Similar to Head Coach Greg Schiano’s first go-around with the program, one of his first signature wins came in 2004 in a 19-14 victory against Michigan State in which the record crowd of 42,612 stormed the field to celebrate. However, many diehard Rutgers fans, and even Schiano himself, can recall what came a week later.
“As we know we don’t have to look too far in our history as we beat this exact team and then the following week we went out and laid an egg,” Schiano said after Saturday’s 38-27 victory over Michigan State. “We have to figure out how we are going to keep building.”
While 16 years have passed since that 4-7 season, just the words “New Hampshire” are enough to make a Rutgers fan cringe as in front of 31,615 people at HighPoint.com Stadium the Scarlet Knights produced one of their most humiliating losses in program history.
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New Hampshire redshirt freshman quarterback Ricky Santos threw for 385 yards and recorded a school-record five touchdowns en route to the team’s 35-24 victory and first-ever win over a Division I-A team in a season where they finished 10-3
While Rutgers had experienced bad losses like this before, this one had a little more sting to it considering where they were a week prior. However, there is a slight caveat that takes at least some of the pain away from this game.
Long before he was an Oregon Duck, Philadelphia Eagle, or UCLA Bruin, Chip Kelly was New Hampshire’s offensive coordinator where he led an offense that put up almost video game-like numbers. During tenure as OC, the Wildcats averaged more than 400 yards per game of offense in seven of his eight seasons.
In addition, New Hampshire broke many offensive school records during Kelly’s time and even finished second nationally in total offense in 2005 where they went 11-2. Nevertheless, that loss on Sept. 11, 2004, is something that will stick in the craw of Rutgers and its fans forever.
While Saturday’s matchup with Indiana is a far cry from the New Hampshire game as the seventeenth-ranked Hoosiers are a much-improved squad than the 2004 Wildcats if Schiano’s comments after last week’s win are any indication he will try not to repeat the same mistake again.
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