It appears that the student section for Rutgers football has made quite the impression on head coach Greg Schiano. Once again this week, Schiano has praised the students for turning out in force.
In a late Wednesday afternoon appearance on SiriusXM, Schiano talked about several topics as a preview for Saturday’s game against Virginia Tech (3:30 PM ET, Big Ten Network). Rutgers is 2-0 after solid wins over Northwestern and Temple.
As part of an answer to a question, Schiano spoke to the impact of the students.
This was the third time since the conclusion of Saturday night’s game that Schiano has specifically praised the student section. All three times, Schiano’s remarks about the students were unsolicited.
“We’ve been able to do that at home the first two weeks, now it’s all about Virginia Tech right now. We want to be 1-0 at the end of the Virginia Tech season. That’s what we’re aiming for,” Schiano said on Sirius XM’s the Big Ten Network on Wednesday evening.
“Our student section is phenomenal. We got great fans but our student section – we have 11,000 students packed in there before the kickoff. To me, that’s special when those kids are all there.
“They’re loud, they cause teams to not be able to hear their own cadence. Those are things that make a home-field advantage.”
As for Virginia Tech, Schiano noted that the rebuilding job undertaken by head coach Brent Pry is showing some real growth. Virginia Tech hit the transfer portal hard this year and looks improved from their 3-8 record a season ago.
[lawrence-related id=30097,30087]
They beat Old Dominion in their season opener and narrowly lost to a solid Purdue team in Week 2.
“Brent Pry has done a great job with getting that thing rebuilt the way he wants it. Defensively you can see his fingerprints all over it. They’re aggressive,” Schiano said.
“They got a really good front seven, a really good secondary so they have a defense that will really get after the quarterback. We have to protect well, we have to be able to run the ball, play action well. The secondary doesn’t give you much.”
Schiano said that the Virginia Tech offense is “a bit of a mystery” given their injuries at wide receiver and quarterback.