Greg Schiano is leaving after 11 seasons.

The 45-year-old Rutgers head football coach is near an agreement to become the Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach, according to an ESPN report.

Adam Schefter, who first reported the news, said Schiano was also a finalist for the same job with the St. Louis Rams this offseason.

Rutgers hired Schiano as head coach in 2000, after he served the previous two seasons as defensive coordinator with the Miami Hurricanes. He spent three years coaching the Chicago Bears secondary prior to returning to college football.

Schiano called it a return to his home state, where he promised to turn Rutgers’ program around and put it on the national map.

He succeeded in 2006, when an undefeated start to the season catapulted the Scarlet Knights into the national spotlight. He was the coach of the year that season.

Schiano led Rutgers to a bowl game six of the past seven years, with wins in six of them. The most recent came Dec. 29 in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl.

Schiano was most recently linked to returning to Penn State, where he coached before moving to the NFL and the Bears. The Wyckoff, N.J., native dismissed it at the time, saying he still had unfinished business at Rutgers that would arrive “maybe sooner than you thought.”

He long spoke of a national championship. So did recruits, and Schiano assembled his best class this season. None of the verbal commitments are official until National Signing Day on Wednesday, though, and his departure could prompt changes.

Schiano was reported as a leading candidate to become the head coach at Miami and Michigan during his tenure, but he stayed in New Jersey each time.

This was the first NFL head coaching job he was publicly a candidate for. He is close friends with New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, who spoke highly of Schiano to the Buccaneers, according to ESPN.