Is Rutgers on the verge of a breakthrough?

INDIANAPOLIS — Greg Schiano is Jersey through and through, which means he talks with his hands. So when he closed his podium session at Big Ten media day by declaring he’d like to earn some hardware, he did so as demonstratively as you might expect.

“I didn’t come out of retirement to go to a bowl game,” he said Tuesday, placing his left hand on his chest. “I came out of retirement to win a championship at Rutgers.”

He placed his right hand on the podium in front of him for emphasis.

“And hopefully we do.”

Bold language?

Maybe, but what else is this guy supposed to do as an encore after orchestrating one of the largest rebuilding projects in college football history?

Rutgers football is, objectively speaking, on the road to recovery. The Scarlet Knights are coming off their first winning season in nine years, beating Miami in the Pinstripe Bowl for their first bowl victory since that 2014 season. Their 2025 recruiting class, interestingly, is ranked 19th in the nation, according to the 247Sports Composite.

And, more importantly, the program returns a lot of key pieces from last year’s team, particularly its top 20 defense.