Panthers Studying Rutgers to Prepare for Buccaneers
Last year, Ron Rivera was the unknown rookie head coach—this time around his Week 1 opponent, Tampa Bay, has a new face at the helm. Former Rutgers University head coach Greg Schiano enters his first season as an NFL head coach. And, with no track record to speak of, Rivera says he’s elected to study what Schiano’s teams did at Rutgers to get familiar with the coach’s tendencies. ESPN.com‘s Pat Yasinskas has the story:
When you have to open your season against a coaching staff that never has been together before in the National Football League, there’s only one thing to do. Go back and watch film of Rutgers in recent years. It may sound unusual, but it really is what makes the most sense. That’s what Carolina coach Ron Rivera and his staff have done as they prepare for Sunday’s season opener against Tampa Bay coach Greg Schiano, the former Rutgers coach…“You take what they did in the preseason and you try to study that and then you look at where they’ve come from,’’ Rivera said Wednesday after the Panthers worked out at IMG Academy. “Knowing what coach Schiano’s done and what he’s been about at Rutgers, I’d like to think that we have an idea. It’s going to be hard. Honestly, I’d like to open up with somebody we’re familiar with. But, unfortunately, it’s the way it is, so we get ready for it and we react to it and just get ready for them. The big thing is we just have to react. We have to be prepared to make decisions and changes.’’
