Rutgers heads into next Saturday’s matchup with USC in rough shape, and the betting line says plenty about how the Scarlet Knights are viewed right now. They opened as 25.5-point underdogs, a number that reflects a team still searching for rhythm after an 0-2 start.
That lack of rhythm showed up again in the loss to Boston College. Rutgers did have stretches where the effort was there and the execution improved, but the problems never fully went away.
The offensive line wasn’t clean for the entire game, and quarterback Dylan Lonergan was injured. If Lonergan had stayed healthy, the outcome might have looked different.
Lonergan played for Boston College last season, and injuries took some of the life out of what was supposed to be a much more compelling red bandana game.
With Lonergan out, AJ Surace got the start in Week 2, and the results were uneven at best. He didn’t look decisive or aggressive, and too often he seemed unsure of where to go with the ball.
Surace threw for three touchdowns but also had four costly interceptions. His longest play was a 60-yard touchdown, and he finished with 230 yards.
Through the early part of the season, his quarterback rating sits at 31.7, which ranks 119th.
There was at least one bright spot on the ground. Antwan Raymond carried the ball 27 times for 134 yards, a clear step forward from the UMass game, when he had 14 rushes for 42 yards.
Even so, the mood around the program is frustration. This is not the start Rutgers wanted.
That pressure naturally turns toward Greg Schiano. It’s unclear how much longer the program will keep him around, but patience appears to be wearing thin.
Schiano has meant a lot to Rutgers over the years, yet results still decide everything. If the wins don’t come, the people in charge will eventually look for a new direction.
Another loss could make the conversation even louder. Fans aren’t interested in hearing the same explanations after every defeat.
They want a team that wins. Whether Lonergan or Surace gets the nod in Week 3, Rutgers may need a quarterback performance for the ages just to give Schiano a chance to hold onto his job.
History between Rutgers and USC is almost nonexistent. The teams have met only once, in October 2024, when the Trojans rolled to a 42-20 win. Rutgers ran for 149 yards in that game, while Athan Kaliakmanis threw for 313 yards and completed 27 of 47 passes.
Now the Scarlet Knights get another shot, and they’ll need a lot more than hope to make it interesting. UMass already showed that Rutgers can be beaten, and the message for this week is simple: every negative article needs to be pinned inside the locker room.
In Other News...
Rutgers Pressure Around Greg Schiano Is Already Getting Hard To Ignore
Rutgers 0-2 start has quickly turned a promising offseason into an uncomfortable early-season conversation around Greg Schiano. The program had reason to believe this fall could look different after a better NIL setup and a renewed sense of optimism, but the early results have been ugly on both sides of the ball and the noise around the head coach has grown louder as the losses have piled up.
Schiano has tried to keep the focus on his players and assistants, but the backdrop matters here. Rutgers is operating under new university leadership, and with expectations rising along with the resources, there is less patience for another slow beginning. The Scarlet Knights still have time to steady things, but the pressure surrounding the program is already hard to ignore. [Read more 🡒]
Rutgers Faces A Harsh Reality In USCs Big Ten Debut
USC arrives in Piscataway unbeaten, ranked No. 12 and carrying the kind of early-season momentum that tends to get attention fast once conference play starts. For Rutgers, the draw of the Trojans Big Ten debut is obvious, but so is the challenge: this is a road game against a team that has already shown it can pile up offense and has plenty of national belief behind it heading into its first league test.
The concern for Rutgers is that USC does not have to be perfect to be difficult to handle, especially when the Trojans are still sorting out how they want to use their roster as the schedule tightens. Even with some defensive unevenness in the mix, the market sees a clear gap here, which leaves Rutgers with the kind of matchup where early resistance matters almost as much as the final score line. [Read more 🡒]
Georgia Tech Just Got Pulled Into A Brutal Week 2 Debate
Week 2 put Greg Schiano and Rutgers in an uncomfortable early-season spotlight, even in a broader roundup that also took aim at Georgia Tech, Oklahoma, Ohio State and Oregon. For the Scarlet Knights, the issue is less about one bad afternoon than the way the first two games have left the program searching for answers on both sides of the ball and wondering how much patience usually comes with an October-like sense of urgency in September.
The bigger concern is that this is the sort of start that can quickly turn a coach into part of the national conversation for all the wrong reasons. Rutgers has not just stumbled into a rough stretch, it has invited the kind of debate that follows programs when performances lag behind expectations and the results start to pile up, with the focus now shifting from what went wrong in Week 2 to what Schiano can realistically do to steady things before the season gets away. [Read more 🡒]