As Rutgers University is reportedly nearing a deal to appoint Greg Schiano as its head football coach, a statewide advocacy group for victims of sexual violence is calling on the university to find someone else for the job.

The head of the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault said Tuesday that Schiano’s alleged ties to the Penn State sexual abuse scandal should disqualify him from being considered to head the university’s struggling Scarlet Knights.

“It’s disappointing to me that this would even be a consideration,” said Patricia Teffenhart, executive director of the group. “I find it really hard to believe that Rutgers can’t identify someone who has the right professional experience and the right moral clarity to serve in the highest taxpayer-funded position in New Jersey.”

Schiano, who previously coached at Rutgers from 2001 to 2011, is reportedly the leading candidate to take over the Big Ten team and replace ousted head coach Chris Ash. Two years ago, however, when Schiano was in a similar position at the University of Tennessee, the school was within hours of hiring him as its head football coach when the offer was abruptly withdrawn amid an outcry from angry Tennessee Volunteers fans and boosters.

The public uproar centered on old allegations questioning what Schiano knew when he served as an assistant coach at Penn State in the early 1990s while fellow coach Jerry Sandusky was sexually abusing boys. But some said the controversy was about other issues, including boosters wanting a bigger name for the high-profile job — as reported by Sport Illustrated and others at that time. Elected officials also got involved, including Tennessee state Rep. Martin Daniel, who questioned whether the decision was “in the best interests of the university and of the state.”

Am told there's increasing pressure now from big-money #Vols boosters to force #Tennessee AD John Currie out in the wake of Sunday's news. UT source told me: "This is such a hot mess. Just when you think they’ve gotten out of the ditch. They’ve fallen into a much bigger one.” — Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) November 27, 2017

Schiano has long vehemently denied he ever saw anything or knew anything about Sandusky’s abuse. He did not respond through his agent to a request for comment.

Teffenhart said her group reviewed the controversy that derailed Schiano’s appointment as the University of Tennessee. She said it is not worth debating whether Schiano had direct knowledge that boys were being sexually abused by one of his co-workers. As a coach on the Penn State staff, the fact that he either didn’t know or didn’t do anything about it should disqualify him from Rutgers’ top job.

“He was negligent,” Teffenhart said. “He had a responsibility as a member of the coaching staff to be aware of the conditions his students were (exposed) to.”

The New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault, one of the state’s most prominent and publicly recognizable advocacy groups, represents the state’s 21 county-based rape centers and its members include the Rutgers-New Brunswick Violence Prevention and Victim Assistance program. The group frequently partners with lawmakers in developing legislation on victims’ rights and sexual assault. The group also works with the state Attorney General’s office on training judges and prosecutors.

Teffenhart questioned why Rutgers, which has worked hard and invested heavily in recent years in improving the university’s services for sexual assault victims, would consider associating itself with Schiano when the school is now considered a national higher education leader in sexual assault awareness.

“This seems to be a direct contradiction to the investments they made in victims and victims services,” she said. “Why would they be willing to risk that reputation?”

Rutgers officials declined to comment on the past allegations or whether Schiano is being considered for the coaching job.

“Rutgers is committed to hiring the best football coach for our student-athletes, our university and our broader community. An active search is currently underway and we will not comment on any of the potential candidates during the search process. Any successful candidate as the next football coach will undergo a thorough and exhaustive background check,” said Dory Devlin, a Rutgers spokeswoman.

Though it derailed his bid for the Tennessee job two years ago, Schiano’s ties to Penn State have been barely mentioned in New Jersey as he has been the leading candidate for the Rutgers job. Indeed, he is seen by supporters as someone able to turn around a football program that continues every week to lose games and fans and potential prospects.

“I don’t think there is a perfect candidate out there, but there are advantages to bringing him back. He comes with some built in credibility,” said Aaron Breitman, a Rutgers alumnus who covers the school’s athletic teams as managing editor of On the Banks, a fan blog.

Despite an overall record in New Jersey that saw varying degrees of success, Breitman believes Schiano, 53, “took Rutgers to a place that it had never been.”

While Schiano is said to be close to a deal with Rutgers officials, his hiring must be approved by the 14-member Rutgers Board of Governors, NJ.com reported Tuesday. NJ Advance Media also reported he already has met with Gov. Phil Murphy about the job.

Former Rutgers Board of Governors chairman Greg Brown, head of Motorola Solutions who now oversees the board’s athletics committee and is reportedly spearheading the effort to hire Schiano, did not respond to requests for comment.

The allegation that Schiano was aware Sandusky was abusing young boys at Penn State first became public in 2016 when a deposition from former Penn State assistant Mike McQuery was unsealed by a Philadelphia court in connection with a lawsuit between the university and its insurance company.

McQuery, who testified that he had told Penn State head coach Joe Paterno he saw Sandusky rape a boy in 2001, claimed in the 2015 deposition that he had also briefly discussed what he had seen with Tom Bradley, then an assistant coach at Penn State. “He said another assistant coach had come to him in the early ’90s about a very similar situation to mine, and he said that he had — someone had come to him as far back as early as the ’80s about seeing Jerry Sandusky doing something with a boy,” McQueary said.

McQueary said Bradley identified the other coach as Schiano. He said Bradley told him that “Greg had come into his office white as a ghost and said he just saw Jerry doing something to a boy in the shower. And that’s it. That’s all he ever told me.”

In the wake of the allegations, Bradley, through his attorney, denied making the statement and said he had no knowledge Sandusky was abusing boys in the 80s or 90s.

“At no time did Tom Bradley ever witness any inappropriate behavior,” said the attorney, Brett Senior. "Nor did he have any knowledge of alleged incidents in the ’80s and ’90s. He has consistently testified as such. Any assertions to the contrary are false. When he became aware of the 2001 incident it had already been reported to the university administration years earlier.”

Now the defensive backs coach with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Bradley did not respond to requests through a team spokesman for further comment.

Schiano previously denied the allegation as well. “I never saw any abuse nor had reason to suspect any abuse during my time at Penn State,” he has said in a Tweet.

In response to media reports from earlier today:

I never saw any abuse, nor had reason to suspect any abuse, during my time at Penn State. — Greg Schiano (@GregSchiano) July 12, 2016

But the allegations followed him to Tennessee in 2017, where anti-sexual assault groups were among the university members and alumni who joined fans who objected to Schiano being hired as head coach.

Someone scrawled: “SCHIANO COVERED UP CHILD RAPE AT PENN STATE,” on The Rock, the iconic chunk of stone that serves as campus message board of sorts for anyone with a can of spray paint to express their views. Campus protests erupted, some holding signs with various messages such as "Schia-NO.'' Several state representatives issued statements to criticize the possibility of Tennessee hiring Schiano.

The Rock on UT's campus. pic.twitter.com/aG3BXrkKOW — Louis Fernandez Jr (@LouisWBIR) November 26, 2017

While then-Tennessee athletic director John Currie defended the decision to hire Schiano, noting that the exhaustive 2012 investigation report at Penn State by former FBI Direction Louis Freeh never mentioned Schiano, the offer was withdrawn.

After leaving Rutgers in 2011, Schiano spent two years as head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and later served as defensive coordinator Ohio State. He currently does not have a coaching job.

Pat Hobbs, Rutgers athletic director, met with Ohio State’s athletic director, Gene Smith, in August and asked if the university had found any evidence Schiano knew about Sandusky’s sexual abuse while both were at Penn State, according to a New York Times report.

Smith told the Rutgers official “there was nothing there,” according to the report.

Teffenhart, head of the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said Rutgers should avoid any ties to Schiano or the sexual abuse scandal.

“It’s not worth it,” Teffenhart said. “Football isn’t worth it.”

Kelly Heyboer may be reached at kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KellyHeyboer. Find her at KellyHeyboerReporter on Facebook.

Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Facebook: @TedSherman.reporter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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