B1G All-Decade Grades: Rutgers

While 2020 has come out the gates in relatively crummy fashion, the decade leading up to it were some of the Big Ten’s best. Huge TV deals, and overall success highlighted the 10 year span in the conference.

In an attempt to reflect upon the good times — the period of time from 2010 to 2019 — we at B5Q have set out to grade each football and basketball program over that time span.

I am extremely indifferent about Rutgers, if we’re being entirely honest. Outside of two losses to the Scarlet Knights in Piscataway in men’s basketball, they’ve largely been too harmless to care too much about. So, let’s get this over with...the decade grades for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.

Football grade: D

Long gone are the glory days of the 00’s when Rutgers had risen to prominence amongst the Big East conference (I miss when college football conference’s made sense and were #cool), and Greg Schiano had Rutgers humming as a respectably football team. Ray Rice, Kenny Britt, the McCourty twins, and our good pal Mike Teel (took me literally 15 minutes to remember his name).

Photo by A. Messerschmidt/Getty Images

Since Rutgers moved to the Big Ten in 2014, they’ve struggled pretty mightily on the gridiron. Rutgers has gone 21-52 during their time since joining the conference, even more abysmal if you take out the 8-5 record they posted in their first season in the conference. 13-47 since the 2015 season is a tough sell to recruits, which makes turning it around even harder.

Basketball grade: C+

Rutgers has fared much less awfully in men’s hoops since joining the conference. They’ve gotten a couple big wins over the Badgers in their home arena (including a win over the 2014-15 National Runner Up team, because of Frank Kaminsky being out due to a concussion).

81-112 is their record since joining the Big Ten, however a 20-11 record in 2019-20 has the program headed in the right direction under head coach Steve Pikieall. They’ve had some legitimately good players: Myles Mack, Kadeem Jack, Corey Sanders, Geo Baker and Ron Harper Jr. have been some of their headliners, who have kept them as pesky competitors, even during their down years.

Photo by Chris Chambers/Getty Images

Currently, there are no NBA players from Rutgers, but Corey Sanders is playing overseas for União Desportiva Oliveirense.