Rutgers embarrassed itself on the field on Thursday night — then it got worse.
The Scarlet Knights lost to the UMass Minutemen as 28.5-point favorites, and apparently had a load of fireworks pre-planned to celebrate an easy season-opening victory.
After the 37-21 loss to UMass, an empty SHI Stadium was engulfed in a massive amount of fireworks as the Minutemen snapped a 16-game losing streak, having not won a game since Oct. 2024.
A handful of fans stuck around to watch in what was quite a sad scene.
Adding insult to injury, the Scarlet Knights football team doesn’t mess around when it comes to pyrotechnics, as FOIAball reported that the school was the biggest spender on fireworks last season among FBS teams, totaling nearly $200,000.
Teams spend big money on fireworks all the time, as FOIAball also reports that the Virginia Tech Hokies also spent over $31,000 on pyrotechnics in one game last season.
Rutgers consistently does fireworks bigger and better than nearly everyone – except they were hoping to get a win.
UMass was paid a handsome sum of $1.55 million to play in this game, given their record and standing in college football,
The loss was so bad that many pointed out that coach Greg Schiano is now on the hot seat after losing at home to open the season.
“Well, first let me start by thanking you for covering our team,” Schiano said to reporters after the embarrassing loss. “I want to congratulate UMass and Coach [Joe] Harasymiak and his staff and players. They outcoached us. They outcoached me. They outplayed our players. We got licked tonight, and there’s no other thing to say about it.”
Rutgers faces Boston College next week, where the Eagles play host and the Scarlet Knights can spend less time on the fireworks and more time figuring out what is going on with their football program.
