PISCATAWAY — The wheels have been spinning for a while now.
The promises that they’ll get there, that things will get better, that the evergreen comments that the Rutgers football program doesn’t belong in the Big Ten will one day be given a reason to be put to rest.
The results still say otherwise. And they often come in excruciatingly painful fashion.
Athan Kaliakmanis’ fumble — one in which he was untouched and the ball simply slipped out of his hands — was returned for the game-winning touchdown in the Scarlet Knights’ 40-36 loss to Penn State on Saturday night in front of a half-frozen, sold out crowd of 55,212 fans at SHI Stadium, ending their season with a 5-7 record.
Amare Campbell gets the win for @PennStateFball with a fumble recovery for a touchdown 🙌 pic.twitter.com/XBFDMyna4B
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) November 30, 2025
No bowl game.
No long-awaited win over the Nittany Lions, which would have been their first since 1988.
No surprise.
That didn’t make it any easier to accept, however, not in what felt like a very winnable game despite one last lackluster showing by a defense that managed to give up four separate plays of 50 yards or more en route to allowing 509 total yards, including 206 in a nightmarish first-quarter display.
“Tough loss probably undersells it a little bit,” said Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano, who is now 31-41 in six seasons since his much-heralded return.
“I feel really, really bad for the players down there in that locker room. They are hurting. As I told them, life is tough. Sometimes you don’t feel like you deserve this or deserve that. It’s not about deserving. It’s about, what are you going to do next? That’s what I’m faced with; and certainly that’s what a locker room full of players and coaches are faced with; and that’s what the fan base is faced with; and the administration is faced with and all those things. I know what I’m going to do.”
To be clear, Schiano isn’t going anywhere. That’s to say nothing of his contract extension through the 2030 season, but more so to that he’s likely done as much as he can with what he has, at least according to comments after the loss that allude to NIL spending.
“Well, I refuse to get into the “woe is me,” but we’ve been operating at a completely different level than the people we compete with,” he said.
“So really what we’ve done is almost miraculous, and everybody wants to talk about things. People don’t know the true facts of what has gone on. But I’m fine with it. I don’t need to justify our performances. I really believed we would be playing again, this year, this team. Hurts very much but we’ll be back. We’ll be back. We have some people now that understand what it takes, and we’ll be back in the way we’re supposed to be. Won’t be overnight, but it will happen.”
When? Who knows, really. The foundation seems to be there with Antwan Raymond’s breakout year at running back, KJ Duff’s season at wide receiver that was one of the best in program history — not to mention his acrobatic, one-handed catch that was essentially wasted in the loss — and AJ Surace, the Notre Dame High product, waiting in the wings at quarterback now that Kaliakmanis has exhausted his eligibility.
Empty as Schiano’s promises may seem after one last, nearly hour-long wait for his post-game press conferences, he does seemingly have reason for them. He also seemed to suggest that changes may be coming, with defensive coordinator Robb Smith surely on the hot seat, with a unit that allowed over 425 yards per game on average undermining what was almost inarguably the best offense the program has had in years.
“I know that we work hard. We have to. Again, I don’t stand up here much and talk about it. If we do what other people do, we will win two games a year. We need to do more,” Schiano said.
“We need to do this with finances. We need to train harder. So you know what, that can get you sometimes. We’re going to get to the point where we don’t need to do that so much, and that’s what you can really capitalize on the talent of your players. And we’ll get into all that. We’ll get together at some point. We’ve got signing day Wednesday, which is bang-bang. We’ll get together and talk when I have more stuff to share with you because I think our fans deserve an answer on what could have been, what was. I get that. I’m not sure I have the answer quite yet. I have some real thoughts. But I need a couple days to really just get by myself and do some thinking and talk to some people that I really respect their opinions. Then (I) got to make some decisions. There’s no doubt about it.”
