Breaking Down Rutgers Wrestling’s 2021 Schedule

It has been a long time coming, but Big Ten wrestling fans finally got the Christmas present they have been asking for – a wrestling schedule. For the Rutgers wrestling team, the wait of the schedule was not about when they would wrestle, but who they would be wrestling.

“We knew we were going to wrestle this weekend – it’s been out there for a couple months”, Rutgers head coach Scott Goodale told the media on Monday morning. “We’re in a good spot, I feel. The toughest part was not having a schedule, not knowing who to prepare for”.

When the schedule was released, it was quite clear that Rutgers wrestling will not have time to ease into their first competition since the 2020 Big Ten Championship. The Scarlet Knights open up this Friday at home against the No. 2 Michigan Wolverines. They will follow up with the No. 6 Penn State Nittany Lions the week after, and then they are on the road visiting the No. 8 Ohio State Buckeyes.

Coach Goodale is well aware of the difficulty of his schedule, but there is no such thing as an easy schedule in the Big Ten. Ultimately, Goodale is just thankful that his team is wrestling this season.

“I don’t know if I would have drew it up Michigan, Penn State, Ohio State”, Goodale said in jest when asked about the challenges ahead for his team, “but here’s the reality – I am just super, super grateful we’re wrestling and we’re competing”.

In addition to the traditional dual-meets, exhibition matches will be taking place to give wrestlers an extra opportunity to compete. This will be open to both starters and back-ups, meaning Rutgers will be dressing more wrestlers than they typically would.

“Each dual meet may have exhibition matches, or challenge matches, whatever you want to call them. So, we will be dressing twenty guys each match – two at a weight”.

With the first dual of the season being this week, TKR has broken down Rutgers wrestling’s schedule, making predictions and analysis on all nine scheduled dual meets. Take a look at how TKR anticipates Rutgers wrestling to perform in their all-Big Ten schedule, and the marquee match you want to keep an eye on in each dual!

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