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Minnesota safeties coach and co-defensive coordinator Joe Harasymiak is leaving the Gophers to become the new defensive coordinator at Rutgers under head coach Greg Schiano.
Sources: Rutgers is hiring Minnesota CO-DC Joe Harasymiak as the school’s new defensive coordinator. He’s a New Jersey native and the former head coach at Maine, which he led to the national semi-finals in 2018.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) January 7, 2022
Harasymiak was hired as an assistant coach at Minnesota in December 2018, after serving as head coach at Maine for three seasons. His first season coaching safeties for the Gophers saw Antoine Winfield Jr. named a First-Team All-American and the Big Ten Defensive Back of the Year before declaring for the NFL Draft. The following spring, he was promoted to co-defensive coordinator alongside Joe Rossi. The past two years, Harasymiak has been instrumental in developing Jordan Howden and Tyler Nubin at the safety position. He has also been one of the top recruiters on head coach P.J. Fleck’s staff since he was hired.
Fleck must now find a new safeties coach for next season.