Knights compare sting of Ohio State blowout to heartbreak against Penn State, vow to more forward

The last time the Rutgers football team suffered a painful Big Ten defeat, it truly moved on, and the results showed.

Three straight wins followed the Scarlet Knights’ devastating 13-10 loss Sept. 13 to Penn State, including a program breakthrough in a 26-24 first Big Ten victory Oct. 4 against Michigan.

At the forefront was the resurgence of Gary Nova. The senior quarterback tossed seven touchdowns and only one interception to go along with a 63.5-percent completion rate after throwing five picks against the Nittany Lions.

But the circumstances surrounding Rutgers’ 56-17 pummeling Saturday at No. 13 Ohio State appear to be vastly different.

The Knights were hardly competitive against the Buckeyes from the opening series, going three-and-out to start the game and never leading at any point. Less than 10 minutes in, Ohio State led by two touchdowns, and by halftime, its lead had snowballed to 35-7.

But whether Rutgers lets a game it should win slip away or is simply overmatched in all three phases, several Knights insist the process for moving on is the same.

“As competitive as football players we are, a loss is a loss, no matter how you look at it,” said senior fullback Michael Burton. “Whether you lose by one or lose by 50, a loss is a loss. It stinks either way, and that’s just the nature of the game. … We have to make the corrections from this game, prepare throughout the week, build our momentum and be 1-0 this week.”

That thought process was uniform throughout most of High Point Solution Stadium’s Audi Club at Rutgers’ media availability Monday, but Kevin Snyder had a different mindset.

The senior middle linebacker admitted that emotionally flushing the Penn State loss was more difficult than accepting Ohio State’s overpowering win.

“You start talking to yourself, ‘What if we would’ve just done this one thing?’” Snyder said of losing in the final minutes to Penn State. “When you have a game like Ohio State where everything starts kind of not going your way right away, then you don’t think that way. You think, ‘Ah, they beat us. We’ve got to move on. We’ve got to go to the next one.’ I’m just glad that we’re able, as a team, in a maturity level to just move on past whatever it might’ve been.”

Either way, the Knights say they are recharged and refocused for this week’s game preparations, and they’ll need to be with No. 16 Nebraska rounding out a historically challenging two-game road tilt.

Head coach Kyle Flood said he saw a bounce in the players’ steps Sunday night when Rutgers returned to the practice field for the first time since Saturday’s blowout.

“What I want to see is guys turn the page. I want to see guys own their mistakes, understand that we all need to get better — coaches and players alike — and then I want to see guys move forward,” Flood said. “When I go to the field and I see high energy, when I see guys really moving with urgency, those are the things that tell me that we’re doing it.”

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Despite a shaky performance against Ohio State, junior punter Tim Gleeson will remain Rutgers’ starter, Flood said.

Gleeson didn’t do any favors for Rutgers’ struggling defense with poor hang time on punts and 36.3 yards per attempt, which contributed to routine short fields the Buckeyes had to work with.

“I don’t see it as a competition right now,” Flood said of reopening the punting competition. “I think our operation has got to get better. That’s really where I want to see us make some improvements this week. I think if the operation gets better, our punting numbers will be better.”

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Fifteen Knights are on this week’s injury report, but only redshirt freshman free safety Andre Hunt is questionable.

Starters in senior right tackle Taj Alexander, sophomore cornerback Nadir Barnwell, junior defensive end Djwany Mera, sophomore right guard Chris Muller and sophomore free safety Delon Stephenson are probable.

Senior center Betim Bujari, who was listed questionable early last week but started against Ohio State, is off the injury report.

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