6 Giants assistants who might make sense at Rutgers after NFL Black Monday

As fate would have it, Rutgers is in the market for an offensive coordinator, a defensive line coach and potentially other assistants. College football programs can hire a 10th assistant coach beginning Jan. 9.

Rutgers coach Chris Ash has a specific plan in mind for that new job, but there remains a possibility of other changes on the staff and of a subsequent reshuffling of jobs. Rutgers replaced three assistants last offseason.

For instance, special teams coordinator/tight ends coach Vince Okruch has been a defensive coordinator, linebackers coach and defensive line coach in his career, so he has flexibility.

Ash appears to be searching for an offensive coordinator who can be the "head coach" on that side of the ball -- a la the retired Jerry Kill -- regardless of other background factors like ties to New Jersey.

Northeast roots could be more important for position coaches. Remember, a coach with a NFL resume always plays well in recruiting.

Ash has been a visitor to Jets and Giants practices since first coming to Rutgers -- even taking his team to a Giants practice this past August. He has a former player from his Ohio State coaching days -- Eli Apple on the Giants and Darron Lee on the Jets -- on each roster.

Here are some Giants coaches that make sense at Rutgers because they are from the area and/or know Chris Ash and/or have a background coaching college football and recruiting:

McCovern is a Bergen County native who coached at either Boston College or Pittsburgh from 1994-2012, holding jobs as linebackers coach, defensive backs and defensive coordinator. He heavily recruited his home state over those two decades.

Even McGovern's two NFL jobs -- with the Eagles from 2013-15 and the Giants for the past two seasons -- are local. But he has never been a defensive line coach.

Cignetti is known to have interest in returning as Rutgers offensive coordinator, a job he held in 2011 during Greg Schiano's final season at the helm. After a short-lived attempt to replace Schiano at Rutgers, he worked for the St. Louis Rams from 2012-15, including one season as offensive coordinator.

But it looks like Ash has narrowed his search to a pool that does not include Cignetti and mostly includes spread offense play-callers rather than Cignetti's pro-style playbook.