College football showed no mercy on Rutgers last fall — not that the Big Ten’s punching bag did much to help itself, either.

It culminated in a brutal 1-11 season. At the start of last season, the Scarlet Knights played their home games in HighPoint.com Stadium. Evidently unable to find any high points, Rutgers will play their games this season at SHI Stadium — and no, that is not edited for the newspaper.

Before the Scarlet Knights try to put 2018 in the past by kicking off their season Friday night against UMass, here’s a look back at all the ways last year went wrong:

1. It didn’t start out so awfully for Rutgers. Hope sprung eternal after the Scarlet Knights’ season opener, when they beat Texas State 35-7. They’ll always have Texas State.

Over the final 11 games of the season, though, coach Chris Ash’s team was outscored 370-127 — an average of 33.6-11.5. That scoring offense ranked dead last in the FBS, 130th out of 130 teams. The Scarlet Knights averaged 266.3 yards of offense per game — 128th in the FBS. Their 2.4 turnovers per game ranked second in the FBS — not the category to be a single digit in.

2. The quarterbacks, in particular, had a rough go of it. They combined to throw 22 interceptions to only five touchdowns, led by Artur Sitkowski. The true freshman went through some growing pains, starting 11 games and completing 49.1 percent of his passes for 1,158 yards, four touchdowns and 18 interceptions.

Sitkowski, a three-star recruit who flipped from Miami, nearly threw as many touchdowns to opposing defensive backs (three) as he did his own receivers (four).

3. Two of those pick-sixes came in an embarrassing loss to Kansas, a program that could teach Rutgers a thing or two about brutal seasons. The Jayhawks came into 2018 having gone 3-33 over their previous three seasons and started off last fall with a loss to FCS opponent Nicholls State. Nevertheless, they went on to thrash the Scarlet Knights 55-14 — the most points Kansas had scored against an FBS school since 2007.

It was not pretty. Rutgers turned the ball over six times — three interceptions, three fumbles. Its first three drives of the game went eight plays for 10 yards. It was forced to use its final timeout of the first half on a fourth down in punt formation. The Scarlet Knights ended another drive with a punt from Kansas’ 39-yard line, choosing not to go for it on fourth-and-7 while trailing 24-7.

When you lose — get crushed, really — to the program that’s known as the worst in Power Five football, what does that make you?

4. The Scarlet Knights usually didn’t fool anybody for too long. In their 11 losses, they held a lead for a grand total of 55 minutes, 52 seconds — or slightly shorter than Ohio State, Kansas and Wisconsin each led Rutgers in their respective games. The majority of that leading (45:03) came in two games against Northwestern and Michigan State. As bad as all the losing was, those two losses may have been the most crushing of them all.

Against Northwestern, the Scarlet Knights took the lead in the second quarter and extended it to 15-7 on their first drive of the third quarter. The rest of the game, they gained 9 yards on 12 plays, failing to help out a defense that had done enough to win the game. They lost, 18-15.

In the season finale against Michigan State, the defense hung tough again as the Scarlet Knights took a 10-7 lead with 7:52 left. The Spartans got it back on a touchdown with 3:57 left before Rutgers drove again, only setting up for devastation. They got to the Michigan State 21 before redshirt senior quarterback Gio Rescigno was picked off at the 3-yard line.

5. Before the season even began, Rutgers was in the headlines for the wrong reason. Two players were dismissed from the team in July and six more were left off the 2018 roster after all eight were allegedly involved in a credit-card fraud scheme.

Then, in October, linebacker Izaia Bullock was dismissed after being charged with two counts of attempted murder and conspiracy.

All this, for a season that started with bowl game aspirations. Now, Rutgers gets a chance to wipe the slate clean Friday night. What could possibly go wrong?