Rutgers-Temple game postponed to Saturday

The anticipated season-opener between Rutgers and Temple has been postponed to Saturday, as first reported byKeith Sargeant of NJ Advance Media. the time of the game will be noon ET. Rutgers made it official a couple of hours later.

This decision was made on Thursday morning after much of North Jersey is dealing with flooding from Hurricane Ida, which hit the area on Wednesday night. According to the National Weather Service, about 6.5 inches of rain fell in New Brunswick during the storm. This caused closures of some major roads — including Rt. 18, which is what leads directly to SHI Stadium.

During the week, Rutgers announced that there were no remains tickets for the general public. This was set to be the first sellout since October 2016 when 53,292 packed in to watch the Scarlet Knights take on Michigan.

Both Rutgers and Temple stayed at a hotel Wednesday night near the stadium but game officials, and of course fans, would have struggled to get into the area on Thursday night for a 6:30 PM kickoff. Even more so, Piscataway town officials called for Rutgers not to allow fans due to the damage from the storm. Rather than attempting to get the game in with no fans in attendance, it has been moved.

This would have been a deja vu moment for Rutgers, who finished 3-6 without fans in the stands during the 2020 season. Rutgers did not win a game at SHI Stadium last season and were excited to get fans back in the building.

“We’ve got to go win a football game, and we need our fans to do it,” Schiano said Monday. “Get your rain gear out, get your umbrella, whatever needs to go. We need to pack that place and make sure we have a home-field advantage. We can’t wait to see you. Come rain or shine, we’ll be there, and so will you.”

All tickets and parking passes for Thursday’s postponed game will be valid on Saturday.