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There’s no rest for Rutgers football as the 3-0 Scarlet Knights now get ready for a game at No. 19 Michigan this Saturday.
But ask Greg Schiano about the upcoming schedule that includes a ranked Michigan and No. 11 Ohio State the following week and the Rutgers football head coach can’t hold back his smile.
“That’s part of being in the Big Ten,” Schiano told host Bruce Beck on NBC 4’s ‘NBC Sports Final’ on Sunday (h/t to The Knight Report on Rivals.com)
“That’s what we love. Right now, we can only prepare for Michigan so that’s what we’re doing. We’re upstairs working on it right now. It’s an exciting challenge. Michigan has got a great football team.”
Last season, Rutgers took Michigan to triple overtime before falling to the Wolverines. It was a bit of a statement game for Rutgers despite the loss.
The Scarlet Knights had gone toe-to-toe with one of the most storied programs in college football and, in their first year of a rebuild under Schiano, had nearly won.
Schiano doesn’t expect Michigan, 3-0 and coming off a 63-10 win over Northern Illinois, to be in the midst of the same struggles they experienced a year ago. The challenge of a resurgent Michigan is all part of the Big Ten challenge according to Schiano.
“We love it. They’re a really well-coached, very talented football team who is back to playing the way that they’re used to, accustomed to. We need to be able to go in there and do our thing; we have to know what they do so we can play against them,” Schiano said.
“We have to make sure we take care of our stuff. If we do that, we’ll go out to Ann Arbor and we’ll do just fine.”