So now the sales job begins. Greg Schiano will wake up early Sunday morning to start selling the Rutgers football program — its progress, its potential, its future — to anyone who will listen, and that includes the players in his own locker room.
This task became much harder after the Scarlet Knights sleep-walked through the first half of a 42-24 loss to Maryland. Gone are the feel-good vibes from a 6-2 start to the season. Rutgers is limping into a bowl at 6-6, and for Schiano, that means he’ll have to remind people that qualifying for the postseason is an important step for this program.
“There’s a lot of historic blueblood programs that are done this weekend,” Schiano said. “They are calling it quits. We get (another month) to develop, and it’s huge.”
His postgame press conference sounded like a rehearsal for his talking points, and for the most part, Schiano struck the right notes. He took the blame for his team showing up unprepared for the Terrapins, who had dropped five of their previous six games. The Scarlet Knights were banged up, yes, but a good program has the depth to account for injuries. Rutgers does not.
That’s why the coming weeks are so important as the head coach begins the behind-the-scenes conversations that will shape the program. Schiano can’t afford the mass defections that are commonplace in college football these days. He calls Rutgers a developmental program, and now we’ll see if his vaunted pipeline can avoid springing a leak.
Can he convince veteran players with a shot at the NFL to put another year of wear and tear on their bodies for his program? Can he hold together a recruiting class that is ranked 34th in the nation before the early signing period? Can he prevent programs with deeper NIL vaults from plucking key contributors from his roster? And, beyond that, can he upgrade his own team through the transfer portal at a time when the best players are coveted free agents?
The portal opens on Dec. 4. The Rutgers…
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