After a big win against the Purdue Boilermakers on Saturday, Rutgers Football headed home and started to get ready to take on an interesting Penn State team, who just earned their first win this past weekend versus Michigan.
Scarlet Knights head coach Greg Schiano spoke with the media on Monday previewing the matchup against the Nittany Lions.
“As you watch Penn State on film they are a very talented team,” Schiano said during his Monday presser. “Defensively they run very, very well and offensively it kind of looks like they are kind of hitting their stride. It’ll be a big challenge, good to have it at home and I’m looking forward to it.”
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Schiano is already pretty familiar with the Nittany Lions program as he spent six years at Penn State early on his coaching career, where he was a graduate assistant in 1990 and eventually bumped up to full-time defensive coach from 1991-1995.
“The game means that it is a Big Ten game, every game is critical,” said Schiano. “I have a lot of fond memories about Penn State, it was my first full time job. Coach (Joe) Paterno gave me a chance at 25-years old to be the secondary coach and that doesn’t happen very often. Coached some great players and met some great people, coach Paterno gave me an opportunity and I learned a ton under him as a head coach.”
This weekend’s matchup between the two schools will be the 31st ever matchup and despite the team’s being close in proximity, coach Schiano doesn’t see this matchup as a rivalry, at least not yet.
“As far as a rival goes, we are not Penn State’s rival and that’s clear,” he said. “We haven’t given them a reason to make us their rival. When rivalries develop, it is because there are great contests on the field and great recruiting battles. That’s why so many rivalries are regional because you recruit the same kids, you have great games and it grows over time. I don’t think you can make a rival, I don’t think you can say, oh look that’s our rival, I don’t believe in that. If we play well enough over a number of years here in the games against Penn State, then yeah it would be a natural rival with bordering states and all that. Rutgers has not given a reason yet for us to be Penn State’s rival, that’s up to us.”
Stay tuned as we will have more on this weekend’s Penn State matchup right here on The Knight Report!
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