So, about the win over USC….
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We’ll be unpacking this one for a while.
If you had Rutgers winning, if you had them covering, raise your hand. Anyone? Bueller?
USC: What was going on?
No one on the OTB staff had RU winning or even coming close to being in this game. For that, mea culpa but, come on. There was little to nothing to make anyone think that Rutgers was going to be in this game. And saying that, I will give all the credit in the world to the players and the coaches for staying focused and keeping their eyes on the prize. I did say, by the way, in my prediction, “Schiano can be pretty inspirational, and he claims and I believe he gets high character kids so maybe they hang….but for how long?” Full disclosure: I did not hurt my shoulder myself patting myself on the back.
The questions, though:
- Was it Rutgers playing up and fighting back, or
- Was it No. 12 USC looking ahead to their game with Oregon, or
- Is USC over-rated, or
- A west coast squad traveling cross-country for a game, or
- All of the above.
Reader beowulf7 added a comment in the prediction post that covered it:
A writer for ESPN thinks Rutgers will cover:
USC has one of the best offenses in the country. So why am I fading them here? Well, Lincoln Riley has struggled coming east since joining the Big Ten. The Trojans had zero wins outside the Pacific Time Zone in their first season in Big Ten play and last year had just two, beating Purdue by 16 and Nebraska by four. The Trojans also have a home game against Oregon on deck. They just need to get out of Piscataway with a win and stay healthy. Rutgers is objectively terrible, but coach Greg Schiano may be fighting for his job at this point and not getting blown out will be a high priority for him.
The game was not what anyone (for the most part) thought it would be. The Knights played very differently from what we saw against UMass or BC. They were tough, resilient, and played with some fire. There’s more below, but for now I’ll leave it to reader JeffreyPalm:
Something happened to Rutgers. And yes, I do believe in moral victories! I believe Rutgers is going [to] win some games. I believe Every Big Ten team better get serious about coming to Piscataway.
About the record
I thought the Knights could go 6-6….with some hesitation and trepidation. After what we saw in the UMass game, I rethought that and said 2-10; honestly, I’m not sure which game other than Howard would be the second win. But now? I have no clue other than to say, I do not believe Rutgers will go to a bowl….but could they get five wins?
There were a lot of comments during and after the game. A not insignificant number of them gave a lot of credit to the players and the coaches. Including this one from reader Jcomp:
Great effort by Rutgers, we’ll win some games and Schiano will remain the coach
Well, we all thought they’d win “some” games before the season started. And then Joe Harasymiak returned to Piscataway. Yes, based on their play on Saturday, they’ll likely win “some”, but which and when? Other than next Friday against 1-2 Howard.
To that point, reader Zanily replied to Jcomp:
Howard is the only reasonable game that Rutgers should win. As for Schiano, he has been overmatched in the Big Ten since his return. He is done.
Uh oh! Another thing to unpack about this game. Before Saturday, there were exactly 17 people who didn’t think that Greg Schiano would be fired some time between this very moment and within 48 hours after the Rutgers-Michigan State game on November 28.
The return of reader Jcomp:
Yea, you could say that but they won’t fire him at the end of the season if he can win some big ten games, which I think he will, Maryland isn’t that great, zero running game and the defense looked terrible against VT. Michigan State is a mediocre team as well, not very explosive with their offense either and the defense is average, Rutgers has better RBs and WRs. He isn’t going anywhere.
Not to be Debbie Downer, but beating Maryland and Michigan State is winning two Big Ten games. That would be the same as 2025….progress, anyone?
Most people picked Rutgers to go 5-7 or 6-6. There were the few who said 8-4, and some at 4-8. So, “we’ll win some games” after the disastrous start isn’t that big a deal. And it shows little to no progress for the program. If they win two conference games plus Howard, that’s 3-9.
Oh, right….the coach question
People were wondering before UMass and BC if Schiano should even still be here. Those games didn’t help his case. USC kinda threw a monkey wrench into the works; but as stated above, it was a tough and gritty performance by the home team. But, the result, ultimately, didn’t change.
Give everyone on that sideline some credit, including the head coach. They could have read the predictions, looked at the first two games, and phoned it in. They didnt.
Upstream Red Team!
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