After going winless in the Big Ten for two years, Rutgers football, under the leadership of new/former head coach Greg Schiano, got the Scarlet Knights to three in 2020 and finished with a 3-6 record.
Rutgers, in the middle of a pandemic, defeated Michigan State to start the delayed season. It then beat Purdue and Maryland while being a few plays away from topping Illinois, Michigan, and Nebraska as well.
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The Scarlet Knights were just one of two programs in the league (Penn State) to play all nine games on the schedule, a feat that cannot be stated enough.
“I'm really, really proud of them. We're one of two teams in our league that played every game. You know, every single day we talked about our No. 1 opponent was COVID-19 and if we were able to defeat our No. 1 opponent as a program, that we would have the opportunity to get better,” Schiano said on Friday night.
“You get better in practice, but you also get better in live competition in games, and we were able to improve. So we won some, we lost some. But we got better. And a lot of guys got valuable experience that moving forward is going to be very beneficial. I'm very, very proud of our players and of our coaches, everybody involved in the program. Everybody worked very hard to be able to play a complete season. Sacrificed quite a bit to be able to play a complete season.”
Rutgers endured nine games in nine weeks with no spring practice and official training camp. It followed the protocols and guidelines to keep everybody safe and did not have to cancel much like a slew of teams across the nation.
“I really love these kids. They worked so hard to be able to do this. Like I said, there's only -- there's 14 teams in our league and you could say we're lucky. Well, maybe, but I always believe you make your own luck,” Schiano said. “These kids sacrificed so much, so when two out of 14 teams are able to play all nine games, I think they worked really, really hard to play the game that they love to play and to play it together.
“...I do think it's special ...What I'm most proud of is they sacrificed for each other to be able to play the game they love. That's what shows me, I've said oftentimes to you guys, as bad as the virus is for everybody, the one thing for a new coach in a program, you get a glimpse into how important football is to each guy. And a program that can keep each other safe for that long and be able to play every game, I think, you know, I think it deserves some credit. I've given that to them. I am proud of them.”
Schiano said as a whole, this season was like nothing he’s ever had to deal with, but not the challenging, so to speak.
“Nothing will ever match the year with Eric LeGrand, but yeah, as far as circumstances unrelated to us solely, yeah, this is the toughest thing we've had to deal with,” he said.
From the jump, players bought into Schiano’s culture and vision of the team. The pandemic and sacrifice made everybody come together and even speed up the rebuild.
“I do think that. I do think that in many different ways it did that, including the one that I said earlier; that I saw how much it meant to certain people, right, because the things we asked them to do were not easy things to do,” Schiano said. “And if it's not that important to you and you don't care that much about your teammates, you might not do it. Doesn't make him a bad person. Again, it's all about how important is this game to you and how important are your teammates and this program to you. That to me is what sets programs apart. And when you get an unselfish group of people that are willing to do things for each other, sky's the limit.
“I think that there's definitely growth that is going to come as a result of this. But that's a football team you're talking about. Tragedy all over. So it's hard to even put into context.”
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisWasky.
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