North Jersey Teen A Candidate To Be Next Rutgers Football Coach

A North Jersey resident has emerged as a candidate for the next head football coach of the Rutgers University Scarlet Knights.

Ben Kautz, a 19-year-old Rutgers University sophomore from Wayne, applied for the position on a dare from a friend before class Monday.

The job became available last weekend after coach Kyle Flood, along with athletic director Julie Hermann, were let go. The pool of candidates that emerged Monday morning included ex Miami coach Al Golden, Temple’s Matt Rhule, and former Scarlet Knights football coach Greg Schiano.

“I want people to look at this and have this be something that’s fun and it’s something we can smile about,” Kautz said. “It would be a dream of mine to be in a position on the Rutgers coaching staff.”

Kautz whipped up a resume in 10 minutes and e-mailed to a few people the university’s athletic department. He thought that would be the end of it, but surprisingly, he heard back from someone.

Geoff Brown, the senior associate athletic director and chief marketing officer, wrote:

Thanks, Benjamin

I will definitely pass this along. You have my vote (not that I have a vote, but if I did...)

Good luck.

Geoff

“Once I told some friends that I got a response, they told me that I needed to put it up on Twitter. Then everything just kind of blew up from there,” Kautz said. “I never would have thought it would blow up to the degree that it has.”

Kautz met with Brown and posted a picture with him on Twitter.

Dozens of posts with the hashtag #Kautz4Coach have popped up Twitter, many from users expressing their support for Kautz actually being hired.

Kautz, a Wayne Valley alumnus, said he’s pretty good at the Madden football video game, which is where his “Chip Kelly-esque offensive scheme” comes from and said that he’s ”not in this for the money.”

Kautz posted on Twitter that he can’t wait to be the coach of the second best team in that plays in New Jersey, next to the New York Giants, of course.

Brian Nealon, athletic affairs chairman for Rutgers University, created a Facebook page ”Rutgers Football Coach Ben Krautz.” The page had 66 likes as of Friday afternoon.

Nealon posted the following message on the page:

I, Brian Nealon, Athletic Affairs Chairman for Rutgers University, fully support the hiring of Ben Kautz in the search for a new head football coach. After looking over his credentials with Senior Associate Athletic Director Geoff Brown, we have decided he is the prime candidate in the race for the head coach position. We have seen before that the voice of the people has great effect here at Rutgers University, but we need your support now! Join us in getting his name out to the public by using the hastag ‪#‎Kautz4Coach‬.“

“I want this story to overshadow all of the bad press that’s been out there,” Kautz said. “We’re moving forward. Rutgers is moving forward to all of that.”

(Image courtesy of Ben Kautz)