What Greg Schiano says as Rutgers football preps for champion Indiana

PISCATAWAY – Rutgers football coach Greg Schiano is among the many who have been impressed watching Indiana go from being one of the country’s worst Power 4 programs to national champions.

Now Schiano is preparing to see the Hoosiers up close.

“Certainly a great opportunity in front of us, the defending national champs coming to town,” Schiano said. “My hat’s off to Coach (Curt) Cignetti and their entire program for what they’ve been doing to these last few years. Really a testament to how fine of coaches they are. It’s been fun to watch from a distance.”

Safe to assume it’s not as fun having to face them.

But that’s the challenge Rutgers is in for when it hosts the No. 6 Hoosiers on Saturday, Oct. 3 (8 p.m., Big Ten Network) at SHI Stadium.

The Scarlet Knights are coming off a 58-7 win over FCS-level Howard, which was their first win in what’s been a difficult start to the season.

Indiana’s coming off a 29-23 win over Northwestern, a game that’s caused questions about whether the Hoosiers aren’t as elite as they were last year – or if the Wildcats are simply a better team than they’ve been in recent seasons.

Regardless, Schiano heaped praise on the Hoosiers, considering them elite on both sides of the ball.

“There’s no weakness in this team,” Schiano said. “That’s why they’ve won 20 straight. They do what I cherish and that’s take care of the football, and they take it away. They’ve won or tied the net-turnover margin 28 straight weeks, which is a modern-day record.”

Rutgers’ offensive line is going to have its hands full against Indiana’s front seven, which Schiano said is “as good as there is in America.”

The Hoosiers are only allowing 65.8 rushing yards per game, best in the Big Ten.

Indiana’s offensive front is also solid – and it’s led by coach Bob Bostad, who was Schiano’s offensive line coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

That line is charged with protecting TCU transfer quarterback Josh Hoover, who’s stepped into the dauntingly large shoes of Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza.

Watching Hoover, who’s completing 70 percent of his passes and has thrown for 850 yards and 11 touchdowns, Schiano said Indiana hasn’t “missed a beat.”

There’s no doubt that Rutgers is in for a major task against Indiana, a team the Scarlet Knights beat three straight years before the resurgence happened under Cignetti – also the infusion of resources that came with him.

Schiano has watched Cignetti’s ascension in the coaching world – Cignetti’s brother Frank was Schiano’s offensive coordinator at Rutgers in 2011 – and isn’t surprised by the Hoosiers’ success with him at the helm.

“I think he does a great job evaluating, he does a great recruiting, and then he does a great job in development and coaching,” Schiano said. “I believe in a lot of the same principles. Run the football, take care of the football, physical, violent teams, play sound defense. But to believe it and do it, those are two different things. I think he’s done a great job everywhere he’s been. I’ve watched him in his career. Every place he’s been, he’s won. He has a formula he believes in and he executes that formula.”

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: What Greg Schiano says as Rutgers football preps for champion Indiana