Report: Rutgers Hiring OSU’s Sean Gleeson to Three-Year Deal as its Next OC

Sean Gleeson is headed back to New Jersey.

After spending one season at Oklahoma State, Gleeson is finalizing a three-year deal to return to his home state as Rutgers’ next offensive coordinator, according to Yahoo‘s Pete Thamel. The news breaks about an hour after Gleeson tweeted the Canadian flag emoji that most everyone in OSU’s program has tweeted out over the last day.

Gleeson led a top-25 offense in his lone season as the Cowboys’ offensive coordinator.

Gleeson came to Stillwater after being at Princeton (in New Jersey) from 2013 to 2018. There he spent two seasons as the Tigers’ offensive coordinator. He spent 2013 to 2016 as Princeton’s running backs coach.

Before coaching at Princeton, Gleeson was Fairleigh Dickinson’s offensive coordinator for the 2011 and 2012 seasons. Fairleigh Dickinson is also in New Jersey.

Rutgers hired Greg Schiano, another New Jersey native, as its head coach this offseason. It’s Schiano’s second stint as the Scarlet Knights’ coach. He coached Rutgers from 2001 to 2011. The Scarlet Knights went to six bowl games during his first stint. They’ve been to only three since.

The hire would start the second offensive coordinator search in as many years for OSU coach Mike Gundy. Mike Yurich left for Ohio State after last season, but he returns to the Big 12 as Texas’ OC in 2020. Names that could be involved to replace Gleeson include OSU coach Kasey Dunn, who is in line for a promotion. Former OSU coordinator Todd Monken is also a candidate to keep an eye on.

Dunn has been on Gundy’s staff since 2011 as the wide receivers coach. Before this season, Dunn also gained the title of associate head coach. For about a week, it looked as if Dunn was going to UNLV to reunite with Marcus Arroyo and be the Rebels OC, but that fell through without a known explanation.

Monken has already had two stints in Stillwater. From 2002 to 2004 Monken was the passing game coordinator and receivers coach. In 2011 and 2012 Monken was the offensive coordinator. He became Southern Miss’ head coach in 2013. He has been an NFL offensive coordinator since 2015.

Monken’s two years as OSU’s offensive coordinator are two of the best in program history. With Brandon Weeden and Justin Blackmon in 2011, OSU averaged 545.9 yards per game on offense. In 2012 without those two, the Cowboys averaged 547 yards per game. The only season that beats those two in the stat are the 568.9 yards per game OSU’s 2017 offense averaged.