Rutgers football history: seasons, coaches, rivalries, bowls

Zeitgeist statureRegional Program II#133 all-time– holding

Stature and coaches, 1946–2026

The program’s standing over time, with every coach’s tenure beneath it — read down to see who was there for each rise and fall.

Rutgers is Regional Program today. Never reached Dynasty tier; National Program is its high, most recently in 2015.

Maryland#1 nationally

DynastyBlue BloodPower ProgramNational ProgramRegional Program

Run↔pass identity, by season

Every coach, tenure by tenure, on the coaching page →

Program outlook

Rutgers played the first college football game in history — November 6, 1869, in New Brunswick, against Princeton. The sport traces itself to that day. In 2026 the program that started everything opened as a 29.5-point home favorite and lost to Massachusetts, 37-21.

Since Sep 4: L 15-47 vs Indiana; W 37-30 at Maryland; L 14-42 at Northwestern; L 21-28 vs Michigan. 2-6 this season.

Read the full essay — 3 more paragraphs

The marker on the Rutgers campus notes where the first game was played. Every New Jersey fan knows the date. It is the program's permanent identity: the founder, the one without which none of the rest of it exists. The sport grew up around that origin story and left Rutgers on the margins of it for most of a century — until Greg Schiano arrived, built an 11-2 team in 2006, and briefly made Piscataway must-watch television. Ray Rice ran for 1,794 yards that season. Rutgers rallied from 25-7 down to beat No. 3 Louisville 28-25 and the crowd stormed the field.

Schiano left, came back in 2020, and has been building a second time. The 2025 season went 5-7 (2-7 Big Ten), and the defense collapsed badly enough that Schiano cleared out the defensive staff in the offseason. A bowl bid against Georgia Southern was declined. The patience in Piscataway is not infinite; the Big Ten was supposed to raise the ceiling, and the ceiling has been slow to rise. The internal fracture is honest: one side treasures the 1869 identity and trusts Schiano to finish what he started; the other wants wins the conference actually counts.

The 2026 opener didn't wait to answer the question. Rutgers was a four-touchdown favorite at home against Massachusetts and lost anyway, 37-21 — the same defense that got its staff cleared out over the winter conceding 37 points to a program picked to finish outside the Big Ten's contention tier entirely. The founder does not need permission to belong in this league. But the league only recognizes results, and the first result of Schiano's third season just made the rebuild's timeline a live question again.

On the field

Schiano-ball: physical, defense-first, and culture-obsessed. The program identity is toughness before talent — Schiano's two eras have both been defined by installing a standard of conditioning and program cohesion before chasing stars. Special teams are a genuine priority, not an afterthought. The 2025 defensive collapse is the anomaly that demands correction; the base identity, when it's working, is a Big Ten-caliber unit that makes offensive drives expensive.

Program outlook · as of Sep 4, 2026

Rutgers has won 45% of its games since 1869 — 56% at home, 34% on the road.

525-605-25 all-time · 152 seasons · 1869–2026

Home 316-236-14

Away 188-362-11

Neutral 21-7

2 g

1860s

31%

1870s

31%

1880s

35%

1890s

1900s

52%

1910s

42%

1920s

21%

1930s

70%

1940s

48%

1950s

62%

1960s

67%

1970s

43%

1980s

34%

1990s

48%

2000s

40%

2010s

41%

2020s

Era record 54-99 13 seasons

Best season 8-5 2014

Trajectory · quality-score line · AP rank dotted · CFP bids marked · coach regimes ribboned

Program quality AP rank (inverted) CFP appearance

Swipe left for earlier seasons

Chapters · 13 seasons · tap to open the archive

'14 8-5 '15 4-8 '16 2-10 '17 4-8 '18 1-11 '19 2-10 '20 3-6 '21 5-8 '22 4-8 '23 7-6 '24 7-6 '25 5-7 '26 2-6

Rutgers’s 2014–2026 record is 54-99.

Greg Schiano

Greg Schiano has held the program for 7 seasons — the era is established.

Era Greg Schiano · 2020–presentPrev: Nunzio Campanile (2019)OC: Kirk CiarroccaPrev OC: Sean Gleeson (2020–2022)DC: Travis JohansenPrev DC: Robb Smith (co) / Zach Sparber (co) (2025)

The full CFP-era story →The full coaching lineage →

7 years · era

Rutgers and Maryland, meeting by meeting

Maryland leads the series 12-10-0 (since 1920); Rutgers has won the last 3

2026: Rutgers won 37-30. After this game, Maryland led 12-10-0.

Last 22 meetings: ▲ Rutgers won, ▼ Maryland won, by how much

Each step is one meeting: up when Rutgers wins, down when Maryland wins, flat for a tie. Counts every game in our records since 1920. Tap the line for any season.

Moments in Rutgers history

1869

The first college football game

Rutgers beats Princeton 6-4 in New Brunswick — the first game in the sport's history

2006

Pandemonium in Piscataway

Undefeated, 15th-ranked Rutgers rallies from 25-7 down to beat No. 3 Louisville 28-25 on a late Jeremy Ito field goal; fans storm the field

The 2006 Texas Bowl

Rutgers wins the first bowl in program history, capping an 11-2 breakthrough season

Moment of the year · 2026

Lost 15-47 vs Indiana

Week 5 of 2026. A reckoning loss — the data point the next season must answer.

Decisive marginvs Top-10 (#6)

2022–2026

Rutgers has sent 8 players to the NFL Draft since 2022 — none in the first round.

Steady. Reliable mid-tier pipeline.

8 picks · 0 in round 1

#43 Max Melton Cornerback · 2024 ·

Arizona Cardinals · #34/339 final season

#202 Christian Braswell Cornerback · 2023 ·

Jacksonville Jaguars · #39/322 final season

#212 Robert Longerbeam Cornerback · 2025 ·

Baltimore Ravens · #48/327 final season

#87 all-time · 3 first-round picksthe talent factory →

#	Program	Record
1	UCLA	5-0
2	Indiana	5-1
3	Ohio State	4-1
4	USC	4-2
5	Illinois	3-2
6	Iowa	3-2
7	Minnesota	3-2
8	Northwestern	3-2
9	Oregon	3-2
10	Wisconsin	3-2
11	Michigan	2-3
12	Nebraska	2-3
13	Purdue	2-3
14	Washington	2-3
15	Penn State	1-4
16	Rutgers	1-4
17	Maryland	0-5
18	Michigan State	0-5

Rutgers’s offense and defense, by coordinator

FBS-relative efficiency percentile per season (2014–2026), same population as the Coordinator Mirror board. Dashed vertical lines mark a coordinator change.

Offense2014–2026

2014 · Ralph Friedgen2015 · Ben McDaniels2016 · Drew Mehringer2017 · Jerry Kill2018–2019 · John McNulty2020–2022 · Sean Gleeson2023–2026 · Kirk Ciarrocca

Defense2014–2026

2014–2015 · Joe Rossi2016 · Jay Niemann2017 · Bill Busch (co) / Jay Niemann2018 · Jay Niemann2019 · Andy Buh / Noah Joseph (co)2020–2021 · Robb Smith2022–2024 · Joe Harasymiak2025 · Robb Smith (co) / Zach Sparber (co)2026 · Travis Johansen

Elite (≥70th pct)AveragePoor (≤30th pct)

Gameday customsThe gameday customs unique to this program.

Rituals

Three gameday rituals — the ones outsiders never quite catch.

First College Football Game (Nov 6, 1869)

since 1869

Rutgers beat Princeton 6-4 at College Field in New Brunswick on November 6, 1869 — the first-ever intercollegiate football game. The 25-player-per-side rules differed from modern football; the game's status as 'football's birthplace' is the program's permanent + unique historical anchor. No other program can claim this.

Greg Schiano Two Eras (2001-2011 + 2020-present)

since 2001

Greg Schiano's first tenure (2001-2011) produced the 2006 11-2 + Texas Bowl championship — the modern peak. His Tampa Bay Buccaneers detour (2012-2013) + Ohio State assistant tenure (2016-2018) ended with the 2020 return to Rutgers. The second era (2020-) has rebuilt the program from a 2-10 floor through bowl-eligibility cycles.

Chop Tradition

since 2000s

Rutgers 'Chop' — the choreographed defensive-team gesture + chant — is the program's modern identity marker. Borrowed from Atlanta Braves-style tomahawk-chop visuals, adapted to Rutgers's scarlet identity. The chop signals defensive stops + recruiting-class commitments.

Cultural identityWhat college football loses if this program didn't exist.

BowlsLast 5 bowls 2-3, 7-6 since 1978

Recent postseason (1978-2024): 7-6

Most recent: 2024 Rate Bowl — loss 44-41. Last 5 postseason: 2-3.

2024 L 2023 W 2021 L 2014 W 2013 L

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