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Greg Schiano just changed the trajectory for this Rutgers program. Now what? | Politi
This isn’t Schiano’s first rodeo. The head coach knows that plenty of people in his fan base and the media (ahem) might be guilty of going overboard after one Big Ten victory. This is not the time to look too far into the future, even if flights to Pasadena for early January are just $263 out of Newark right now.
I kid, I kid!
So before we could all get too carried away, the coach wisely decided to turn down the music at his own party.
“It’s great to get started with a victory, but we’ve got to make sure we keep it all in perspective,” Schiano said from East Lansing. “We have a lot of work to do. We know that. It’s a good start, but that’s really what it is -- a start.”
Schiano even pulled out the Rutgers history book to emphasize his point. He referenced the team’s first big win over this same Michigan State program in 2004, a feel-good moment that ended with hundreds of fans storming the field in Piscataway.
“And then the following week we went out and laid an egg, right?” he said, referring to the back-to-earth loss to Division 1-AA New Hampshire that followed. “We have to figure out how we’re going to keep building.”
He’s right, of course, and clearly drove that point home to his players. Each one of them gave some version of the same answer -- “chop the moment” is now Rutgers-speak for “one game at a time” -- when asked about the broader implications of ending a 21-game conference losing streak in an impressive fashion.
They couldn’t help, though, from expressing their own astonishment over what they had just accomplished. Two of the team’s veterans, defensive end Mike Tverdov and linebacker Tyshon Fogg, used the word “surreal” to describe how it felt walking off the field in the final moments after quarterback Noah Vedral took a knee to kill the clock.
“Coach always preaches to never look at the scoreboard, but in those last 10 seconds, I looked up and said, ‘Wow. This is real life,'" said Tverdov, who was a force on a disruptive defense. “And it’s definitely long overdue.”
They have earned the right to enjoy this one. So have the diehard fans who suffered through too many lopsided defeats over the past few seasons -- including a 27-0 yawner to this same Michigan State team a year ago -- and fall afternoons where rooting for this program produced nothing but one facepalm after another.
To all of them: Celebrate safely.
So what happens when the buzz wears off? It’s hard not to believe that this victory could accelerate Schiano’s rebuilding process in his second go-around in Piscataway. Granted, it’s just one W, and Michigan State’s seven turnovers suggest a difficult season coming for first-year Mel Tucker and that program.
But the Scarlet Knights looked nothing like the team that walked off the field last fall -- and, for that matter, several falls before that. They were aggressive defensively, holding their own along the line of scrimmage and getting pressure on Michigan State quarterback Rocky Lombardi. They were competent offensively, scoring five touchdowns in a single game just one season after scoring six touchdowns in the entire nine-game conference season.
That, more than anything, was the most stunning part of this. Yes, it was natural to think the defense would improve given Schiano’s work in the transfer portal, and it wasn’t a reach to think they could beat an MSU team facing its own restart under a new coaching staff. But to move the ball effectively and score 38 points?
If you saw that coming, well, hit me up with some stock tips.
“People don’t understand how hard it is to win one football game," Schiano said. “It’s so hard. It’s three and a half hours of mental, physical and the ability to focus on anything for four hours. To be at your best for that period of time, that’s a real challenge. We lost our way (in the second half) and were able to get back on track.”
A few minutes later, Schiano leaned in on his “just the beginning of something” mantra. But if you were to make a list of the five most important things that Schiano had to accomplish in his first season, I’d say he checked off three or four of them.
He had to end the Big Ten losing streak. Check. He had to show that this team could have a competent offense again. Check. He had to put a team on the field with enough building blocks to show an upward trajectory for the program. Check, to say the least.
A day like this should help him in recruiting. A win like this should get some much-needed positive attention for his program. The path forward for his second go-around as Rutgers head coach looks a bit less steep than it did a few days ago.
No one is booking that flight to Pasadena. But, no matter how hard he tries, Schiano can’t dampen the enthusiasm from a season-opening win like this.
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