Howard’s Scott miffed at late Rutgers TD; Schiano defends play

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Howard coach Larry Scott wasn’t happy with Rutgers counterpart Greg Schiano after the Scarlet Knights scored a touchdown on the final play of a 44-7 win on Thursday night.

Scott walked across the field and shook hands with Schiano after the game ended and seemed to say something to the Rutgers coach. Schiano turned around and it was unclear whether he responded.

In his postgame news conference, Scott made it clear he didn’t like watching Antwan Raymond score on an 11-yard run as time expired in regulation. He said that’s not what he would have done.

When asked what he said to Schiano, he refused to say.

Scott said he didn’t know why Schiano did what he did at the end of the game, but he felt it could have been handled differently and was frustrated by what happened.

“I think we’re both two competitive people,” Scott said. “And in that situation, I would choose to handle it a little bit differently. I can’t speak for him. I have a lot of respect for Coach Schiano, what he’s done and what he’s been able to do. But we’re both competitive. And in that situation, you know, just a little bit of frustration came out because I thought it would have been handled differently. But he might as well.”

Schiano made no apologies for the way he coached.

“Guys practiced all training camp. They deserve to play,” Schiano said. “There was no running it up. If it was running it up, you don’t use timeouts when you have the ball. You let the game end. That wasn’t retaliatory. We were going to run plays. We bring a team in here to play us. We bring them here. We bring them in, we’ve got to win and we’ve got to get reps. And they were there, we took them.”

Howard had called two timeouts on its previous possession and turned the ball over on downs at its own 31.

Raymond had runs of 20 and 11 yards in scoring on the final two-play drive, breaking several tackles on each run.

Schiano called Scott a good coach whom he respects.

“I’m very comfortable with the way we handle our team, that I handle our team. And if I wasn’t, I’d tell you that, too,” Schiano said.

Reigning Big Ten rushing champion Kyle Monangai matched his career-best by running for 165 yards and a touchdown in the Rutgers win, while transfer quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis threw three touchdowns.

Howard is the two-time defending Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champion.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.