PISCATAWAY, N.J. — The continued rebuilding of Rutgers football for the 2024 season started shortly after Saturday’s regular-season loss to Maryland. Complicating things is that Rutgers will be going to a bowl game.
(That isn’t a real complication, but the obvious good news for Rutgers football about playing in the postseason means that the coaching staff does have multiple logistical hurdles to clear in the coming weeks).
Namely, the staff will need to start recruiting out of the portal and get ready for a bowl game.
It will be another week until Rutgers finds out their bowl destination and opponent, which means that head coach Greg Schiano can shift some attention to the transfer portal and the players who will be moving on from his program.
Rutgers has offered two known players out of the transfer portal and more offers are likely to come as the player movement offseason goes into overdrive.
A major function of Schiano’s job, and really every head coach at the Power Five level, is Name, Image and Likeness (NIL).
“I know what I know. I know where we’re headed. I know where this program is headed. I think no one can explain it better than I can because I live it every waking moment,” Schiano said on Saturday night after the game.
“And I’m confident that what we’ll do in recruiting; we’ve got a great recruiting class right now that I love. And again, it’s ranked well, but that’s not why I love it. I love it because the kids, the guys that we have.
“We will go into the portal and we will try to secure some more guys. You know it, I know it, that NIL is part of that. If we don’t have the firepower to do that, it will be harder, so I’m working on that constantly.”
The loss on Saturday sees Rutgers close out the regular season at 6-6 (3-6 Big Ten).
And then, of course, there is football too.
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And since Rutgers won’t find out their bowl opponent for another week, Schiano will begin the process of planning out the schedule for the likely contingencies.
Conventional wisdom has Rutgers going to the Pinstripe Bowl on Dec. 28 but there are other options.
“Yeah, there’s a lot that will go on this month. There’s a lot that will go — I’ve got to get to bed (on Saturday night) because I’ve got a day tomorrow of planning out the next month,” Schiano said.
“Rather than do it (last) week, because I was tempted, I wanted to put every ounce of my energy into Maryland. I know it might not have shown but that’s what I did. Just wasn’t quite good enough.
“Now (Sunday), get up early, and we’ve got a lot of planning to do, both recruiting, visiting our own players, guys that are considering the National Football League, portal and then a Bowl schedule once we know who and when we are playing.
“We know the range of dates. So that’s all I will go by; so set up a few different schedules depending.”