The Rutgers football capped the 2021 regular season with a 40-16 loss to Maryland on Saturday.
Maryland came out on fire, Rutgers buckled down a bit, and got it within 10 early in the third quarter. The Scarlet Knights also had a few other chances, but the defense both bent and broke as the Terrapins could not be could.
"Tough one for those guys downstairs right now," Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano said after the game, which also coincided with Senior Day. "We have some guys that have played their last game in SHI Stadium, and it's sad for them. They came here under a different coaching staff. They stuck with it and became part of this family and have done a really good job, so I'm proud of those guys. I'm going to miss them."
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Rutgers (5-7, 2-7 Big Ten) had a slim chance to make a bowl game if not enough teams reached the six-win mark to become bowl eligible and if its 2019-20 APR scores were up to par and near the top of the list among five-win programs (they were being released next week), but the bowl talk is all for naught. The number of teams for the bowls was reached on Saturday night.
"I'm not going to deal in that conjecture right now. What I'm going to do is take care of our players," Schiano said on if he would accept a bowl bid at 5-7. "I hit the road recruiting early tomorrow. Just do my job, and then if opportunities present themselves, we'll have to make some decisions."
Both Maryland and Rutgers entered the game at 5-6 needing one more win to make a bowl. The Terrapins came out on fire, withstood a punch, and celebrated in the visiting locker room at SHI Stadium.
Asked how he views the season, Schiano deferred to answer that shortly when the media chats again with the head coach in the coming days.
"I think that will be better next week sometime when we get together. Right now, we just got licked pretty good, and I'm hurting too," Schiano said "I really wanted to do that for those kids that have been through -- you think about what they've been through, right? Some really bad seasons, some tough seasons. Then they go through COVID. It's been a heck of a run for this group of kids. I just thought if we could send them out of here the right way, it would -- you know what, as I said all the time to our team, that group on the other sideline, they think they deserve the same thing. We just didn't get it done today, coaches, players, all of us. We didn't coach well enough. We didn't play well enough."
Thirty-four players -- four from last season, 30 from this season -- went through the Senior Day ceremony. Many from the 2021 could be back next year due to the extra year of eligibility provided by the NCAA.
Exit interviews and recruiting are at the forefront of the schedule the next few weeks until the Early Signing Day on Dec. 15.
"We're going to definitely have talks, but I'm also going to be on-the-road recruiting. This is a critical time," Schiano said. "We have literally two weeks plus a weekend next weekend and a weekend the following weekend, basically 14 days, and then the recruiting period goes dead, so it's -- a lot of people say, well, the season is through. Now you can -- no. The season is through, and now you've got to sprint harder until you get to signing date on the 15th, and the signing date is -- people call it the early signing date. It's not. It's the signing date. If they want to name something, they call the old one the late signing date. We've got a lot of work to do between now and the 15th."
The Scarlet Knights might not be playing in a bowl game next month, but after some time away, they'll be back in the weight room.
As Schiano said, Rutgers has a number of good teams it is chasing in the conference.
"I have a plan in place for our team. They need to rest right now, but that doesn't mean we're shutting her down. We've got work to do," Schiano said. "When I first arrived here years ago in December of 2000, I'll never forget, I called some of the players, and I said, what were you planning on doing? Well, this is finals time. Now, mind you, it wasn't finals time. Finals weren't for two weeks. I said, finals time? I said, you are telling me you study the whole time? That's baloney. We need to work out. We need to continue to train.
"We need to continue to do the things because the programs that we're chasing, they're practicing, so we will have our December plan in place, and then when we get to finals, we'll adjust it accordingly. Then they'll get a rest regardless of what happens, and then we'll start back in January, so there's contingency plans for everything, but it's clearly marked. We've done this a few times, and it will be done efficiently in the right way."
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisNalwasky.
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