Greg Schiano's coaching philosophy shaped by twin mentors in Miello, Susan

If it wasn’t for Mike Miello, Greg Schiano would be a lawyer.

Schiano, who played for Miello at Ramapo High in New Jersey, had just finished up his college career at Bucknell. He was weighing whether or not he should try and keep playing, give coaching a shot, or try law school. Miello, considered The Godfather of high school football in New Jersey, made Schiano an offer 31 years ago: Keep your hand in football. I’ll give you a job as an assistant. If it doesn’t work out, law school will always be there.

“I came home after our first double-session practice that summer and told my wife, ‘That kid is never going to see a day of law school,’” Miello recalled with a laugh.

Schiano, who is reportedly set to take over for Brian Flores as New England’s new defensive coordinator, has leaned on many mentors in his coaching career, but for much of the last 30 years, Miello and Joe Susan have largely helped shape his philosophy. They were the ones who first saw that coaching spark. They helped guide him as assistants at Rutgers. And now get the chance to stand back and watch him as he returns to the NFL, this time as the Patriots’ defensive coordinator.

“I had his son here on my team (at Bucknell)” said Susan, who coached Schiano as a collegian. “I recruited the Dad in the 1980s, and I wound up recruiting the son 30 years later.”

“He’s like the son I never had,” recalled Miello.



“I go back with him to rec football in seventh and eighth grade when he wore No. 64,” he added. “He played with passion as a kid. I remember coaching him in high school — he was the first player I ever coached who was a true freshman. The third game that year rolled around and we had a bunch of injuries. A bunch of people told me we should bring the kid up — ‘He’s a freshman,’ I said. But he was up for the fourth game of the year, and by the fifth game of the season he was starting on both sides of the ball.”

Schiano, a 190-pound linebacker, was never going to be a big-time recruit, but found a fit at tiny Bucknell University. The football program was helmed by Susan, a New Jersey native who quickly found a like-minded student of the game in Schiano.