Pat Flaherty is in his second season back as the Scarlet Knights' offensive line coach in 2024. A two-time Super Bowl champion with the New York Giants, Flaherty has been a position coach on five division-winning teams in the NFL and brings over two decades of experience at both the professional and collegiate levels. That includes a previous eight-year stint as offensive line coach for the Scarlet Knights (1984-91).
• In 2023, Rutgers was the most improved team in the Big Ten by total offense (+24.1) on the way to securing the program’s first winning season since 2014 and a victory in the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl.
• Rutgers led the Big Ten and ranked No. 11 nationally with just 1.08 sacks allowed per game. That included four games with none permitted, 10 with one or less and no games with more than three. The total of 14 is the fewest permitted for the team in a season since 2012. In addition, the Scarlet Knights ranked No. 3 in the Big Ten and 12th nationally with just 4.1 tackles-for-loss permitted per game.
• Three offensive linemen were honored in the All-Big Ten voting, the most for the program at the position group in a year since joining the Big Ten. That included OL Hollin Pierce being rated as the No. 6 tackle in the conference by
Pro Football Focus, with OL Bryan Felter (guard) and OL Gus Zilinskas (center) also claiming recognition.
• The Scarlet Knights averaged 168.7 rushing yards per game (fifth in the Big Ten), led by the conference’s leading rusher, RB Kyle Monangai (1,262 yards), who was RU’s first 1,000-yard rusher since 2012, voted Second Team All-Big Ten and rated as the top running back in the Big Ten, best in the Power 5 and No. 5 nationally by
Pro Football Focus. The offense had six games with at least 200 rushing yards, the most in a season since 2007, and its overall total of 2,193 yards ranked No. 10 in the school record books.
• Flaherty joined the on-field coaching staff after spending 2022 as a consultant for the Scarlet Knights, also serving in that role for the Giants in 2021 and as an analyst at Penn State prior (2019-20).
• Flaherty was the offensive line coach for the Giants for 12 seasons (2004-15), helping the offense finish in the top 10 in the NFL six times and winning two Super Bowls (XLII, XLVI). The team had a 1,000-yard rusher in seven seasons, including the three best individual rushing seasons in team history (RB Tiki Barber, 2004-06). His unit, anchored by Pro Bowl selections OL David Diehl, OL Shaun O’Hara (Rutgers graduate) and OL Chris Snee, also protected QB Eli Manning, who started 183 consecutive games during Flaherty’s tenure with the franchise and passed for 4,000-plus yards on five occasions.
• In 2015, the Giants totaled 5,952 net yards, the third most in franchise history. Flaherty’s pass-blocking unit surrendered just 27 sacks, tied for the fourth fewest in the league. Manning set the franchise record for single-season completions (387). He also passed for 4,432 yards and 35 touchdowns, the second-best marks in team history. That followed a 2014 season that saw the Giants total 5,875 net yards, the fifth most in team history.
• In 2012, the unit led the NFL with just 20 sacks allowed and the Giants scored 429 points, the second most in franchise history. Snee was selected to his fourth Pro Bowl, all coming under Flaherty’s guidance.
• Flaherty helped the Giants overcome the retirements of two long-time offensive linemen (OL Rich Seubert and O’Hara) in 2011 to win Super Bowl XLVI over New England. Despite the offensive line using five different starting lineups that season, the offense set franchise records with 6,161 total yards and 4,734 net passing yards. They allowed just 28 sacks, the seventh fewest in the league.
• In 2010, the Giants set a franchise record with just 16 sacks allowed, tied for the best mark in the league. They went five consecutive games without allowing a sack, which was a team record. The Giants were one of just two NFL teams to have two running backs total at least 800 rushing yards (RB Ahmad Bradshaw and RB Brandon Jacobs). The offensive line accomplished all this despite using six different starting lineups throughout the season due to injuries.
• Diehl was also selected to the Pro Bowl following the 2009 season, giving the Giants three players from the position group participating in the game in the same season. It was the first time the franchise had done that since 1962. The team also averaged 25.1 points per game, ranking eighth in the NFL that season.
• The 2008 Giants set a franchise record and led the NFL with 2,518 rushing yards. It marked the first time since 1993 the team had led the league in rushing. Both Jacobs (1,089) and RB Derrick Ward (1,025) rushed for 1,000-plus yards, becoming just the fourth set of running back teammates to do that in the same season in NFL history.
• The Giants won Super Bowl XLII at the end of the 2007 season over the previously unbeaten Patriots.
• In Flaherty’s first three seasons (2004-06) with New York, the Giants had one of the best rushing attacks in the NFL led by Barber. He rushed for 1,000-plus yards in all three seasons, including a franchise record of 1,860 rushing yards in 2005. Barber’s 1,662 rushing yards in 2006 were fourth in the NFL and second in team history, while his 1,518 rushing yards in 2004 were fifth in the NFL. The Giants were among the NFL’s top-10 in rushing and fewest sacks allowed in both 2005 and 2006.
• Flaherty coached San Francisco’s offensive line in 2016, helping the team rank fourth in the NFL with 126.2 rushing yards per game. He then served in the same role with Jacksonville for two seasons (2017-18), as the team led the league with 141.4 rushing yards per game and set a franchise record with just 24 sacks allowed on the way to an appearance in the AFC Championship Game following the 2017 season.
• Flaherty started his NFL tenure with Washington (2000) and Chicago (2001-03) as tight ends coach. That included coaching TE Stephen Alexander to a Pro Bowl selection in 2000.
• Flaherty first coached the Scarlet Knights’ offensive line from 1984 to 1991, overlapping with current head coach Greg Schiano on the staff in 1989.
• Flaherty worked with the Penn State offensive line for two seasons prior (1982-83), as the Nittany Lions won a consensus national championship following a victory over Georgia in the 1983 Sugar Bowl.
• Flaherty also coached at East Carolina (1992), Wake Forest (1993-98) and Iowa (1999).
• Flaherty started his coaching career as a football and basketball assistant at his alma mater, Delone Catholic High School (1978-80), moving up to offensive line coach for two seasons at East Stroudsburg (1980-81).
• Flaherty earned his bachelor’s (1978) and master’s (1984) degrees from East Stroudsburg University.
• Flaherty collected All-America honors as a center for the Warriors on the gridiron in helping the teams to records of 10-0, 9-1 and 6-2, being inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2004. The offensive lineman then played at the semi-professional level for the Chambersburg Cardinal and was inducted into the South Central Chapter Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 2019.
Hometown: McSherrystown, Pa.
Alma Mater: East Stroudsburg, 1978
Wife: Lynne
Children: Son, Shawn; Daughter, Colleen
2023-present: Rutgers (offensive line)
2022: Rutgers (consultant)
2021: New York Giants (consultant)
2019-20: Penn State (analyst)
2019: Miami Dolphins (offensive line)
2017-18: Jacksonville Jaguars (offensive line)
2016: San Francisco 49ers (offensive line)
2004-15: New York Giants (offensive line)
2001-03: Chicago Bears (tight ends)
2000: Washington Redskins (tight ends)
1999: Iowa (tight ends/special teams)
1993-98: Wake Forest (offensive line/tight ends/special teams)
1992: East Carolina (defensive ends)
1984-91: Rutgers (offensive line)
1982-83: Penn State (assistant offensive line)
1980-81: East Stroudsburg (offensive line)
1978-80: Delone Catholic High School (football and basketball assistant)
