Rutgers football in a good spot heading into home game vs Washington

This was the game that had so much potential to dictate the course of Rutgers football’s season.

Not that a win would send the Scarlet Knights flying through the rest of the schedule, or that a loss would deliver a dagger in Rutgers’ campaign.

It’s far too early for either of those things to happen.

But a win at Virginia Tech? To move to 3-0 for the season?

That’s significant.

Rutgers passed the test.

The Scarlet Knights, playing their first Power 4 opponent of the young season and facing by far their biggest test so far, beat the Hokies 26-23 at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg after Jai Patel kicked a 24-yard field goal with two minutes left and Robert Longerbeam made a game-sealing interception to kill Virginia Tech’s final drive.

Very little about this game was easy for Rutgers.

Though for a while it was.

Greg Schiano’s team held a comfortable 16-point lead – an advantage that could’ve been wider had the Scarlet Knights been able to capitalize on some key opportunities and hadn’t missed a 36-yard field goal early in the game.

Then the Hokies scored consecutive fourth-quarter touchdowns – converting the two-point attempt each time – to tie the game and send Rutgers fans’ nervousness into overdrive.

“You learn a lesson,” Schiano told reporters after the game. “You go really get after somebody and then it flips like that. It’s very, very hard. Especially in their stadium to be able to pull it back and win the game. That’s what we did.”

Then came Patel’s field goal and Longerbeam’s pick.

Then came the Rutgers win and every Scarlet Knight fan could breathe easily.

And then everyone can look at the standings and see a Rutgers team that has done exactly what it’s needed to do through three games.

The Scarlet Knights easily beat two overmatched opponents at home in Howard and Akron.

Then they went on the road as underdogs and won at Virginia Tech – however close it might’ve been – for the first time in program history.

And that set up what could be the best home environment Rutgers football has seen in more than a decade when it hosts Washington on Friday at SHI Stadium.

Prime time. Under the lights. National television.

And perhaps most importantly, a beatable opponent in the Huskies.

While Washington went to the national championship game last season and lost to Michigan, it’s a very different team this year. It has a new coach in Livingston, New Jersey native Jedd Fisch after Kalen DeBoer left for Alabama. It has a new quarterback after Michel Penix Jr. departed for the NFL − though Mississippi State transfer Will Rogers is no slouch, to say the least. It also has a defense that’s led by the son of Bill Belichick − former Rutgers long-snapper and lacrosse player Steve Belichick.

The Huskies rolled past struggling Northwestern Saturday night to move to 3-1.

Regardless, Rutgers is in a good position, which would be strengthened even more with a win over Washington that would put the Scarlet Knights two wins away from bowl eligibility before the calendar even flips to October.

Rutgers has the most manageable Big Ten schedule it’s had since joining the conference a decade ago, with plenty of winnable games remaining.

Sure, the Scarlet Knights barely got past Virginia Tech.

But what matters is that they did.

“In many ways, this game will help us,” Schiano said, “being through that experience together.”

Three games. Three victories.

So far for Rutgers’ season, so good.

Now the challenge for the Scarlet Knights? Keep it going.