Game 2: Howard

The Rutgers Scarlet Knights take on the Howard Bison in their home opener today, in their lone home game in the month of September. Rutgers showed a lot of positive signs in their win over Tulane last week, but there is plenty for them to improve on, as they face their final tune up before a huge game in Tampa against South Florida on Thursday. Teams make their biggest improvement between game one and game two, so the Scarlet Knights will look to fix a few key areas that were troublesome against the Green Wave. This should be a cake walk, but The Knights should still be taking this game seriously and not over looking Howard.

What's the deal with Howard?
Howard is 1-0 after defeating Morehouse College 30-27 last Saturday, thanks to a late rally. Jamie Cunningham came off the bench  to lead the Bison to victory, and the true freshman will start his first game on Saturday. Howard also has 14 players who were suspended 1 to 3 games, so it's possible they will be with out a significant portion of their roster. They are coached by Gary Harrell, who briefly played in the NFL, and he lead them to a 5-6 record last year, playing in the MEAC.

Rutgers on Offense
The Scarlet Knights should keep it vanilla once again, as they should be able to put up a lot of points against this team anyway, to save the fancy plays for South Florida. They should rely heavily on the run game once again, and hopefully the line can keep up the good work and Jamison and Huggins can be productive again. Gary Nova will look to build off his up and down performance from a week ago, and the receivers will have the opportunity to catch deep balls and get open on third down. Maybe we can see more Miles Shuler this week?

Rutgers on Defense
I have no idea what Howard runs on offense, but if it is spread, RU is faster than them, and if it's pro style, RU is stronger than them. Howard isn't going to have a great day, but Rutgers really needs to focus on getting stops on third down. Freshman Darius Hamilton, Steve Longa, and Quanzell Lambert will likely get a lot of playing time in order to get some college experience and keep the starters healthy. Like last week, I would not expect a lot of nickel and dime package to, again, keep things vanilla.

Both offense and defense: cut the crap out with all the penalties.

Injury Report/Suspensions
Michael Larrow is out for the second game of his four game suspension, steaming from his arrest for simple assault.

Starting tightend Paul Carrezola will probably miss his second game in a row after suffering an ankle injury last week in practice. Back up nose tackle Al Page is also doubtful. Kyle Flood says they are only available in "emergency type roles".

DE Marvin Booker is out with a leg injury.

Kick returner/wide receiver/safety Jeremy Deering rolled his ankle this week in practice and is a game time decision. I think I'd hold him out and get him healthy. He plays such an important role on this team returning kicks, and I want him to be as healthy as possible against USF.

Prediction- Howard 0 Rutgers 45.

The game looks like it is going to be sold out, and if you can't make it to the stadium, the game is on SNY and ESPN3.