Rutgers’ ugly opener did not spare it from a manageable number on the betting board.
The Scarlet Knights were installed Thursday as a 4.5-point underdog at Boston College for Friday night’s matchup at Alumni Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. EST on ESPN2, and the total opened at 55.5 points.
It’s a quick turnaround for two teams that both stumbled to 0-1, but the market’s first reaction says plenty about how odd their season openers were. Rutgers was a 29.5-point favorite against UMass and lost 37-21 at home, finishing with just 30 rushing yards. Boston College, meanwhile, dropped a 34-15 game at Cincinnati as a 7-point road underdog and also failed to cover.
Quarterback play was front and center in both debuts. Boston College went with Division 2 Saginaw Valley State transfer Mason McKenzie, who completed 18 of 35 passes for 223 yards with one touchdown and one interception while adding 78 rushing yards. The Eagles were shut out in the first half and gave up 254 rushing yards.
Rutgers started former Boston College quarterback Dylan Lonergan, who went 16 of 30 for 242 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions.
Friday’s game carries extra meaning for Boston College as its 13th Red Bandanna Game, and it lands on the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001.
The Eagles honor Welles Crowther, a 1999 BC lacrosse player credited with leading people out of the South Tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11 and is credited with saving 18 people. Crowther was known for wearing a red bandana.
Boston College has worn special uniforms for the game since making the tribute annual in 2014.
The matchup also continues a series that has been back and forth in recent meetings. Rutgers beat Boston College 22-21 in Chestnut Hill in 2022, while the Eagles won 30-16 in Piscataway in 2019.
The schools have met 28 times since 1919, and this is the first game in the new home-and-home set. The return meeting is scheduled for Sept. 11, 2027, at SHI Stadium.
Both teams are 0-1 against the spread, so Friday night will reveal whether the early market has already adjusted enough after those opening-week losses.
In Other News...
Rutgers Fans Now Have One Big Reason To Judge Keli Zinn
Keli Zinn has spent her first year on the job doing what any new athletic director eventually has to do: deciding what parts of Rutgers athletics need to change and where the department can be pushed further. That has already led to a notable shift in womens basketball, where she moved on from Coquese Washington and brought in Gary Redus to take over, a clear sign that Zinn is not planning to let inherited decisions define her tenure for long.
She has also started putting her stamp on football, pointing to progress under Greg Schiano in both recruiting and the way the program has used its resources since her arrival. For Rutgers fans, that creates a bigger standard for Zinn now, because the early question is no longer simply what she plans to do, but whether the moves she has made will translate into the kind of results the department has been waiting for. [Read more 🡒]
Rutgers Just Put Greg Schiano And Keli Zinn In A Brutal Spot
Rutgers loss to UMass landed like a gut punch, the kind of result that instantly turns a season into a referendum on where the program is headed. The criticism has been loud and immediate, and it has put athletic director Keli Zinn in a difficult position as she weighs how to manage the fallout around a team that was expected to be moving in a more stable direction.
Greg Schiano has not sounded like a coach ready to fold under the pressure, insisting that one game will not define the team. Still, the schedule does not offer much room to breathe, and the next stretch will matter a great deal for a program trying to stop a bad loss from becoming something much bigger. [Read more 🡒]
Former Rutgers Players Already Gave Scarlet Knights Fans A Painful Reminder
UMass 37-21 win over Rutgers brought an especially familiar face back to Piscataway, with former Scarlet Knights linebacker Timmy Hinspeter starting for the Minutemen and finishing with nine tackles in his return. For Rutgers fans, it was the kind of early-season reminder that stings a little more when it comes from someone who once wore the same colors, especially in a game that already tilted the wrong way on the scoreboard.
And Hinspeter was hardly the only ex-Rutgers player making an impression in the first week of the 2026 season, as several transfers around college football logged meaningful snaps for their new teams. Those performances matter in the Rutgers orbit because they keep reinforcing the same question for Scarlet Knights followers: which departures were survivable, and which ones are going to linger long after opening week? [Read more 🡒]