Ralph Friedgen is stepping down as offensive coordinator at Rutgers after one season with the school and wide receivers coach Ben McDaniels is being promoted to become the fourth coach to run the Scarlet Knight’s offense in four seasons under Kyle Flood.
Flood announced on Tuesday the 67-year-old Friedgen will move into a consulting role as special assistant to the head coach.
“He’s been very valuable to us over the last year and there’s no doubt that he’ll be valuable to the program going forward,” said Flood, who is 23-16 in three seasons as head coach.
Friedgen returned to coaching last year for the first time since being forced out as Maryland’s head coach after the 2010 season. He helped the Scarlet Knights to an 8-5 record in their first season in the Big Ten. Rutgers had its most productive offense since 2008, averaging 390 yards per game in 2014.
Friedgen said his health was fine, but he was no longer up for the 18-hour work days for 15 weeks of the year.
“Will I miss the players? You bet. Will I miss working with the coaches and the game-planning? Yes, very much. Will I miss game day? Very, very much. But there’s a lot of things I won’t miss,” Friedgen said. “I think it’s time for me to smell the roses.”
Friedgen was fired at Maryland after 10 seasons with a 75-50 record. The Terrapins went 9-4 in his final season at his alma mater.
“Like my wife said, ’You’re leaving on your terms,’” Friedgen said of his latest move away from the sideline.
Flood said he and Friedgen talked after signing day about Friedgen’s future. Friedgen’s new role has not been completely defined. He said he expects to be around during spring practice, but is not likely to have a role on game days.
Rutgers has now had four consecutive offensive coordinators leave after one season.
Flood’s first offensive coordinator was Dave Brock, who left after the 2012 season to become head coach at Delaware. Brock replaced Frank Cignetti, who was offensive coordinator in Greg Schiano’s last season as Rutgers coach. Ron Prince was Flood’s offensive coordinator in 2013 and he left to take an NFL job, too.
McDaniels joined Rutgers last year after working at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers under Schiano. The 34-year-old is the brother of New England Patriots offensive coordinator and former Denver Broncos coach Josh McDaniels.
“I had an opportunity to sit in on a lot of the offensive meetings beyond the headset on game day and listen to him and watch him teach,” Flood said. “Watch him go through the game-planning portion with the rest of the offensive coaches. I have complete confidence in him that he will do a great job going forward as our offensive coordinator.’
Flood also announced recruiting coordinator Phil Galiano would move to special teams coordinator and tight ends coach. Anthony Campanile will switch from tight ends coach to wide receivers.
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