Rutgers is heading into Saturday with a problem that has haunted it all season, and Maryland is bringing another version of it.
The Scarlet Knights, now 1-4 and 0-2 in Big Ten play, go to College Park to face a Terrapins team sitting at 2-4 and 0-3. At the center of it all is Maryland quarterback Malik Washington, whose passing production has been modest by the hype that followed his freshman season, but whose legs still demand attention.
Washington has thrown for 1,352 yards, which puts him in the middle of the Big Ten pack, but he has only seven touchdown passes and six interceptions. On the ground, the numbers look far less intimidating at first glance: 56 rushing yards and a touchdown on 31 carries this season. But Rutgers already knows how dangerous he can be when the play breaks down or the call is designed for him to run.
When the teams met in 2025, Washington shredded the Rutgers defense for 164 rushing yards and a 73-yard touchdown on the opening possession.
“There's designed runs like he did against us last year … we didn't do our job, but it was a designed run and he read it right, and he took it to the house," head coach Greg Schiano said. "Then there's the extension of plays.
Those are two different things. The extensions of plays may be more dangerous than the design runs because he really is talented.”
That’s the real issue for Rutgers. This defense has spent much of the season struggling to keep mobile quarterbacks from turning broken plays into explosives.
The last Power Four dual-threat quarterback it saw was Boston College’s Mason McKenzie, who ran for 94 yards and a touchdown. Washington fits that same uncomfortable category, even if his season rushing totals don’t scream it.
He has 359 career rushing yards, and nearly half of them - 164 - came against Rutgers.
Schiano said the bye week gave his staff time to dig through what has gone wrong and how opponents have been able to attack the Knights.
“I think we've made some progress in that department, but not enough," Schiano said. "Some of that is the person who's running around.
That's real, but that doesn't mean you don't figure out ways … That's one of the areas that we certainly looked at (over the break). You have five game sample sizes now to go back and look at the explosives, look at the good plays.
Where are their common denominators? Who is a common denominator?
What scheme is a common denominator? So there's a lot to look at, and hopefully we've fixed some of that.”
Rutgers has at least one thing working in its favor: the bye week. Under Schiano, across both of his tenures, the Scarlet Knights are 13-8 coming off a week off. They’ll need that history to hold up Saturday, especially with the program in a spot many consider a must-win.
Schiano said the message inside the building has stayed steady.
“The staff, the players, support staff, everybody is all in trying to get this thing (right)," Schiano said. "Nobody likes where it is, but there's been zero far-away looks or guys who are down in the dumps.”
He also laid out what the staff focused on during the break, after previously saying he wanted to examine everything that has contributed to the losses.
“It’s about executing the scheme in a way that allows us to perform at a higher level," Schiano said. "Some of it's communication, some of it's teaching, some of it is perhaps technique, and some of it is scheme … they are talented enough, but they just don't understand exactly what we're looking at. So we really try to examine everything we're doing, and is there a way that we can do it more efficiently and effectively to have a better result?”
In Other News...
Rutgers Gets Its Dylan Lonergan Answer At The Right Time
Rutgers finally has some clarity under center heading into Saturdays game at Maryland, and it comes at an important time. Greg Schiano confirmed that Dylan Lonergan is fully healthy again after leaving the previous game against Indiana early, and the Scarlet Knights can now prepare with their starter back in place after a brief scare.
Schiano sounded encouraged by the progress Lonergan has made since the injury, while also making it clear how much the team needs to protect him going forward. The quarterbacks return gives Rutgers a steadier plan for a game that already carries plenty of weight, and now the focus shifts to how well the offense can function with him back on the field. [Read more 🡒]