PISCATAWAY – The second largest crowd in the history of SHI Stadium walked away thinking its football team has the chance to be something special. Rutgers beat Washington, 21-18, in a nailbiter in front of 54,079 fans to take the Big Ten opener in a nationally televised game on Friday night. By doing so, they started the season 4-0 for the first time since they joined the conference and provided hope for the first time in a long time that they just might be for real. Head coach Greg Schiano, as expected, wasn’t willing to look too far ahead, but at least acknowledged that things are starting to look the way he’d hoped they would in his second go-around in trying to establish the premier program in the Garden State. “You could feel it in that stadium tonight,” he said. “That’s what Big Ten football is, and that’s what I want for New Jersey. That’s what I’ve always wanted for New Jersey is to have that in our state.I grew up here.I played in this state, high school football, and it was always somewhere else, right. I want it to be — not every kid is going to stay, and nor do we want every kid but I want there to be a place that New Jerseyans can be proud of; and when I say that, I mean New York, and everybody that’s right next to us. So tonight was a good step, but that’s all it is. It’s one win. It’s an exciting one, good one, one we found a way to get. But it’s one.” While far from a perfect “one,” on the back of touchdown runs from Kyle Monangai, Samuel Brown V and a touchdown reception from Ian Strong on a pass from Athan Kaliakmanis, it was enough to walk away with a win. It was Monangai, however, who made the biggest impression yet again, as the senior running back carried the ball 25 times for 132 yards and that second-quarter touchdown, memorably breaking off a big run early in the second half for a 40-yard gain in which he broke no fewer than five tackles to do so. “He’s got unique abilities for sure,” Schiano said. “He’s worked very hard to hone those abilities. Learning to become a patient runner is not easy. You see daylight, you want to just go. But the reality is, that closes and he’s learned how to know where the — and tonight, it closed in all areas a bunch.” Monangai opened the window to win the game multiple times for the Scarlet Knights, something that didn’t go unnoticed by teammates. “He brings everything, really,” Kaliakmanis said. “Versatility, toughness, discipline, hard work.  He’s a special player, but he’s also a special human. Everyone’s bought into it, and he continues to (do so).” After a breakout junior year in which he won Pinstripe Bowl MVP honors, he’s on pace to shatter his career bests, averaging 6.3 yards per carry with five touchdowns on the ground in just his first four games. Is he at the point where he’s come to expect the type of performance he put together on Friday? “I think if I prepare the right way and attack the week of practice the right way and take care of my body and do the things necessary, then yeah,” Monangai said. “But, if I don’t handle those things first, it’s a toss-up.” The five-foot-nine, 209-pound back has done all of that and then some thus far, and would seem to be following in the very recent footsteps of Isiah “Pop” Pacheco, who was taken out of Rutgers by the Kansas City Chiefs in the seventh round of the 2022 NFL Draft and has since won two straight Super Bowl rings. Monangai passed Pacheco on Friday night for the seventh-most rushing yards in program history, and was both surprised and honored to find out he’d done so. “I found that out just now, but that’s a cool thing,” Monangai said. “Shoutout to ‘Pop,’ that’s my guy.  It doesn’t mean that much with what we have going on now…we’re attacking every game with the expectation of winning. The result, it’s no shock to us since we put the work in. We don’t look big picture, we’re focused week-by-week and game-by-game. We just finished the Washington ‘season’ for us, and now it’s on to Nebraska.”