Rutgers will lose one of its top assistant coaches this offseason.
Scarlet Knights defensive coordinator Joe Harasymiak is expected to take the head coaching job at UMass, according to a report from ESPN’s Pete Thamel. The Bergen county native will sign a five-year deal with an annual salary hovering between $1.3 and $1.4 million, and is set to have a staff pool of more than $2.7 million that projects to be the highest staff pool in the MAC by a significant amount, per the report.
Harasymiak signed an extension in December 2023 that would keep him in Piscataway through the 2026 season. Harasymiak earned $1.25 million in the 2024 season, according to the deal, which would hit a cap of $1.5 million in 2026, according to the offer sheet obtained by NJ Advance Media.
His contract stipulates that he will not owe Rutgers a buyout because he is terminating his employment “for a position that the parties mutually agree is a promotion from play-calling coordinator to Division I head coach.”
Harasymiak joined head coach Greg Schiano’s staff before the 2022 season, making an instant impact. He signed contract extensions after each of his first two seasons, helping Rutgers reach its first bowl game in a decade in 2023 by leading a defense that ranked 27th nationally in scoring defense (21 points per game), 19th in overall total defense (313.7 yards per game), 11th in passing yards allowed (175.9 yards per game) and boasted the ninth-best red zone defense.
Harasymiak turned down head-coaching offers last offseason to stay with the Scarlet Knights.
“I believe in this place,” Harasymiak said last December. “I believe in the people that run it — Coach Schiano, especially. I believe in the people we have. Every decision I’ve ever made in my coaching career, when my wife and I started this whole adventure, was we were going to make a decision based on the people, and if we do that, we should put ours in a good situation. I believe we have a great situation here.”
After spending three seasons as the head coach at Maine from 2016-2018, Harasymiak jumped to the FBS level, where he served as co-defensive coordinator under coach P.J. Fleck at Minnesota, where he spent three additional seasons on the staff in Minneapolis. Harasymiak, a Waldwick native, then joined Schiano’s staff as defensive coordinator for the 2022 season.
After the defense struggled mightily during a winless October this fall, Harasymiak challenged his unit to play its best ball of the season in November. After a much-needed bye week, the Scarlet Knights closed the campaign by going 3-1 in the final month, coming one play from upsetting then-No. 23 Illinois.
“I think the biggest difference (after the bye week) is Coach Harasymiak literally stripped it down to the studs and rebuilt it in two weeks, which I don’t think he slept,” Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said after the Scarlet Knights’ 26-19 win over Minnesota. “He and I talked a lot, and I’m just so proud of him and the leadership that he provided to the whole defensive staff and to our team.”
Story by Brian Fonseca, nj.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.
