Greg Schiano reacts to criticism of his controversial decision
Coach Greg Schiano on the sidelines in the first half as Temple played Rutgers in the season opener at SHI Stadium in Piscataway, NJ on September 4, 2021. Photo Credit: Chris Pedota, NorthJersey.com via Imagn Content Services, LLC
Rutgers coach Greg Schiano faced some criticism for running up the score during Thursday’s 44-7 win over Howard.
Though the game was well in hand, Rutgers running back Antwan Raymond scored an 11-yard touchdown as time expired in the fourth quarter. That move rubbed some the wrong way, including Howard head coach Larry Scott, who seemed to have something to say to Schiano about the move during their postgame handshake.
7 seconds left and Rutgers runs it up the gut for another touchdown. Didn’t seem to sit well with Howard HC Larry Scott. Schiano leaned in… pic.twitter.com/3VKT7LlhwF
— FootballScoop (@FootballScoop) August 30, 2024
After the game, Scott said he would “choose to handle it a little bit differently” if he had been in Schiano’s shoes. Schiano, however, was unmoved, pointing out that Howard had called two timeouts on the previous possession despite being down 38-7 with no real hope of a comeback.
“Guys practiced all training camp. They deserve to play,” Schiano said, via ESPN. “There was no running it up. If it was running it up, you don’t use timeouts when you have the ball. You let the game end. That wasn’t retaliatory. We were going to run plays. We bring a team in here to play us. We bring them here. We bring them in, we’ve got to win and we’ve got to get reps. And they were there, we took them.”
It’s fair to argue that Schiano did not need to go for the extra score. On the other hand, if Howard was using timeouts on its previous drive, it does get a bit tougher to criticize Schiano’s handling of things.
Schiano has never been shy about deploying controversial tactics at the end of games. Don’t expect him to apologize for this one, either.
