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These are the games that Greg Schiano signed up for when he returned to the Rutgers football program. Rutgers will be playing Michigan in ‘The Big House’ on Saturday afternoon, on national network television, and with the opportunity to showcase that their 3-0 start to the season is no fluke.
For a head coach who left Rutgers while they were a member of the Big East, Saturday’s game is what it is all about.
Then there is also the fact that the Scarlet Knights come into Saturday’s game in Ann Arbor with something to prove. There is certainly a sense nationally that the team’s 3-0 start might be an outlier and that Rutgers will come crashing back to earth with the arrival of the Big Ten football schedule. But for Rutgers and Schiano, Week 4 is an opportunity to prove that the program is not only on the right track but that the Scarlet Knights are no longer a laughing stock.
That the days of 78-0 losses to Michigan – at home no less – are over.
“You know how I felt for a long time that Rutgers belonged in the Big Ten,” Schiano told reporters on Monday.
“It’s weekends like this that made me want to be in this league. So, we’re excited about the opportunity and we’re going to go out there and see how we stack up.”
The last time Rutgers played Michigan, they lost in triple overtime in what was one of the best games of the 2020 college football season. It was a loss, but the Rutgers rebuild under Schiano gained some respect in that game. It was a building block for the program, for sure.
Of course, Michigan is certainly no lightweight. The Wolverines have an equally impressive start to the season, their 3-0 record boosted by a 63-10 win on Saturday where they scored a touchdown on their first nine possessions. They are easily one of the best teams in the Big Ten and seem to be on the rise, week-by-week.
The Wolverines come into the game ranked No. 19 in the latest USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll.
This will be the first time under Schiano that Rutgers will play a Big Ten opponent on the road and with a crowd (COVID-19 led to fan attendance restrictions last season). It is no easy task as Michigan plays in the largest stadium in college football.
In Week 2, the Scarlet Knights played their lone road game of the season at Syracuse in a dome known to hold in the sound. Schiano said it isn’t the noise as much as everything else that goes into playing on the road.
“You know we have crowd noise, we have systems that we’ve invested money in that provide – you can’t hear yourself talk from [a few feet away]. It’s not going to be louder than that,” Schiano said.
“The issue you deal with when you play on the road is you can’t let the momentum, you can’t judge what’s going on, the momentum all those things. You just got to ‘Chop’ your job. Just go and do what you’re supposed to do. When you start letting all that other stuff become part of the equation, well now you’re playing right into the mess.”