COLUMN: Greg Schiano's lack of accountability after questionable timeout in loss to Illinois is concerning
Every Rutgers football beat reporter who walked into the Hale Center press conference room on Busch campus had one question in mind following the Scarlet Knights' heart-breaking loss to Illinois on Saturday.
What the heck happened?
I asked myself the same thing. It was a head-scratcher.
Rutgers, down 30-24 late in the fourth quarter to the Fighting Illini, managed to score a clutch touchdown. After back-to-back miraculous scrambles — one coming on 4th and long in opposing territory — senior quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis found senior running back Kyle Monangai wide open in the flat for a 12-yard touchdown. Knights' fans erupted as Rutgers took its first late lead against a nationally-ranked team in quite some years.
It seemed like the Knights were on the cusp of their first-ever Big Ten-ranked win over then-No. 24 Illinois and their first ranked win since beating USF in 2009.
But there was still 1:08 left in the game. More than enough time for the Fighting Illini to kick a game-winning field goal down 31-30.
Fast forward to 4th and 13 at the Rutgers 40-yard line. Fourteen seconds were left.
Head coach Bret Bielema decided to bring out placekicker Ethan Moczulski, who drilled a 59-yard field goal earlier in the season for Illinois.
But this situation was different. This game was on the road for the Fighting Illini, in front of a crowd on the verge of a potential field storm and a security nightmare. Due to the swirling wind, a 58-yard field goal seemed impossible.
Still, the ball was snapped, placed down and kicked.
And the attempt was way short. And way to the left of the goalposts.
It did not seem to matter, as the play was blown dead before it began. Head coach Greg Schiano called a timeout in order to ice the kicker and make him more nervous in an intimidating situation.
But that timeout gave Bielema a second thought. Why in the world would he trout out his kicker again, knowing what he just saw from what was basically a free trial?
So, the offense came back out. One incompletion and Rutgers would upset Illinois in its biggest win in more than a decade.
Somehow, though, the Fighting Illini would be the ones celebrating at the game's conclusion. Somehow, quarterback Luke Altmyer shrugged off a blitz and barely dodged a sack before finding an open Pat Bryant in the middle of the field. Bryant found an open lane in the defense and stormed down the field for what would be a last-second, heartbreaking 40-yard touchdown.
SHI Stadium became dead quiet. Rutgers was so close to program history, and it was gone just like that.
Immediately, people took to social media to ask the same thing, 'What was Greg Schiano doing? Why did he feel the need to ice the kicker when the situation — gusty winds, huge moment, rowdy crowd — didn't require an icing?'
Schiano always preaches that one play does not lose a game. But his timeout on the potential missed Illinois field goal did. If no timeout was called, the kick attempt would fail. Rutgers would kneel out the clock for a humongous win since the Fighting Illini would have no stoppages left.
What was even worse was how Schiano didn't acknowledge his blunder in his post-game press conference. When he did, his reasoning didn’t hold himself accountable.
"I've iced guys three times and they have missed kicks, and man alive, what a strategic move that was," Schiano said. "Just you've got to do what you feel, and sometimes you win, sometimes you don't."
Schiano’s response seemed more geared to emphasizing that twists and turns like Bryant’s touchdown happen in the sport. That’s just the way the cookie crumbles in college football.
The fact is, Schiano clearly made a mistake. I think more fans would have respected if he had come out, put a finger to his chest and said, "That's on me."
Instead of acknowledging that the touchdown could have never happened if he didn't have the urge to ice the kicker, Schiano seemed to deflect toward what he felt in the moment.
Fans simply wanted to hear him step up and admit he was wrong, not hear a coach-speak answer as to why he made the decision. There was no point in that post-game press conference where Schiano could simply say he was wrong when almost everyone in that stadium, almost every fan of the sport, knew his decision-making in that moment was poor.
The head coach was given another opportunity to admit he was at fault in Monday's press conference. When asked if he did any "self-reflection" about calling that timeout, Schiano replied, "Nothing's changed since last time we talked. Literally with the team and myself, we've moving on — not moving forward — we have moved on actually."
The problem with moving on is that you leave the thoughts about your mistakes behind. Schiano's "keep chopping" mentality, in this case, does not allow him to actually sit down and diagnose what he did wrong so he can be better in the future.
How can you hold yourself accountable for your shortcomings in the Illinois game when you're too focused on going 1-0 in the Michigan State season an hour after the clock hits zero?
Rutgers missed out on a golden opportunity last Saturday to help potentially salvage what has been an overall underwhelming, inconsistent season, considering the high expectations for the team preseason.
But the coach seems to have pushed that fact under the rug.
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