Scott Goodale is on the short list of the most accomplished Rutgers coaches in the modern era. The winningest coach in Rutgers wrestling history, Goodale has never had a losing record and has led the Scarlet Knights to Top 25 finishes eight times, including two top-10 rankings.

As he methodically built a wrestling program into a Big Ten contender, Goodale also witnessed the trials and tribulations that the Rutgers athletics program experienced this decade. From the Mike Rice scandal to the never-ending string of controversies surrounding Julie Hermann to the recent football-program struggles, Goodale has seen it all.

A part of the Scarlet Knights’ fabric for 13 years, Goodale doesn’t sugarcoat those issues. He also doesn’t shy away from stating his opinions. He has a big following on Twitter, and when he saw a seemingly endless string of tweets that criticized the state of the Rutgers football program in general — and Athletics Director Pat Hobbs in particular — Goodale went on the offensive Sunday night.

“Stop. Enough already,’’ he tweeted after a Rutgers fan blamed Hobbs for the football team’s woes (mobile app users please click here to read Goodale’s tweets).

The back-and-forth didn’t stop there:

Because your not in the department. You have no idea what is going on. Same people didn’t know what was going on w hoops 3/4 years ago and now everyone is fired up. The negativity is brutal and doesn’t help #saynothing https://t.co/2UntYdY2o6 — Coach Scott Goodale (@CoachGoodale) October 14, 2019

Asked if he wanted to expand on his thoughts, Goodale told NJ Advance Media he didn’t expect his tweets to “get that crazy’’ but he stood by his statements.

“Those are my thoughts,’’ he said. “I just got tired of everyone thinking our athletic department is in shambles and we need a new AD. That’s b.s. We are all frustrated — the football coaches, (the) players and fans — but when you surround yourself with constant negativity there is no way out. It kills recruiting. It kills relationships.’’

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Rutgers interim head coach Nunzio Campanile, who took over the football program in the wake of Chris Ash’s firing two weeks ago, said Goodale “is 100 percent right.’’

“I understand the frustration for sure,’’ said Campanile, whose team has been outscored 83-7 in his two games calling the shots. “I mean, everybody wants to win. But we're in the situation we're in right now. So the negativity doesn't help anybody — certainly doesn't help these kids because if somebody thinks that they don't want to win they are sadly mistaken. As Scott said, (negativity) doesn't really help anybody.’’

Campanile would like nothing better than to be Rutgers’ permanent head coach, but he understands the reality of the situation, too. He is trying to jumpstart Rutgers’ struggling offense with a new scheme, a different quarterback and he’s without the team’s best playmaker. Oh, and the defense he inherited statistically ranks near the bottom of the Big Ten in every meaningful category through the team’s 1-5 start.

“I’m going to go out and coach this team every day and try and put them in a position to be successful,’’ Campanile said. “I think that (the fans) should support these kids. If they are not happy with what’s going on — clearly there’s been a lot of change here. There will continue to be change. I actually think it’s silly. I don’t know what they could possibly be talking about. They have already made change and more change will come. As that comes, the team is going to have to grow and develop. What I want for our players is, when this team is turned over to someone else, that we are a little bit better than we are now … and that’s not going to happen overnight.’’

Goodale’s story is well documented. He went from Jackson Memorial to Rutgers more than a decade ago. Campanile made a similar leap from the high school ranks to college, becoming a Scarlet Knights football assistant after a successful tenure at Bergen Catholic.

Campanile, who was a successful wrestling coach at Don Bosco Prep around the same time as Goodale was winning high school championships, said he’s modeled some of his coaching methods by watching Goodale from afar.

“As a high school coach, he’s like an idol for me,’’ Campanile said. “What he did in building that (wrestling) program is incredibly remarkable, but it also took tremendous patience. We’re not going to turn into a team that’s a top-5 team in the country overnight. It’s going to take time. That’s going to take development. But the state clearly has enough good players. There’s so many things that Rutgers has to offer, and it seems to me like working together is a lot better way to get there than for people to be negative all the time.’’

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Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KSargeantNJ. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.