Lonergan makes his first start tonight against UMass

Lonergan gets his shot tonight, and a loaded cast to run it

Greg Schiano has his quarterback, and tonight is the night it becomes real. Rutgers named fourth-year transfer Dylan Lonergan the starter over third-year backup AJ Surace, with Pete Nakos of On3 confirming the call and Pete Thamel reporting Lonergan would make his Rutgers debut against UMass on September 3 — a date that has now arrived. "You've still got to earn it every single day. I think I learned that last year," Lonergan said of the job. Asked about getting the news, he kept it simple: "I was really excited. I'm looking forward to get to work now."

Lonergan's path to Piscataway ran through two stops that didn't work out — a combined eight passes across two years at Alabama, then a benching at Boston College last season after throwing for 2,025 yards, 12 touchdowns and five interceptions on 66.9 percent passing. He isn't walking into a bare cupboard this time. Running back Antwan Raymond enters as the Big Ten's leading returning rusher and receiver KJ Duff is back after leading the country in contested catches, and both were named to the Big Ten's preseason honors list, per Sports Illustrated. Guard Kwabena Asamoah joined them as a Pro Football Network preseason All-America pick, giving Rutgers three such selections for the first time since 2008, per Yahoo Sports — and Duff and Asamoah were among the five players Rutgers tabbed as this year's captains.

Schiano is also 13-4 in season openers at Rutgers and has won six straight to start a year, history that gives Lonergan's debut a soft landing even with almost no game tape to go on.

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Last season ended on a gut-punch to Penn State

Rutgers closed out last season with a four-point loss at home to Penn State, 40-36, a game that came down to the final possession and capped a finish that saw the Scarlet Knights lose three of their last four. They beat Purdue on the road and blew out Maryland at home in that stretch, but a 42-9 defeat at Ohio State sandwiched between those results was a reminder of the gap that still exists at the top of the Big Ten.

That 5-7 finish was enough for the program to decline a bowl invitation last season, which is part of why the quarterback change carries extra weight heading into 2026. Schiano's 18th season opens with a new arm under center and a proven record — 0-0, with nothing played yet — but the Penn State finish is still the most recent data point anybody has on how this team performs under pressure.

Johansen's rebuilt defense gets its first live test tonight

Schiano's other big offseason move was on defense, where he hired Travis Johansen off a one-year run as South Dakota's head coach — where he went 10-5 and finished second in the Missouri Valley Football Conference — to be Rutgers' new coordinator. Johansen spent six seasons running South Dakota's defense before that, and his 2024 unit ranked seventh in the FCS in scoring defense at 17.6 points a game. He's replacing co-coordinators Robb Smith and Zach Sparber, let go after a Rutgers defense that allowed an average of 31.8 points a game last season.

Schiano hasn't hedged about why the change was necessary. "I was really, really frustrated with a lot of things, and no one to blame but myself. But we knew what needed to be fixed, and we spent the last eight months fixing it," he said, adding "we'll be better on defense, I have no doubt in my mind," per 1075thegame. He's also made clear the hire itself is the difference: "When I got with Travis, I said, this is the right guy... he's a leader, he's a really good football person, really good man," Schiano said, via Sports Illustrated. Ten new players have joined the unit this offseason, including transfer defensive end Malachi Davis out of Toledo.

UMass won't tell Rutgers much about whether any of it worked — the Minutemen are 16 games into a losing streak and the real tests are still weeks away — but Johansen is the name Schiano keeps returning to when he talks about what's actually different this time.

Rutgers opens against the coordinator who used to run its defense

Rutgers plays tonight vs. Massachusetts, and the opposing sideline will look familiar. UMass is led by Joe Harasymiak, who spent three seasons as Schiano's defensive coordinator before taking the Minutemen job, and his staff is stocked with other former Rutgers assistants — a Schiano coaching-tree reunion dressed up as a season opener, per Yahoo Sports. UMass enters 0-0 with no games played this season, and last time out the Minutemen lost 14-45 to Bowling Green in 2025.

It's the first data point of the year for both a new quarterback and a rebuilt defense, against a coach who knows exactly how Schiano's program is built. The line hasn't been posted yet, so there's nothing to read into it — just Lonergan's debut, Johansen's defense, and a Waldwick native trying to spoil his old boss's opener.