Rutgers men’s lacrosse is giving Scott Bieda a bigger seat at the table.
Head coach Brian Brecht announced Bieda has been elevated to associate head coach, a move that recognizes the impact he has made in his first season on the Scarlet Knight staff and the role he has already carved out as the team’s offensive coordinator.
Bieda is heading into his second year with Rutgers after joining the program in 2026, and the offensive results showed up quickly. The Scarlet Knights won eight games, beat No.
11 Johns Hopkins, and saw their scoring climb by 1.6 goals per game from the season before. Brecht also pointed to Bieda’s work with attackman Colin Kurdyla, who earned Second Team All-Big Ten honors and All-American recognition after leading the league in points and assists per game.
“I am very excited to announce that Scott will be named associate head coach of Rutgers lacrosse,” head coach Brian Brecht said. “This is a well-deserved recognition of the tremendous impact that he brings to our program every day.
Scott's leadership, work ethic, and commitment to our student athletes make him so valuable to the development of our program. I am excited for him to continue mentoring and developing our players in this role and look forward to the continued growth of our players under his leadership.
I am very thankful to have a great staff full of talented coaches, including defensive coordinator Jimmy Ryan and assistant coach Drake Porter, who along with Scott were able to secure the recently announced No. 1 incoming transfer portal class in Division I lacrosse by Inside Lacrosse. We are all excited to continue the progress of this past year as we get ready to begin preparations for the upcoming season.”
Bieda’s Rutgers story goes well beyond the sideline. As a player, the attackman finished sixth in program history in both assists with 103 and points with 193, while also scoring 90 goals.
He was a two-time team captain and became the only Scarlet Knight to win Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, taking the award in 2016 after putting up 28 goals, 38 assists and 66 points. That season he also led the Big Ten in assists and points.
His list of honors is long: three-time all-conference selection, twice a First Team All-Big Ten pick, two-time Big Ten All-Tournament team selection, Third Team All-American in 2016, MVP of the North/South All-Star Game and a Tewaaraton Award Semifinalist. Over 61 games at Rutgers, with 56 starts, he added 91 ground balls and 14 caused turnovers. He also collected a stack of team awards, winning the Coursen Award and the William Miller Trophy in 2016, the Knight Cup in 2015 and the Alfred Sasser Trophy for most assists three times.
A Bridgewater, N.J. native, Bieda grew up just under 10 minutes from campus and starred at Bridgewater - Raritan High School under Scarlet Knight alumn Chuck Apel. As a senior, he set the school point record with 108 points on 60 goals and 49 assists, and he finished his prep career with 204 points. He was a two-time All-State player and a US Lacrosse All-American.
Before arriving in Piscataway, Bieda spent nine seasons coaching Division I lacrosse at Michigan and Lafayette. His three seasons at Michigan came in the Big Ten, where he helped drive the Wolverines’ offense to some of the best numbers in program history. In 2023, Michigan set a program record for goals, assists and points, then placed second in points the following year and won the Big Ten Tournament twice.
Bieda’s coaching path began in the Patriot League at Lafayette, where he spent six seasons and served as offensive coordinator for his final four.
In Other News...
Rutgers Fans Are Facing The Greg Schiano Question Again
Greg Schiano is back in the familiar spot Rutgers fans know all too well: the season has barely started, and the conversation is already shifting from results to his future. Now in his seventh year of his second stint in charge, he enters 2026 with a 31-41 record in this return engagement, a number that has kept the scrutiny around the program from ever really going away.
The latest jolt came in the season opener, when Rutgers lost to UMass after falling behind by 17 points at halftime against a team carrying a long active losing streak. For a fan base still measuring progress against expectations, the larger issue is now unavoidable again because Schianos contract carries a buyout that would cost the school about $17.3 million if he were let go at seasons end. [Read more 🡒]
Rutgers Just Opened The Season With A Loss Fans Cant Ignore
Rutgers opened the season with a result that will linger well beyond Week 1, falling 37-21 to UMass in a game that the Scarlet Knights were expected to control. The Minutemen arrived carrying a 16-game losing streak against FBS opponents, but they played with far more edge than the odds suggested and put Rutgers in an early hole that never really disappeared.
Pop Watson was the spark for UMass, guiding an offense that found rhythm through the air and enough movement on the ground to keep Rutgers from settling in defensively. The Minutemen also tightened up in a way that changes the conversation around them after a rough run of seasons, getting into the backfield consistently and creating problems all afternoon, while Rutgers is left sorting through how a season-opening setback like this happened so quickly. [Read more 🡒]
Rutgers Week 1 Opener Carries One Betting Assumption Fans Should Notice
Rutgers heads into its Week 1 opener against UMass with the kind of setup bettors tend to circle early in the season, especially in a slate where several games are being sized up through the lens of roster changes and coaching adjustments. The Scarlet Knights are part of a three-game betting breakdown that also leans over in Georgia Tech-Colorado and points in UAB-Illinois, but the Rutgers angle is the one most tied to how cleanly the matchup lines up on paper.
The broader case around this game is built on Rutgers personnel advantages and the way UMass projects defensively, with the Scarlet Knights expected to find enough separation to make the number manageable. There is also one matchup note worth watching for those who follow the betting market closely, since Rutgers has a receiver who could create problems for the Minutemen secondary and tilt the game script early. [Read more 🡒]
