Becoming bowl-eligible in mid-October didn’t necessarily feel real for Rutgers football. But it got real this past Sunday when the Scarlet Knights learned their destination and bowl opponent.
It is the culmination of four years of rebuilding for Rutgers football under head coach Greg Schiano.
This year represents the first time since 2014 that Rutgers (6-6, 3-5 Big Ten) has been outright bowl eligible, a significant achievement for a program that was losing games 78-0 during that stretch. Schiano said that his rebuild wasn’t going to take shortcuts and wasn’t going to be easy.
To land in the Pinstripe Bowl (Dec. 28) at Yankee Stadium against a historic opponent in Miami (7-5, 5-3 ACC) is a sign of the program making not just a turn but now having established itself on solid footing. The rebuild is over.
“We have a lot of young men in our program that are fully committed to building something special in New Jersey at Rutgers,” Schiano said on Tuesday during a conference call for the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl.
“We don’t claim to be like everybody else. We try to do things that maybe are a little different, but they’re unique to us. I think our team, our staff, our fans, we embrace that. It’s exciting. As (athletic director) Pat (Hobbs) said, it’s a stop along the way.”
During preseason when prognosticators try to earn their keep, Rutgers was being picked for a ho-hum season. Bowl eligibility was out of the question and one or two national writers began to talk about Schiano potentially being on the hot seat.
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Much like they did during his first tenure, Rutgers did a good job this year of focusing on the task at hand. While four straight losses to close out the season was certainly discouraging, it can’t erase the very obvious progress made on both sides of the ball this year.
“Up here in New Jersey, everybody goes on the Garden State Parkway. Every single mile there’s a mile marker. As I told the team, becoming bowl eligible, we’re passing one of those mile markers. It’s not our exit. We’ll keep cruising along,” Schiano said.
“We have a great opponent in the University of Miami – that is going to be a great challenge. I know how Mario Cristobal will prepare his team. They’ll be tough, resilient. It’s going to be a knock-down, drag-out fight at Yankee Stadium. That’s fun. I think both our teams and both the staffs – that it’s kind of how we’re built. It should be an exciting game.”