College football returns in full force this week and someone should have told the boys up in Piscataway, New Jersey.
The Rutgers Scarlet Knights entered their first game of the 2026 season as 29.5-point favorites (by some books) over the UMass Minutemen, who failed to win a single game last season and haven’t put a W on the board since Oct. 26, 2024.
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As it turned out Thursday night, Greg Schiano and the rest of New Jersey found out just how strong the Minutemen were. UMass scored 30 straight points on the Rutgers’ defense before the Scarlet Knights could get back to the end zone. By the time quarterback Dylan Lonergan found wide receiver KJ Duff to make the game 30-14, there was just over 7 minutes left in the contest.
UMass got the touchdown back and finished off Rutgers for the win, 37-21.
It wasn’t just the run-of-the-mill loss for Rutgers.
Since Schiano reclaimed the reins as head coach before the 2020 season, the Scarlet Knights have had success against opponents outside of the Big Ten Conference. They beat Ohio, Miami (Ohio) and Norfolk State in 2025, Howard, Akron and Virginia Tech to start 2024 and Temple, Virginia Tech and Howard in 2023.
In fact, Rutgers hadn’t lost to a non-conference opponent outside of a bowl game since 2019 when they fell to Boston College.
Schiano has had the ability to revive the energy around Rutgers football since 2020. He had Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan team on the ropes in November 2020, the team beat Miami (FL) in the 2023 Pinstripe Bowl and knocked off Washington at home in 2024.
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But as fireworks sounded over Middlesex County on Thursday night, it felt like any kind of momentum that may have been garnered over the course of a few good seasons came to a full stop.
Regardless of how UMass may have rebuilt its football team over the last few months, there’s simply no excuse for New Jersey’s top FBS school to fall to a team that had gone winless all of 2025.
It is, in fact, the worst loss of Schiano’s second stint as Rutgers head coach. Long gone are the days of A-list celebrities like James Gandolfini gracing Shi Stadium with their presence. The time is now for Rutgers to right the ship. Next week, they hit the road against Boston College.
One win can eliminate a lot of bad energy. It has to start there before calling 2026 completely lost.
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