And I'm a Rutgers fan...

I think there's something to be said for loyalty.  It's good to want to stay at the same place for 30 years and retire with the gold watch and the big video tribute and fancy ceremony.  Staying, especially when somebody else wants to pay you more to do the same job in perhaps a more desirable localee, is a very noble concept.

It's also dumb.

Greg Schiano has now twice turned down programs that have won national championships in the last twenty years.  He's twice turned down the possibility of getting $2 million-plus in compensation.  He's twice turned down the opportunity to be a perennial BCS contender.

I know what Schiano says of Rutgers - that it can be a sleeping giant, football players in the tri-state are are great, etc, etc, etc.  He's dramatically improved facilities and support and may still be able to get the stadium expanded despite the state pulling out of their end of the bargain a few weeks ago.  But ultimately, Rutgers is, well, Rutgers.  They're more likely to be this era's Boston College in the Big East (a perennial bowl team that occasionally teases a run at the conference title) than they are this era's Virginia Tech or Miami.  This most recent span for the program (7-5,11-2,7-5) illustrates as much.

So if Schiano is turning down Michigan and Miami, he's doing so either because he's really bought into his own spiel about making the state university of New Jersey a legitimate national power, or he's angling for his dream job.  

This column in the Harrisburg Patriot-News a while back illustrates what many around the Penn State program have suggested for years - that Joe Paterno hasn't formed a succession plan and is basically going to coach until he physically can't coach anymore.  And when that happens, what better place for Schiano to head back to than the program he idolized as a kid for the coach he's always thought of as a mentor?