COLUMN: Despite shortcomings in 2024 season, Rutgers football's resilience was remarkable
It was absolutely freezing cold in East Lansing, Michigan, last Saturday. The temperature ranged through the 20s, and the flurries of snow fell slowly and steadily to the ground from pregame warmups to the final whistle.
Sure, the Rutgers football team is used to cold weather, being from New Jersey.
This was different, though. Forget the cold. Those flurries, despite transforming Spartan Stadium into a breathtaking snow globe, kept on coming down. While on the scene, broadcasting the game for WRSU, the Rutgers student radio, I was in anguish on the 10-minute walk to the stadium as the frigid wind hit my face. I couldn't imagine what it felt like for the teams down on that field.
It felt like Antarctica. Both the Scarlet Knights (7-5, 4-5) and the Spartans (5-7, 3-6) had to brave the freezing and sometimes hard-to-see-the-ball elements.
It was the road team, Rutgers, that came out on top by the game’s conclusion. The game was almost a metaphor for the Knights season: staying resilient through tough conditions.
One could argue that the 2024 season was a year of missed opportunities. Rutgers lost by just a touchdown against a solid Nebraska team in a Week 5 defeat on the road. The Knights' defense fell apart in what should have been a victory in a 35-32 loss against a 1-5 Bruins squad at home. And the Illinois game, well, Rutgers fans know what happened at the end of that matchup.
The Knights could have easily been 9-3, if not 8-4, and potentially selected for a spot in the much-appealing Citrus Bowl had it not lost those games or encountered multiple ailments and season-ending injuries. The team lost defensive stalwart and senior linebacker Mohamed Toure before the season began. Senior offensive lineman Bryan Felter, junior tight end Kenny Fletcher, junior running back Samuel Brown V and sophomore defensive back Abram Wright were some of the names to suffer season-ending injuries during the course of the campaign.
Senior running back Kyle Monangai, senior defensive back Robert Longerbeam and senior linebacker Tyreem Powell were key players who battled injuries of their own, missing some time in the process.
When things looked bleak after Rutgers' fourth straight loss against USC, the players — especially the Knights who wanted to preserve themselves for the upcoming NFL draft — could have laid down their arms.
That's not what they did.
Rutgers would rattle off three wins in its final five games of the season. Two weeks after their trip from Southern California, the Knights soared to a victory over then-6-3 Minnesota and a win the following week against Maryland, a team that has plagued Rutgers in recent years. With their thumping of the Terrapins (4-8, 1-8), the Knights earned bowl eligibility for the second straight season.
Had you asked me or any other Rutgers football fan if the Knights would make a bowl game after dropping four straight in ugly fashion, we would have thought you were crazy.
That defense looked dead in the water throughout October, giving up 133 combined points in those four defeats. To bounce back with two straight wins is impressive.
The loss to the Fighting Illini (9-1, 6-3) on a last-second touchdown was absolutely devastating. You felt it in the press conference room following the game’s conclusion. For those seniors, in their last game at SHI Stadium on Busch campus, it felt like a funeral.
Once again, credit to head coach Greg Schiano for picking his guys up when they were down for yet another time this season.
Rutgers shook off the heartbreak, used its pain as gain and routed Michigan State to the tune of a 41-14 win. It was the highest margin of victory for the Knights against a Big Ten opponent since they became official members of the conference in 2014.
When it seemed like Rutgers was held on by duct tape in the middle of the season, Schiano and his staff were able to pull in the reins and keep their squad focused.
The stomping of the Spartans gave the Knights four Big Ten victories on the year — the most conference wins in a season for the program. Rutgers finished with seven wins in the regular season, which is the first time it has done so in a decade.
Now, a loss in the bowl game at the end of the month would put the Knights on the exact same record as last year. To be honest, it would be disappointing. Rutgers set up with a much easier schedule this season that did not include Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State.
Still, considering the injuries, the setbacks and the heartbreaks that the Knights faced, it is very possible for fans to look at this season in a positive light.
Hopefully, this resilient attitude will keep the engine running for the program in the future.
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