Rutgers is turning to a familiar face for its defensive staff, as sources told ESPN on Tuesday that the university is set to hire Robb Smith as co-defensive coordinator and play-caller, marking his third stint at the school.
Along with this being his third stop at Rutgers, it also marks Smith’s fourth different stint working for Greg Schiano, as he also worked as his linebackers coach at Tampa Bay in 2013. Smith brings extensive coordinating experience, as he has also worked as the defensive coordinator at Arkansas, Minnesota and Duke.
Rutgers is using co-coordinators to replace Joe Harasymiak, who left to take the head coaching job at UMass in December. Rutgers is also in the process of bringing on Zach Sparber from James Madison as the other co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.
Smith worked at Penn State the last two years as an analyst and analytics coordinator.
Smith spent 2009-12 at Rutgers, which included the 2012 season as defensive coordinator under Kyle Flood. He was also the defensive coordinator under Schiano at Rutgers in 2020-21. The 2012 season was one of the best on defense in school history, as Rutgers finished in the Top 10 nationally in scoring defense, total defense and rushing defense.
He comes to Rutgers with the school coming off a pedestrian season on defense, as they finished No. 71 nationally in scoring defense (25.4) and No. 95 in total defense (393.8).