Former Ole Miss Football Coach Turned Rutgers Coach Makes Wild Claim About Big-10 Compared To SEC

Rutgers Football Coach Marquise Watson Makes Wild Claim About Big Ten

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Rutgers defensive line coach Marquise Watson was hired by the Scarlet Knights in January, marking his first position coach role at a Power Five conference school. Now, just four months into his time in New Jersey, he is making wild claims.

Prior to joining head coach Greg Schiano’s staff, Watson spent two seasons at Ole Miss as a graduate assistant and analyst. Previously, he worked with the defense under Lane Kiffin.

Before getting into coaching, Watson was a standout defensive lineman himself at Bryant. Now he is coaching the position in the Big Ten.

After spring practice in New Brunswick last week, Watson discussed his new conference. He said that the quality of football at Rutgers and amongst Rutgers’ opponents is what caught his eye.

In fact, after working in both conferences, Watson made a ludicrous declaration about the quality of the Big Ten versus the quality of the Southeastern Conference.

He said that the Big Ten was a more elite conference than the SEC and that there is a whole different level of football in the former when compared to the latter.

“At Ole Miss, I learned a lot from coach Kiffin,” Watson said. “Both coach Kiffins — coach Monte Kiffin and coach Lane Kiffin — and I learned how to recruit, and recruit at the highest level. I think the SEC is high, but I think the Big Ten is the highest. And I learned a lot.”

While Watson’s comments are obviously a matter of circumstance, that is a ridiculous thing to say at all. It’s simply not the case, considering the fact that the SEC has the most College Football Playoff appearances, most College Football Playoff wins and more College Football Playoff Championships.

In addition, the SEC is 83-57-2 all-time against the Big Ten. That’s just about all you need to know.

Here are Watson’s full comments, which were presumably made only because he works in the Big Ten: