Greg Schiano won’t survive this embarrassing Rutgers loss without a miracle | Politi

Greg Schiano is toast. The long, painful slog to the end of his second go-around as Rutgers football coach began on Thursday night with the kind of defeat that seemed stolen from the early days of his first stint.

His Scarlet Knights were outclassed in every way imaginable by an undermanned team from New England that arrived in New Jersey as 28.5-point underdogs. Back when the coach's hair was still jet black, the names on the front of the jersey were UConn and New Hampshire. Now, with his temples speckled with gray, it was Massachusetts.

This one won't soon be forgotten. This one is easily the worst loss in Schiano's 208 career games in Piscataway. But don't stop there. This is worse than any result Chris Ash had in his three-plus years, far worse than any defeat that Kyle Flood suffered, and rivals the worst losses of the long-forgotten Terry Shea years.

Hey, at least back then, Rutgers was barely trying.

Rutgers officials believed these type of days were over. Just a few hours earlier, athletic director Keli Zinn had met reporters in what was an optimistic scrum about the state of her department and its fundraising efforts to support its coaches. She wouldn't say how many victories Schiano needed to keep his job for another season, but her mandate was crystal clear .

"Greg and I are on the exact same page with this: I want what he wants and he wants what I want," Zinn said. "And what that is, in its simplest form, is to improve what we saw from last year."

At 9:23 p.m., after a three-score loss to a UMass team that went 0-12 last season, the question seemed something else entirely. Would Schiano even make it to the end of his 18th season? If you think that's a ridiculous notion, chances are you weren't watching this debacle. Zinn watched every minute.

"Do we have to do this now?" Todd Knisley, a deputy AD who arrived last summer from greener pastures at Ohio State, interrupted when I tried to approach Zinn on the sideline to ask if this loss changed her calculations on the football coach she inherited a year ago.

The short answer, Todd? No. But, after Thursday night, it's hard to envision a scenario in which Zinn isn't having conversations about Schiano's future with all the important people around Rutgers very, very soon.

The obstacle, of course, is money. Schiano is owed $17.4 million on his contract. Factor in whatever it costs to buy out his staff, hire his replacement and fund a better roster, and you're looking at an $80-to-$90-million investment. Rutgers had an $78-million athletic spending deficit last season.

The math is in Schiano's favor. He'll also have 11 chances to emerge from the coffin — Undertaker-style — and a win over a premier Big Ten foe might hold the pitchforks at bay. But let's be real. If the Scarlet Knights look like this against UMass, how will they compete against Indiana, Southern Cal and Michigan?

And this was no flukey loss. UMass pushed Rutgers around on both sides of the ball for three excruciating hours. The Minutemen, who hadn't beaten an FBS team in 34 months — and that was Army — rattled off 24 straight points in the first half like they were the ones paying $1.5 million for the easy W to start the season.

"I've been part of some really tough ones," Schiano said at his postgame press conference. "It's easy to talk about 'chop' when things are going well and it's a great little picture for people, but 'chop' is now. Chop is in adversity and we're smack dab in the middle of it as a team and a staff and I fully believe that they will and I will chop our way right out of this."

Yes, of course, he fell back on the trusty old chop. Yes, of course, he said he was out-coached. Yes, of course, he promised that the "good people" in the Rutgers locker room would rebound. He leaned on all the tired platitudes he has used dozens of times before. But then again, what else could he say?

This was supposed to be the year that Schiano finally had the resources he needed to build a roster that would compete in the Big Ten. Zinn found him that money — a roster payroll that she confirmed to be between $20-$30 million — with the expectation that Rutgers would improve on its 5-7 finish a year ago.

Schiano spent most of the offseason trying to pin that team's failure on the defensive coordinator he demoted midseason. Robb Smith was an easy scapegoat, and when Schiano went out and plucked Travis Johansen from the FCS level, the improved coaching was supposed to solve most of this team's problems.

Well, on Thursday night, it sure looked like this was a personnel problem. Schiano stocked his defense with players from the Citadel, South Dakota and Drake, and in their FBS debut, they looked like players from the Citadel, South Dakota and Drake. It was hard to identify a single difference maker on that side of the ball.

And the offense was a bigger disappointment.

Schiano presumably had the resources to find a starting-quality quarterback, and instead, landed on Boston College transfer Dylan Lonergan. Lonergan, fresh off a 2-10 season at Boston College, threw three interceptions in a performance that made investments in two future NFL skill players — receiver KJ Duff and running back Antwan Raymond — feel like putting a moonroof on an '86 Honda Civic.

"This is the first game of a long year," Duff told reporters after catching nine passes for 196 yards and three touchdowns. "We know that's not us."

Rutgers plays at Boston College next week. Lonergan, who was pulled due to an injury late in the game, is likely to start against his old team if he's healthy. BC, at 2-10, was nearly as bad as UMass last year, so the Scarlet Knights will be favored on the road.

If they lose, all bets are off. Zinn and Rutgers president William Tate likely thought they would have had a few months to plot their strategy on how to handle a poor season.

Now, that timetable has accelerated significantly.

Chants of "FIRE SCHIANO!" rang out from a few of the remaining fans in the fourth quarter three days before Labor Day. How low can this program go? Better question: How long will this head coach last?

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