Rutgers Goes ‘Bowling’ This Christmas, Facing Kansas State In Arizona Rate Bowl

Scarlet Knights to face Kansas State in Arizona Rate Bowl Rutgers is going bowling this Christmas weekend! Off the heels of the NCAA announcing its 12-team college football playoff field, the bowl schedule was cemented as well, and Rutgers (7-5) will square off with Kansas State (8-4) in the Rate Bowl in Phoenix, Arizona on December 26. Kick-off of the game will be at 5:30 p.m. ET. "It's just really special for us," Head Coach Greg Schiano said in a Zoom press conference with reporters on Sunday night. "Our first time here it became custom for our fans to plan their Christmas holidays around our bowls, and then that kind of went away. But this is back-to-back bowl games for us now, and this is something that I think our fan base needs to get used to and we need to keep providing." https://x.com/RFootball/status/1865857152004329842 Under Schiano bowl season is nothing new for Rutgers. The Rate Bowl will mark the 13th time that Rutgers has played in a bowl game under Schiano in his two stints as Head Coach. Rutgers is 7-5 all-time in Bowl Games under Schiano; last season they defeated Miami (FL) for the first time ever, 31-24 in the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium. Rutgers has a bit of a history with Kansas State. The two met in the Texas Bowl way back in 2006, a game Rutgers won-handedly 37-10 to cap off an incredible 11-2 season for the Scarlet Knights. That win was also the first bowl victory for Rutgers under Schiano.  "It was a long time ago," Schanio said of the last meeting with K-State. "I had a lot of crossovers with K-State in the years after that.  I have a coach on my staff who was on that other staff Dave Brock, our wide receivers coach.  So, yeah, there's been a lot of crossovers. My quarterback when I was in Tampa, was -- Josh Freeman, and he was the quarterback when we played them in that bowl game here at Rutgers.  So it seems like my life, my football career, has crossed paths a lot of different ways with Kansas State." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7SLXdtsMt0 The 2024 Scarlet Knights are coming off a seven-win campaign that felt more like three different seasons. Rutgers opened the year 4-0 before losing four straight. The Scarlet Knights ended the season winning three of four including blowing out Michigan State on the final day of the season. Throughout the year injuries played a major factor as the Schiano, his staff, and players had to get creative to get through the challenges before them.  "It was a year really unlike any other I have ever been a part of over 37 years," Schiano added. "We had some incredible amounts of injuries and really had to re-invent ourselves as a football team. ... [B]ut (we) came out of it stronger." Our coverage of Rutgers football will kick off with the Bricther Leone and Sergio Attorney's At Law Rutgers Game Day Show on December 26 at 4:00 p.m.