Rutgers played better. For Greg Schiano, that still isn’t good enough | Politi
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It was fourth and forever, and for Greg Schiano, that last part was no exaggeration.
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Forever isn’t just the 21 yards that Rutgers, backed up on its 16-yard line, needed to move the chains late in the second quarter. Forever is how long Schiano might have had to contemplate the biggest gamble of his coaching career had the move backfired.
Southern Cal had a 10-point lead when Schiano called for a brazen fake punt, and it is easy to say that this is a head coach who had nothing to lose. His team already had suffered losses to UMass and Boston College, after all, and the word “hot” doesn’t begin to describe the temperature under this seat this week.
And still ...
Had the play failed, it is possible — maybe likely — that the Trojans would use the short field to score another touchdown that would have sparked the kind of blowout loss Rutgers has suffered far too many times against talented teams like this.
Had the play failed, it is possible — maybe likely — that athletic director Keli Zinn would have pulled the plug on Schiano’s second go-around far sooner than anyone could have imagined when this make-or-break season began just three weeks ago.
“A lot of decisions tonight were based on who we were playing,” Schiano said. “They are top-five talent in the country on that team, and I felt like we needed to take some chances.”
So, yeah, the decision was audacious. Punter Jakob Anderson took the snap, set his legs like a seasoned quarterback and threw deep across the middle. Gunner Jesse Ofurie made an over-the-shoulder catch and started running toward the jubilant Rutgers sideline.
“We obviously don’t throw it much in Australia, we pass the ball with our feet,” Anderson, an Australian punter, said. “I have full faith in coach and what he called, and I knew I just had to execute.”
Forty yards later, Rutgers not only had the momentum-shifting first down. It had a second life. The question was this: Would it be enough?
It was not enough on Saturday night against the 12th-ranked Trojans. Rutgers lost its 44th straight game to a ranked opponent, 42-35, to fall to 0-3. The play, in the short term, changed nothing.
But if you were Zinn, you wanted to see something — anything — from this football team to avoid needing to push the eject button on a coach who had 18 years and 99 wins at this university. She may have to fire Schiano in the coming weeks or months, but based on their best performance (by a mile), the Scarlet Knights have not given up on their coach.
“I’m very disappointed for our players, our coaches and our fans,” Schiano said. “There are no moral victories — I don’t want to hear about that. I fully expected to win this game and it hurts that we didn’t.”
Look, if you’re a glass-half-empty fan, you had plenty on Saturday to leave you fuming. Dylan Lonergan, the quarterback Schiano signed out of the portal, had two more killer interceptions, including one that USC returned 99 yards for a touchdown just when it looked like Rutgers would take the lead.
This was a better effort, sure, but it was hardly a winning effort. For the second straight week, Rutgers jumped offsides on a critical fourth-and-short at a crucial point in the game. For the third straight week, the Scarlet Knights failed to convert a fourth-and-short of their own — once again, lining up in the shotgun for a slow-developing play that had absolutely no chance.
Rutgers fans likely left the stadium feeling better about their football team. Feeling good? Well, that’s a different story.
“I’d like to say so,” Lonergan said when asked if Rutgers is better than an 0-3 team. “But our record is our record. We’ve got to perform better.”
Schiano is in his seventh season and armed with enough resources to field a competitive Big Ten team. Remember, Zinn was clear before the season when asked what she expected from this team, and “that is, in its simplest form, is to improve what we saw from last year,” she said.
Schiano likely get his 100th win next week against Howard, and while the schedule gets easier after Indiana visits the next week, it is still hard to imagine this team doing enough to erase this 0-3 start and saving Schiano’s job.
“We’ll beat some people that you don’t think we can beat —and that’s what’s going to happen,” Schiano said after the loss to Boston College. His team needs to live up to that vow, and in a hurry.
At least, though, the team is fighting. Remember how Schiano 2.0 started? The head coach was unafraid to take chances, both with gimmick plays and gambles, as he set the tone that the Scarlet Knights weren’t going to roll over against the Big Ten’s best teams.
Rutgers has turned the ball over 10 times in three games — one fewer that it had all of last season. Schiano looked and sounded like a man who went 12 rounds against a heavyweight on Saturday, and chances are, that turnover total is the biggest reason.
“If you can to our practice, you’d say, ‘That’s a 3-0 team, not an 0-3 team,’” Schiano said. “We are not a bad football team.”
The record says otherwise. Schiano’s big fake-punt gamble set an aggressive tone for the Scarlet Knights. It’s a positive that they’re still fighting, but that alone won’t be enough for the head coach to keep his job.
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