“I’m done. I’m canceling everything. It’s done.”
After 20 years as a Rutgers football season-ticket holder, one Scarlet Knights fan had finally reached his breaking point.
And Thursday night’s 37-21 loss to UMass — a program that finished 0-12 in 2025 and entered 2026 as the 138th team in FOX Sports’ RJ Young’s Ultimate 138 — was it.
An anonymous caller unloaded on Rutgers during an appearance on “The Zach Gelb Show,” ripping the team’s defense, calling for head coach Greg Schiano and his entire staff to be fired and vowing to cancel everything he had planned for the season.
This wasn’t a casual Rutgers fan. He had plans to follow the Scarlet Knights across the country this season. A ticket to Boston College next Friday. An Airbnb booked in Madison, Wisconsin, for the Nov. 7 game against the Badgers. He was even planning to watch Rutgers alum Kyle Monangai, now a running back for the Chicago Bears, live in action.
No more.
The Minutemen had just piled up nearly 400 yards of total offense, including 200 on the ground.
“What I saw tonight was the most deplorable, despicable, horrible adjustments on defense,” the caller said. “From being the worst team in college football last year, defensively, to what they did tonight, to what they did this year, I’m done.”
He wasn’t done.
His next call, he said, would be to Rutgers athletic director Keli Zinn.
“My opinion means nothing,” the caller said. “But I’m sorry. I want to root for a home team. I want to root for a New Jersey team.
“We have a great fan base, a great rooting section, people I’ve known for years, but I’m done.”
Rutgers’ struggles have become even more glaring in the NIL era. Zinn recently said the program is somewhere between $20-$30 million in NIL spending on football and believes the Scarlet Knights are “headed in the right direction” financially.
But Thursday’s loss will raise plenty of questions about the direction of Schiano’s program. Rutgers entered the game as a 29.5 favorite against a UMass team that had never defeated a Big Ten program (0-7) or a Power Four conference opponent since transitioning to FBS in 2012.
Greg Shiano has coached Rutgers to a 31-42 record since returning to the program in 2020. (Photo by Dan Squicciarini/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Schiano led the Scarlet Knights to an 11-2 season during his first stint in New Brunswick in 2006, but he hasn’t found the same form since returning to the program in 2020, and throughout the NIL era.
“Absolutely should be fired tomorrow,” the caller said. “The whole staff.”
But the caller saved his best line for last, referencing the awkward fireworks show that played for an empty crowd following Thursday’s loss.
“Forget fireworks,” he added. “We need a firing squad.”
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