Greg Schiano has made a major change on his staff by letting a longtime lieutenant go.
The Rutgers head coach recently fired Director of Sports Performance Jay Butler, who was entering his 17th season with the Scarlet Knights and 19th season under Schiano this fall, Schiano announced at his annual charity golf outing at Fiddler’s Elbow in Bedminster.
Butler was set to earn $600,000 during the 2025 season, the final year of his current contract. He received a one-year extension last summer.
Butler will be replaced by Spencer Brown, who was recently hired from Dartmouth, where he spent the past nine seasons as the director of strength and conditioning at Dartmouth. A former player at Lafayette, he began his coaching career as an assistant director of sports performance at his alma mater before spending two years as the director of strength and fitness at Moravian College.
The change marks a significant shift for Schiano, who included Butler on his coaching staff for all 16 seasons he’s been at the helm in Piscataway. Schiano hired Butler to his first staff in Piscataway, kept him around for his decade-long first stint, brought Butler with him to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and hired him back at Rutgers upon his return ahead of the 2020 season.
“It’s just something that I felt like we needed to do, but it was really hard,” Schiano said. “Jay has been a tremendous contributor to this program and when we were in Tampa. We’ve been together 18 years and it was just something that I felt like we needed to do, but it was really, really hard. People don’t understand that if you’ve never had to do those things, it’s incredibly difficult, especially when he’s a friend and I’ve watched their family grow up with our family. But the tough part of being the head coach is you have to do what you believe is right and you’re not always correct in what you do, but you have to do what you think is right.”
A Hillsborough native and Bucknell alum, Butler had a brief stint with the Giants before beginning his career as a strength and conditioning coach.
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Brian Fonseca may be reached at bfonseca@njadvancemedia.com.