Rutgers Football Schedule 2024: Home and Away Opponents
A look at Rutgers University football opponents for the 2024 season.
PISCATAWAY – Greg Schiano knows what is being said about his program, he hears some of the hype and excitement as the Rutgers football team begins a highly anticipated season.
But if you think he pays a lot of attention to it – or allows his players to focus on it – you are wrong, he says.
“When you hear all that, it’s like poison,” Schiano said Saturday after Rutgers’ first scrimmage of training camp. “It’s on the counter and it doesn’t hurt you. If you start drinking it, you’re in trouble. We have to work. That’s all we have to do.”
According to Schiano, the Scarlet Knights’ focus is solely on that right now, as they are less than three weeks away from their season-opening game against Howard at SHI Stadium.
Outside the program?
The talk will not stop.
Here’s a look at what some national forecasters and analysts have to say about Rutgers:
Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN
“There’s going to be someone coming out of the Big Ten that you really didn’t expect,” Herbstreit said in an interview with The Pat McAfee Show last month. “Whether that’s Iowa or, who knows, (Dylan) Raiola from Nebraska. Whoever has the most manageable schedule. Rutgers has a schedule that’s Big Ten standards, and in this new Big Ten world that we live in, they could make a little run.”
Dan Wetzel, Yahoo Sports
“I like Rutgers,” Wetzel said on the College Football Enquirer podcast of a potential underdog. “7-6 last year. They have a quarterback from Minnesota. They have eight to 10 starters on defense. They have Kyle Monangai, an unbelievable running back. They don’t play Ohio State, they don’t play Oregon, they don’t play Michigan, they don’t play Penn State and they don’t play Iowa. Rutgers has struggled with the schedule since moving up to the Big Ten. …It’s doable. If they play really well, this is a team that could get 10 wins. Ten wins in the Big Ten and you could be there.”
Cameron Teague Robinson, The Athletic
“Call me crazy, but I believe in the Scarlet Knights this year,” wrote Teague Robinson. “Greg Schiano has done a great job recruiting in the program’s backyard and brings back a ton of talent from a team that actually led Ohio State at halftime last season. They’ll have a new quarterback in Athan Kaliakmanis, who transferred from Minnesota, and running back Kyle Monangai is one of the best running backs the country doesn’t talk about enough. The schedule also bodes well: The Scarlet Knights aren’t playing Penn State, Oregon, Ohio State, Iowa or Michigan this year.”
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Adam Rittenberg, ESPN
“Greg Schiano has been building toward this season as Rutgers has the strongest and most talented roster since joining the Big Ten,” Rittenberg wrote in ESPN’s Big Ten preview. “Rutgers returns starters at all three levels of defense, including disruptive linebacker Mohamed Toure as well as 2023 Big Ten rushing leader Kyle Monangai. “We have a lot of guys who have grown up,” Schiano told me last month. The Scarlet Knights also finally have a break in the schedule: They won’t play Ohio State, Michigan or Penn State, as well as top West Coast recruit Oregon.”
Doug Lesmerises, Podcast “Kings of the North”
Lesmerises interviewed Schiano on his podcast at Big Ten Media Days and told the Scarlet Knights head coach that he believed Rutgers would go 7-2 in the Big Ten.
“I think you have an opportunity to play really complementary football,” Lesmerises told Schiano. “I think with your plan and your recruiting and the energy that’s behind the program right now — and it feels like you’ve committed there — I think Rutgers football is in a good position.”
