Rutgers football getting ready for Maryland while battling flu bug

Not only will Rutgers play a very good Maryland team this Saturday, but they have to battle a flu bug that has cut through their team this past week.

On Monday, head coach Greg Schiano said that the flu hit his team hard ahead of this past weekend’s game at Penn State. Now, his program is again having to fight through these health issues with the stakes high for the Scarlet Knights.

With a win against Maryland, Schiano’s program would be bowl eligible for the first time since 2014. There is never a convenient time for the flu, but this certainly is not ideal for Rutgers lading up to their biggest game of the season.

“We’re getting ready obviously for Maryland. It’s a big game for a lot of reasons. We’re up against it a little bit, we had a flu bug going through the team all last week. It’s continuing on, so it is something that we’re battling now. It was pretty bad last week,” Schiano told reporters on Monday.

“We had a bunch of guys we weren’t sure how it was going to go leading up to game time. Unfortunately, I feel like we’re going to be in that similar situation. When it comes to injuries, we came out of the game pretty well except for the continued outbreak of flu.”

Rutgers (5-6, 2-6 Big Ten) lost 28-0 at Penn State on Saturday in a game where the offense managed just 10 first downs and 160 yards of total offense. Maryland (5-6, 2-6 Big Ten) took their own bumps and lumps in a 59-18 loss to Michigan.