Rutgers hosted Howard on Thursday night in the season-opener for both teams. Rutgers won in a blowout, 44-7, but that doesn't mean there wasn't some drama. Howard turned the ball over on downs with 15 seconds remaining and instead of taking a knee, Rutgers handed the ball to freshman Antwan Raymond twice. Raymond gained 20 yards on his first carry and then punched it in from the 11 on the second.
During the postgame handshake, Howard head coach Larry Scott had some words for Rutgers coach Greg Schiano. Scott let him know how he felt about the late touchdown during their brief embrace and must have kept going as Schiano walked away because the Rutgers coach turned back and appeared to get another earfull.
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
Neither coach shared any specific details about the interaction with the media, but it's clear that Scott was unhappy and Schiano was unfazed. Via ESPN:
"I think we're both two competitive people," Scott said. "And in that situation, I would choose to handle it a little bit differently. I can't speak for him. I have a lot of respect for Coach Schiano, what he's done and what he's been able to do. But we're both competitive. And in that situation, you know, just a little bit of frustration came out because I thought it would have been handled differently. But he might as well."
Schiano simply pointed out his team was there for reps so he was powerless.
"Guys practiced all training camp. They deserve to play," Schiano said. "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."
Schiano and Rutgers obviously plan to play until the final whistle this year. Hopefully, the rest of the Big Ten will take note.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Howard Coach Let Greg Schiano Know What He Thought About Rutgers’ Late TD in Blowout.
