PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Rutgers believes it may have found its next defensive anchor in Travis Johansen, a coach Greg Schiano sees in much the same light as Joe Harasymiak.
That comparison matters because Schiano is trying to steady a defense that needs a reset after a rough season. Last year, Rutgers tied for allowing the second-most points per game in the Big Ten and the second-most total yards. Johansen’s arrival this offseason is a clear sign the Scarlet Knights want to get back to the kind of fundamentally sound football they expect on that side of the ball.
Schiano didn’t hide why Johansen stood out to him. The Rutgers coach said Tuesday after practice that the evaluation process reminded him of the way he first came to appreciate Harasymiak, who is now the head coach at UMass.
"I remember investigating Joe," Schiano said on Tuesday following practice. "You know, when in the search to hire that position, seeing Joe do an interview - I go back and look as much as I can on guys, and seeing him do an interview as the head coach at Maine when they were in the playoffs and they were playing somewhere out in the western part of the country, and I remember just being so impressed."
Schiano said the same kind of impression came from Johansen, whom he had circled early in the search.
"And the same thing with Travis. I remember watching - I've told you guys he was on my list from the very beginning.
I watched him in an interview that he did, and I said, 'Oh, that guy. He's a sharp dude, probably not going to come.'
I learned a lesson there, right? We could have ended this thing a long time before we did, but good, we got him, and he's going to do a great job.
I'm very confident in that."
The parallels are easy to see. Harasymiak and Johansen both came to Rutgers after serving as FCS head coaches, then moved into the Big Ten.
Harasymiak spent time as a defensive coordinator and head coach at Maine before joining Minnesota’s staff and eventually becoming Rutgers’ defensive coordinator. Johansen spent six seasons as South Dakota’s defensive coordinator, then one year as the Coyotes’ head coach before coming to Rutgers this offseason.
The hope now is that Johansen can help stabilize a unit that was far from clean a year ago. Reaching the level Harasymiak’s defense showed in 2023 would be a welcome outcome, but Rutgers knows rebuilding this group will take time.
What stands out about Johansen, though, is more than the résumé. The traits Rutgers admired in Harasymiak appear to be the same ones Johansen brings with him: clear communication, quick intelligence and the kind of presence that resonates with players.
That approach has already landed well in the locker room.
"Coach Johansen is a great leader. First off, to start off - it's easy to follow a great leader, and he's black and white," linebacker Ty Morris said.
"He tells you something, you do it, and it's just (if) you have any questions you can just go up to him. He always has the answers for everything."
For Rutgers, the appeal is not just that Johansen knows football. It’s that he seems to know how to connect it. Morris said that balance shows up every day: one personality when the team is together off the field, another when it’s time to work.
"He's a little jokester. He jokes a lot when we're in the building up upstairs eating and stuff like that," Morris said. "But he's very intense on the field."
That mix of approachable and demanding is exactly what Rutgers is betting on as it tries to rebuild its defense.
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