The Rutgers University football team will be getting back on the field this week for spring practice.

It will be head coach Greg Schiano’s first spring practice season since he was re-hired by the team in December 2019.

“This is our last new thing together, spring practices. But I think it’s a really important last new thing in that we have to get better,” he says.

Schiano and his staff had to push spring practices back because of another COVID-19 pause within the program last month.

“We couldn’t afford to have several players missing for spring practice and No. 2, there were some guys that came to me that were desperate, saying, ‘Coach, I need to be able to compete,’” Schiano says.

With everyone ready to go, Schiano says that the spring will be huge for player development. He says that he is happy with the team he has right now.

“We have some older guys and then we have a huge group of young players. But what comes with that is they don’t have a lot of experience and this spring is a chance for them to get live reps running our offense and running our defense and I think that’s huge,” Schiano says.

Schiano says that as long as there aren’t any other stoppages, the annual Rutgers spring game is now tentatively scheduled for May 20.

“There’s a lot of work to be done and that’s the best thing about spring practice. You can go and sink your teeth into it. There’s no game on Saturday and I encourage these guys to go and find out how good you are,” he says.

Spring practice kicks off on Tuesday. Rutgers opens the 2021 football season Sept. 4 against Temple.