Frankie Edgar returned to Rutgers University Friday night as the Scarlet Knights’ wrestling team downed Maryland 27-12.
Edgar, who coached under Scott Goodale from 2007-10 during the early days of the latter’s tenure, returned to Piscataway to be honored for his UFC Hall of Fame induction.
Edgar spoke on Big Ten+ during intermission of the match.
“Yeah this is great,” Edgar said. “I feel like I had a big part of this in the beginning with Scott Goodale so to see what he has grown and done with this program is amazing. The place is always packed, you know, one of the biggest attendance (averages) in all of college wrestling, so it’s awesome to be here.”
The program was on the brink of being cut until Goodale took over. He built it into a regular Big Ten power over the last 17 years and Edgar was in on the ground floor.
“Yeah, you know, I love it, man,” Edgar said. “You know, Jersey, definitely a wrestling state where guys are staying here, getting guys from out of state, you know, building this program. You know, we’re a top 10 team. I mean, that was the goal of Goodale from the first day he came in walking into this program so it’s good to see it all happen.”
As far as a return, he didn’t rule it out. His sons wrestle so you never how much more Edgar will get involved with Rutgers in the near future.
“I got my boys in high school you know who knows, maybe one of my kids end up here so I don’t think I’m leaving this program anytime soon,” Edgar said.
Edgar is basically as Jersey as Jersey gets and fully embodied the Rutgers wrestling mentality.
“I don’t know how many people even understand it,” Goodale said after the match.
“Frankie worked with us for those first two, three years. Those were some cool days. It was a lot of fun. And he was just getting into his career. He’s the toughest son of a gun I’ve ever been around. Hardest working guy I’ve ever been around. He spoke to the team this year. He comes around quite a bit. Obviously super tight with Sebastian (Rivera) but he inspires us.
“He’s an inspiring guy who never thinks he’s out of it. I think we take on a little bit of that persona. Maybe we don’t talk about Frankie every single day, but it’s a little bit of our persona that started back in 2007 and still carries on today. It’s awesome that he was here tonight. Well deserved. Hall of Famer is pretty cool. He gets a singlet. He’s the man and obviously we’re very very close.”
Edgar finished his MMA career 24-11-1, winning the UFC Lightweight title back in 2010. He defended the belt twice and retained it once (a draw vs. Gray Maynard).
Edgar was also a four-time NCAA qualifier at Clarion University as a wrestler before transitioning to mixed martial arts and coaching.
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