Over the past half of a year, Rutgers football has experienced a lot of preseason hype due to an easy upcoming schedule, improvements they made in the transfer portal, and securing their first bowl win in nine seasons last December.
Unfortunately for Rutgers, this hype did not translate into them getting into the preseason AP top 25 poll, nor did it translate into them getting a single vote to get in either. Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano also did not receive any votes to be in the USA Today coaches poll. Rutgers has not been ranked since the final week of the 2012 season and they have not received votes to be ranked since after the Indiana game in 2023.
Regardless of their placing in the preseason polls, Rutgers is doing their best to block out the noise so they can have a good training camp.
“You hear all of that stuff and it’s like poison: if it’s sitting on the counter, it doesn’t harm you, but if you start drinking it, you’re in trouble,” Schiano said. “We have to work. That’s all we have to do. We have to chop every day to have a chance to be good.”
Positive Preseason Opinions: National Analysts
Kirk Herbstreit
“Someone’s going to come out of the Big Ten that you really didn’t expect,” Herbstreit said during an interview with the Pat McAfee Show last month. “Whether that’s an Iowa, whether it’s, who knows, Dylan Raiola at Nebraska. Whoever’s got the most manageable schedule. Rutgers has a schedule that is by Big Ten standards in this new Big Ten world that we’re in, they could make a little bit of a run.”
Teague Robinson: The Athletic
“Call me crazy, but I believe in the Scarlet Knights this year,” Teague Robinson wrote. “Greg Schiano has done a great job recruiting in the program’s backyard and returns a ton of talent from a team that actually led Ohio State at halftime last season. They’ll have a new quarterback in Minnesota transfer Athan Kaliakmanis, and running back Kyle Monangai is one of the best running backs the country doesn’t talk enough about. The schedule breaks right for contention, too”
Robinson, at the very least, sounds like he has Rutgers in contention for an appearance at the Big Ten title game. He didn’t dive into specifics about what exactly he thinks the Knights will be in contention for but to be picked in the preseason to be in contention for any championship shows just what the Knights have the potential to do this year.
Adam Rittenberg: ESPN
“Greg Schiano has been building toward this season, as Rutgers boasts its deepest and most talented roster since joining the Big Ten,” Rittenberg wrote in ESPN’s Big Ten preview. “Rutgers returns starters at all three levels of its defense, including disruptive linebacker Mohamed Toure, as well as 2023 Big Ten rushing leader Kyle Monangai. “We’ve got a bunch of guys that have come of age,” Schiano told me last month. The Scarlet Knights also finally catch a scheduled break.”
While not predicting anything in particular Rittenberg is highlighting a lot of the same points that most people who are high on Rutgers are highlighting, so it is fair to think that he has Rutgers finishing the season in a very good spot.
