PISCATAWAY, N.J. — For a second straight Rutgers football home game, opposing fans were drowning out the home fanbase at the final whistle. Finding the right formula at home is troubling for the Scarlet Knights, who fell 14-13 to Nebraska on Friday night.
Rutgers football has lost 21 consecutive Big Ten games at home, an almost unbelievable fact given that the program has been relatively competitive the past three seasons and made a bowl game a season ago.
The last two home games – losses to Iowa and then Friday night – were a point of emphasis for head coach Greg Schiano. For both games, he emphasized the need for a big crowd and to create an intimidating atmosphere.
The fans turned out relatively well, with both games being announced as sell-outs. In both games, Rutgers started strong and scored on their opening possession.
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And then, it twice happened that the offense went cold and couldn’t move the ball effectively in the fourth quarter.
For a fanbase that hasn’t seen a bowl win since 2014 and hasn’t had a home conference win in nearly four years, this is starting to get painful.
“Well, it’s tough. I agree. Two and a half of them are obviously when I was here. We’ve had some really good, competitive home games,” Schiano told reporters on Friday night.
“We’ve had some not-so-good ones. But I think it’s good, competitive Big Ten football, and it has to turn into really good winning Big Ten football. But as I said, you know, the whole time, I know everybody, we did some things and people got expectations but this is the way it’s going to go when you build a program (indicating ups and downs). It’s not going to go like that (indicating ascending straight up) we’ll get there. And I know our fans believe. They are frustrated as I am frustrated but I know they believe.”
It seemed to go promisingly against Nebraska. Up 13-0 at halftime, it seemed that Rutgers was in cruise control against their Big Ten foe.
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Rutgers would end up with just 85 yards of total offense after halftime, leading to criticism from former quarterback Gio Rescigno among others for the deployment of personnel and the play calling on offense.
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