PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Even now well into his fourth decade of coaching, pat Flaherty still has pep to his step. The Rutgers football offensive line coach has seen it all and coached it all.
And perhaps most importantly for his players on the Rutgers offensive line, he has won it all.
This time a year ago, Flaherty was the only certainly in a room full of question marks. With two decades of experience as an offensive line coach in the NFL, and two Super Bowls to validate his resume, Flaherty is arguably the most accomplished offensive line coach in college football.
Replace ‘offensive line coach’ with ‘position coach’ in the previous statement and it still might ring true. Simply put, Flaherty’s resume is likely unmatched in college football, regardless of position.
But even with a storied career, no one expected Flaherty to work a miracle like he did last year.
He inherited a unit that was, arguably, the worst in college football for much of the last decade. The Rutgers line struggled at times against Group of Five schools let alone in the Big Ten.
Fast forward a year and Flaherty’s yeoman-like work was a major reason why Rutgers finished the season 7-6 and won the Pinstripe Bowl against Miami.
But last spring, there were no sure things about the offensive line. Just surety from Flaherty for the group to trust his experience.
“The offensive line last year – we started off just kind of feeling our way as a group. From day one, you know, they’ve been really locked into meetings, they want to learn, they want to learn the different techniques that we’re teaching them,” Flaherty said.
“And now it’s as a coach, it’s your job to make sure that we’re doing it with consistency day in and day out. And that’s the hardest thing for any football player is to be able to come off and just do everything and…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/rutgers-football-offensive-line-coach-040145653.html
Author : Rutgers Wire
Publish date : 2024-04-03 04:01:45
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