There will be a TaxSlayer Gator Bowl, just a day after the possibility that the nation’s sixth-oldest college postseason game would go dark.
The 77th edition of the game will pit Wake Forest (10-3) of the ACC vs. Rutgers (5-7) of the Big Ten on Dec. 31 at TIAA Bank Field (11 a.m., ESPN). Rutgers accepted an invitation 25 hours after the SEC’s representative, Texas A&M, had to withdraw because its roster was depleted due to COVID-19 issues, injuries, opt-outs and players entering the transfer portal.
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“We feel relief, absolutely,” said Gator Bowl president Greg McGarity. “The first thing we want to do is thank the ACC office, the Big Ten, [Wake Forest athletic director] John Currie, [Rutgers athletic director] Pat Hobbs, the NCAA, and our staff for being able to pivot so quickly. We lost Texas A&M and just over 24 hours later, we had a team. It’s really remarkable.”
Knights get back to work
It won’t be easy for the Knights, who last played on Thanksgiving weekend. They will have to quickly gather their football coaching staff, operations staff and more than 100 players from the Christmas holidays to return to New Jersey to begin bowl preparation.
However, coach Greg Schiano said the team was more than willing to overcome any obstacles and said three factors will help: more than 90 percent of the players live within a two-hour drive of the campus in New Brunswick, N.J.; the team worked out for a week after their final game against Maryland because it held out hope that bowls would have trouble filling their spots; and the university’s late exam schedule meant the players were at school and still lifting and running through Dec. 22.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do but we can’t wait to do it,” said Schiano, who guided the Knights to victories in their last five bowl games when he was their coach from 2001-2010. “Sometimes opportunities come your way. There’s no such thing as a missed opportunity because someone is going to take it. Physically, if I didn’t think we’d be able to do it, I wouldn’t do it.”
Rutgers players will begin arriving back on campus on Christmas night and begin meeting to go over the game plan and undergo a light workout on Sunday.
“We think it won’t be much different than a normal game week,” Schiano said.
It’s not clear what day they will arrive in Jacksonville. Texas A&M had been scheduled to arrive on Sunday night and Wake Forest on Monday.
Academics helped land berth
Rutgers became the replacement team after the NCAA football oversight committee voted on Thursday to turn to teams that finished 5-7 to replace the Aggies, with the priority based on the Academic Progress Rate. Rutgers had the best number among the available 5-7 teams.
In other words, the Knights earned their spot in a bowl game academically, rather than what they did on the field.
“The student comes first in student-athlete,” Schiano said. “I know Chris Ash [his predecessor] did a great job and [academics] is a Rutgers identity within the football program … that’s the way things are going to be run.”
As of Thursday, Schiano had no idea how many of his seniors or third-year players with NFL aspirations who have already signed with agents would play in the bowl game. The expectation is the NCAA will grant them a waiver because of the unexpected opportunity to play in a bowl game.
“I don’t see there being any problem,” he said of those players being able to return for one more game. I was an NFL coach so I understand. There will be no hard feelings [if some players decided not to return]. But whoever hits the field will play really, really hard.”
First bowl in seven years
The Knights haven’t played a bowl game since beating North Carolina 40-21 in the 2014 Quick Lane Bowl, and have only played in two Florida bowl games in its history, the last at the 2012 Russell Athletic Bowl.
Their seven-year gap between bowls in the nation’s second-longest drought among Power Five teams, surpassed only by Kansas State (eight years). Rutgers is 6-4 in bowls, but 5-1 under Schiano.
Rutgers and Wake have played twice before, a home-and-home series in 1997 and 1999. The Deacons won both games, 17-10 in Winston-Salem, N.c., in 1997 and 28-14 at Rutgers in 1999.
“This will be a school very excited to be here,” McGarity said. “We have a Power-Five team, a Big Ten team and now we’re going to hope everyone from both teams stays healthy.”
Rutgers also may bring a healthy chunk of the New York metropolitan market for the TVA ratings.
“We won’t know until they come in,” McGarity said. “Texas A&M would have been strong, since they draw heavily from Houston and Dallas, and the SEC dominates all conferences in TV ratings. But the good news is we’ll have no competition in our time slow and we lead into the two [CFP] semifinals on ESPN.”
Aggies left with only 38 players
Texas A&M announced on Wednesday that it was unable to participate in the Gator Bowl after COVID-19 issues, injuries, players entering the transfer portal and others opting out of a bowl game to prepare for the NFL draft left them with 38 scholarship players.
NCAA rules require players to field teams with 85 scholarship players.
It put the Gator Bowl in jeopardy of having to be the first bowl of the season canceled because of COVID-related issues. Last year, during the first wave of the pandemic, 17 bowls were canceled.
The Gator Bowl was not one of them. Kentucky, a team with a 4-6 regular-season record, beat N.C. State 23-21.
There have been 14 bowl games played through Thursday. Friday’s Hawaii Bowl became the first 2021 bowl to be canceled after Hawaii had COVID issues within its program. The Rainbows’ opponent, Memphis, was already in Hawaii practicing and taking part in bowl activities.
Rutgers struggles on offense
The Knights are a bit offensively challenged this season. They’re 12th in total offense and 11th in total defense in the Big Ten, and their highest conference ranking is ninth in rushing offense at 141.2 yards per game.
Rutgers is led on offense by senior quarterback Noah Vedral, who has 1,726 yards passing and seven touchdown passes and is second on the team in rushing with 280 yards.
His top target is senior Bo Melton, with 55 receptions for 618 yards and three scores. Isaih Pacheco is the leading rusher with 647 yards and five TDs.
Trinity Christian graduate Isaiah Washington, a sophomore wide receiver, has 17 catches for 159 yards. In three seasons for the Knights, he has 44 catches for 527 yards.
Melton’s brother, Max, leads the Knights in interceptions with three. They’re part of a family of Rutgers athletes: their father Gary was a wide receiver and running back from 1987-1991 and their mother Vicky played on the Knights basketball team from 1989-1993.
However, Schiano promised that it would be a team that will more than just show up.
“This is a group that has been through a lot,” he said, referring to last year’s “COVID season,” and a 2021 season that began with three victories in a row, four consecutive losses, and two losses to end the season. “We’re not going to try and re-invent the wheel. We’ll go out and play with great energy and excitement and let the chips fall.”
Schiano seemed assured that the Knights would have more than enough players available once they got back to school and were tested, even though they will have been away from the campus for four days after final exams.
“We have a fully vaccinated team,” he said. “I’m confident we’ll be okay.”
Gator Bowl tickets are available by visiting taxslayergatorbowl.com.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Rutgers rescues the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl by agreeing to play Wake Forest