After another offseason to stew on their consecutive home failures, Rutgers finally has the chance to try to make amends versus the Iowa Hawkeyes come Saturday evening beginning at 6 p.m. CST on FS1 from SHI Stadium in Piscataway, N.J.
It’s the definition of lousy. The Scarlet Knights have dropped 19 consecutive Big Ten home games. The streak dates all the way back to Nov. 4, 2017, when Rutgers last captured a victory at home, a 31-24 win over Maryland.
In its 19-game Big Ten home losing streak, Rutgers has lost by one score only five times. Last season the Scarlet Knights were outscored on average in Big Ten home games 43.8 to 11.3.
Of course, following that Maryland win, Rutgers owns just an 11-38 mark overall and the Scarlet Knights have won only five Big Ten games. All five have come on the road, though.
Naturally, it’s been a point of contention for Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano. It’s part of why he wants Saturday night to be a special environment with a “Scarlet-Out” in the hopes that it can be part of what pushes Rutgers over the edge to a victory.
Still, Schiano has been fielding questions about whether or not he and his program have been able to pinpoint why they have consistently lost at home.
“No. I mean, we did look at it. I can’t tell you that I know there’s any one thing. You know, we’ll keep looking at it,” Schiano said.
If behind closed doors the Scarlet Knights are indeed driven to snap this streak, that’s not the stance publicly. Instead, like Iowa, Rutgers is simply focused on starting Big Ten play a perfect 1-0.
“We just take every game one game at a time. We are trying to be 1-0 at the end of this week. So what’s happened in the past, I think when people do that, you put yourself in a bad position, start looking back or looking forward. We are just here to chop the moment,” Schiano said.
For Rutgers to snap its 19-game Big Ten home losing streak, Schiano knows it will take a great performance and would be hard-earned.
“Iowa is a different program. They are an established Big Ten program. Coach Ferentz is certainly the dean of the league, but he’s one of the best coaches in America, period, and his program continually, there’s consistency year-in, year-out, and you know exactly what you’re going to get. They play very hard. They are physical. They are technically sound.
“So it’s a great challenge for our guys, great challenge for our coaching staff. You put all that together and throw it in this Saturday night, wearing red to the game and packing the place, that’s what college football is all about,” Schiano said of the Hawkeyes.
Iowa and Rutgers have played twice all-time. The Hawkeyes won 14-7 in Piscataway in 2016 and 30-0 over Rutgers in Iowa City in 2019.
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