposition given in an insurance lawsuit by former Penn State assistant Mike McQueary (the man who claimed to have witnessed Sandusky abusing a boy sometime after around 2000-2001).

Quite simply, this entire story is utterly and obviously ridiculous.

Here are all of the many reasons why it is outrageous that this is even an issue at all:

–McQueary never even claimed to have spoken to Schiano about him supposedly having knowledge of Sandusky’s abuse. They didn’t even coach together during remotely the same time period. …

–Schiano stopped coaching at Penn State in 1995. The first documented episode where anyone at all was ever notified of any allegation against Sandusky was in 1998.

So that’s all I have to say about that.

More recently, Schiano has a history of destroying Michigan every year at Ohio State. Which won’t help him with Brady at all, but they don’t have to work together. And does speak volumes about his ability to scheme in a big game. He has a tough act to follow after the historically great job Flores just did. But so far I’d say Belichick is doing an OK job of picking his assistants. So it’s In Bill We Trust. The only question is how long he’ll stay here before he gets hired as the head coach of some loser franchise like all his other assistants do?