Rutgers football has announced that its homecoming game against Indiana will also be the team’s annual blackout game after rumors popped up in the off-season that there would be no blackout game this season.
The Blackout game in recent years has been a showcase of passion for the Scarlet Knight faithful. Win or lose, the blackout game has featured some of the most lively Rutgers crowds in recent memory. Last season, Rutgers opened up Big Ten play with a 38-28 loss to Iowa in front of a sold-out Blackout.
The year before that, same script, different result: the Knights earned an exciting 21-18 win over Washington in front of a sold-out Blackout crowd.
This year’s Blackout will be a little different because it is set to take place on homecoming weekend, and it will not open up Big Ten play for Rutgers. It will also be against a much tougher opponent, as defending national champion Indiana will be coming to town. The Hoosiers currently stand at No.6 in the AP preseason top 25 poll and will likely be rolling into this game undefeated after playing North Texas, Howard, Western Kentucky and Northwestern in the first four weeks of the season. No matter how you look at it, this will be a tremendous uphill battle for the Knights.
Since Schiano’s return to Rutgers in 2020, the Knights have played in five blackout games and have gone 2-3 in those matchups. It will take a major upset for Rutgers to get that record back to .500.
