Greg Schiano and Rutgers Have Already Become College Football's Biggest Meme

It wouldn’t be dramatic if Rutgers decided to fire head coach Greg Schiano before the first weekend of college football season.

The Scarlet Knights kicked off college football’s first real weekend with a complete thud. The 29.5-point favorite Rutgers looked overmatched by the UMass Minutemen from the moment the game started. UMass hadn’t won a game in 677 games, and their 37-21 upset victory against Rutgers is one of the biggest upsets in college football history.

A few years ago, everyone remembers when Notre Dame was crushed by Northern Illinois of the Mid-American Conference. As nearly 30-point favorites, Rutgers collapsing against UMass to start their season is already a bigger upset than the one suffered by the Fighting Irish in 2024.

Rutgers had no answer for UMass quarterback Pop Watson III, who was undoubtedly the story of the game. He joined the Minutemen following three seasons at Virginia Tech, and the Scarlet Knights weren’t prepared for this new-look UMass offense. Watson completed 19-of-22 passes for 197 yards and three touchdown passes. He also ran the ball six times for another 40 yards on the ground.

Speaking of the run game, Rutgers was gashed on the ground. The Scarlet Knights had just 30 yards rushing in the entire game, whereas UMass had 200 yards. Running back Curtis Kimmons IV had 78 yards on just 11 carries and found the end zone once.

There’s nothing Schiano can do about it now. Rutgers is already college football’s biggest meme. At least Georgia Tech getting upset by Colorado softens the blow, but not really.

UMass was paid for this game

That’s because Rutgers was exposed on national television in an embarrassing fashion. They paid UMass over $1 million for that game. What is Rutgers expected to do in a very talented Big Ten? We’ll find out in two weeks against No. 14 USC, but disclaimer, that one won’t be pretty.

Schiano’s Rutgers team watched their season end before it even started. Even though nobody was predicting the Scarlet Knights to be a College Football Playoff contender, this newly-expanded format wouldn’t have ruled it out entirely. But Thursday night’s loss against UMass did.

Plenty of Scarlet Knight players are probably eyeing the transfer portal before the first week of September is even over. Rutgers still has to play difficult games against USC, No. 6 Indiana, No. 16 Michigan and No. 18 Penn State. There’s no reason to believe they’ll look competent in any of those ranked matchups – or in any other game on their schedule if they can’t even look good against UMass.

And this isn’t to take anything away from the Minutemen. For one night, they were undeniable. But this is a really embarrassing look for Rutgers, who probably doesn’t belong in a loaded Big Ten, where they’ll never find much of any success as currently constructed.