After well over two decades in the NFL, including his most recent stops as a senior offensive assistant with the Steelers in 2023, Mike Sullivan is heading back to the college level.
According to ESPN, Sullivan is joining Greg Schiano's staff at Rutgers as a senior offensive assistant.
Best known for his stint working with Eli Manning and the New York Giants, first as quarterbacks coach in 2015 before being named offensive coordinator for the 2016 and 2017 campaigns, Sullivan is a veteran quarterbacks coach at the NFL level who has worked with the signal callers with the Steelers and Giants, and also has experience working with the receivers during a handful of season with the Giants as well in the mid-2000s.
A graduate of Army, Sullivan got his coaching career started on the defensive side of the ball at his alma mater. His college stops from 1995-2001 include at Army as assistant linebackers coach, then outside linebackers coach before leaving for a few seasons coaching the defensive backs at Youngstown State (FCS - OH), then returned to Army to work with the secondary before spending a season at Ohio as their defensive backs coach in 2001.
Outside of a one-year stint as the director of recruiting at Army in 2020, that 2001 stop in the MAC marked Sullivan's last stop in college football.
His time with the Giants included Eli's most successful season statistically, as he passed for just short of 5,000 yards to go along with 29 touchdowns and 16 picks in 2021 while completing over 60% of his passes for four straight seasons. In addition to his two Super Bowls with the team, he is also credited with developing talent at the receiver spot that included Plaxico Burress, Victor Cruz, Hakeem Nicks, Steve Smith, and Mario Manningham, among others.
Sullivan also experienced success as a play caller with the Tampa Bay Bucs form 2012-14, helping quarterback Josh Freeman set a franchise record for passing yards in a season, and receiver Vincent Jackson set a franchise record for receiving yards in a season.
In Piscataway, Sullivan is set to work alongside veteran college offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca, who enters his fourth season with the program calling the offense and working with the Scarlet Knights quarterbacks. Ciarrocca, a multiple-time nominee for the Broyles Award and a former semifinalist for the prestigious award that goes to the top assistant in college football, has 22 seasons of play calling experience under his belt including stops at Penn State, Minnesota, Western Michigan and Delaware.
Since arriving back for a second tour as the head coach of the Rutgers program in 2020, the Rutgers offense has has failed to break the top 55 teams in college football in scoring. They've ranked 78th (2020), 120th (2021), 124th (2022), 96th (2023), 55th (2024), and 59th most recently this past fall.
Schiano had initially hired Sean Gleeson as the team's offensive coordinator for his first few seasons, and Gleeson held that role from 2020 through the 2022 season, before Ciarrocca was tabbed to improve the offense - a feat he has clearly done as evidenced by the figures above.
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