PISCATAWAY, N.J. — In years gone by, Greg Schiano has seen his Rutgers football team come off an emotional win only to be flat the following game. His solution to keep Rutgers focused this week ahead of another struggling Big Ten opponent is simple.
Show game film of Indiana. The film, he said, doesn’t lie when it comes to Indiana.
At first blush, the Hoosiers seem like a relatively easy opponent for Rutgers. They are 2-4, have lost two straight games and are winless in three Big Ten games.
But Schiano knows better, and he’s told his team as much. The four losses on Indiana’s record this year have come against teams that are a combined 24-3 this season. That is certainly not an easy run of games to start the season, especially since Indiana has already played two teams that are currently ranked top five in the nation.
On Monday, Schiano was asked during his weekly press conference how he guides his team to be ready for Saturday following such an emotional win on Saturday.
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“So how do you get their attention? Throw that tape on and point those things out and say, ‘Look, we are going on the road. It’s going to be a challenge.’ Go on the road in the Big Ten against a good, well-coached, talented football team,” Schiano said.
“We’ve got our hands full, and we’re going to have a great week of preparation because they do challenge you many ways schematically, as well as physically.”
On Saturday, Rutgers overcame an 18-point deficit early in the fourth quarter for a 27-24 win over Michigan State. It was the most impressive performance in the four years that Schiano has been back with the program.
In 2004, Rutgers beat Michigan State, only to lose that momentum the next week with a loss to New Hampshire. Then in 2006, the win over a top-10 Louisville team was followed with a dud the next week at Cincinnati.
In 2007, Rutgers beat No. 2 South Florida and then lost badly to West Virginia.
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These things happen in college football all the time, but Schiano’s plan is to get his team back to earth with a dose of reality about Saturday’s opponent.
Rutgers, as a team, has finished strong in each of their three Power Five wins this season. But another impressive fourth quarter this past Saturday, Schiano said, doesn’t help Rutgers this weekend at Indiana.
“But that means nothing in this Indiana season. All it can do is it can mean confidence that we’ve done it before, but it doesn’t mean that it’s going to happen again,” Schiano said.
“You have to go make it happen again. And that’s one of the things, to your point, is you have to chop this moment. We have an opportunity to go to Indiana and be 1-0 at the end of that Indiana season. And we have to stay focused on that all week, we have to stay focused on that when we go on that plane to go out there and throughout until we get back on that plane.”