It's hard to believe that, in his second season back at Rutgers, Greg Schiano has yet to take his team on the road to a packed house for a Big Ten game.
We all know the crowds last year were a fraction of what they would have been without COVID affecting attendance, so the Scarlet Knights match up in Ann Arbor against Michigan will effectively be Schiano's baptism in a hostile Big Ten environment.
At his presser yesterday, Schiano was asked about playing in an environment like The Big House and how they prepare their guys. He starts off his answer by talking about the environment at the Carrier Dome as a visitor when playing Syracuse as a just a few weeks ago, before sharing that the crowd noise isn't what keeps teams from playing their best.
"We simulate crowd noise, and we have systems that we have invested money in where you can't hear yourself talk from me to you away. It's not going to be louder than that."
"The real issue that you deal with when you play on the road is that you can't let the momentum...you can't judge what is going on...the momentum and all of those things. You just have to do your job and do what you're supposed to do."
"When you start to let all of that other stuff become part of the equation, well now you're playing right into their mess."
"Playing on the road, there are certain things that we talk about all the time, and I think our guys understand what it is going to take. But it has been a while since we have played on the road, in the Big Ten, with crowds. Not since I've been here. This is our first real Big Ten road game, and it's a good place to start."
Hear more from Schiano, whose team is 3-0 with wins over Temple, Syracuse and Delaware heading into this week 4 match up with Michigan, in the clip.