Game 13: Notre Dame

Rutgers 21 Notre Dame 31

Rutgers to Face Notre Dame in the Pinstripe Bowl

 It's kind of funny that in the year Rutgers has its worst bowl eligible team ever, they get to face their first marquee opponent in a bowl game. After years of playing 6-6 or mid major programs in the post season, the Scarlet Knights will get to face off against the biggest name in the sport, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl on December 28. It will be Rutgers second trip in three seasons to the bowl game in the Bronx.

Coming off the ass whooping Alabama handed them in the national championship game a year ago, Notre Dame went 8-4 while playing a very difficult schedule this season. Since they have no conference tie in and did not qualify for a BCS bowl, the Irish had to settle for an at large bowl berth and they chose New York over San Diego as their destination.

Rutgers is 0-4 all time against Notre Dame, with their last meeting coming in 2002. That is obviously just a factoid and has little relevance now since a lot has changed since then, and the players playing in this game were in like fourth grade back then. The two schools did agree to a ten game series scheduled to begin in 2010, but it was called off all together before it began, since Notre Dame insisted that Rutgers "home games" be played in the Meadowlands after the agreement was reached. The arrogance of that program.....

This match up seems like a mismatch on paper, but the main importance of this bowl season for Rutgers is the additional fifteen practices they will receive in preparation for the game. The extra practice time allows the coaching staff to get a look at the inexperienced players on the team who might contribute next year, specifically at quarterback and on the offensive line. The extra teaching and player development is invaluable, especially since they are such a young team.

This game will be quite a challenge for Rutgers, but it is a good preview for what they will face next year, as Notre Dame plays a Big 10 style of football. Yankee Stadium will be packed with fans from both teams, and who knows, maybe Rutgers can steal this game and have some positive momentum going in to next year.

Dave Cohen, Two Other Assistants Fired

Following the regular season finale against South Florida, Kyle Flood announced that three of his assistants would not return next season. Defensive coordinator/linebacker coach Dave Cohen, quarterback coach Rob Spence and offensive line coach Damian Wroblewski were all let go in the purge that is a common practice for teams who have a head coach on hot seat. The Cohen and Spence firings were expected, but Wroblewski's dismissal was a bit of a surprise.

Cohen did a solid job coaching linebackers in both of his two seasons at Rutgers, but he made it pretty clear he could not cut it as a coordinator. The Scarlet Knight defense, which has had success by bringing heavy pressure and playing man coverage over the last decade, too often sat back in soft zone coverages and were thus torn apart. He had to overcome a lot of attrition in the defensive back field and that was a big reason why they had to play so much zone, but it seemed like they had the same game plan every week and it was just not working. The decision to stay in base personnel against spread offenses and the inexplicable under use of Darius Hamilton as a pass rusher also contributed to his down fall.

Spence came to Rutgers with a spotty track record coaching at BCS programs, and he did a pretty poor job developing quarterbacks on the banks. Gary Nova was never able to really take the next step as a quarterback, and Spence was probably a reason why. Nova showed flashes of talent over the past two seasons, but he never really put it all together, as his turnover prone ways have continued to be problematic. None of the younger quarterbacks in the roster were ready to play either, and that contributed to Nova staying in the line up perhaps longer than he should have.

It's not completely outrageous, but I think firing Wroblewski was a mistake. The Scarlet Knights had a very good offensive line in 2012, and I think a lot of that units problems this season were due to some questionable line up decisions, which is on the head coach (though Wroblo might have had some input). And it's not like they were horrendous this year, just very up and down. You are pretty much doomed to fail when your best guard is on the bench and your best tackle is playing guard. Unless he was responsible for the line up construction, I think he is being scapegoated.

Special teams coordinator Joe Rossi will take over Cohen's responsibilities for the bowl game, and offensive coordinator Ron Prince and graduate assistant Darnell Stapelton will do likewise for Spence and Wroblewski respectivly.

Turn over on the coaching staff goes on at every program every year, but it certainly seems like Rutgers has had more than its' fair share over the last three or four years. That has no doubt led to some of the team's struggles this season, but this year's batch firings will probably be for the better, since two of the three coaches let go were doing a very poor job.

Rutgers Defeats USF, Becomes Bowl Eligable in Big East Finale

Crisis averted. After dropping five of their previous six contests, Rutgers took care of business against a lowly South Florida team last Saturday night in Piscataway, beating the Bulls by a score of 31-6. The Scarlet Knights turned in their most complete performance of the year, as they imposed their will on both sides of the ball against USF. The victory made the Scarlet Knights bowl eligible for the eighth time in nine years and they accepted an invitation to the Pinstripe Bowl to face Notre Dame shortly after the win.

On offense, Rutgers was able to run the ball right down South Florida's throats. Paul James looked healthy for the first time since September, and the offensive line beat up on a very good USF front seven. They averaged 4.8 yards per attempt (not including kneel downs, sacks and Dodd's option keepers), which is a really good mark, and they overwhelmingly won the time of possession battle. James got the Knights on the scoreboard midway through the 1st quarter on a 5 yard run behind a nice block by right tackle Andre Civil, and 90 seconds later Andre Patton took a crossing route from Chas Dodd in for a 12 yard score following a USF turnover. Rutgers had a chance to take a 21-0 lead at the end of the first quarter, but James lost a fumble in the endzone following another USF turnover.

Justin Goodwin spelled James late in the second quarter, and a 15 yard run by him and a 23 yard pass to Tyler Kroft set up a two yard touchdown reception by Michael Burton to give Rutgers a 21-3 lead at the break. In the second half, Rutgers possessed the ball for over 23 minutes to put the game on ice. The Knights simply pounded the rock with James up the middle and USF had no answer for it. It was beautiful. They had to settle for a field goal attempt inside the 10 after 6 minute drive because Dodd took a sack, and the try was blocked because it was kicked too low. They followed that up with an 8 minute drive, James plunged into the endzone from one yard out to make it 28-6.Goodwin and Savon Huggins took over on the next drive, ate a lot of clock, and it could have resulted in a touchdown if they decided to go for a 4th and goal from the 2 with a minute left in the game. Instead, senior kicker Joe Behnke kicked a field goal on senior day. I'd rather see him kick and extra point there, but what ever.

Defensively, Rutgers finally faced an offense that runs a scheme to their liking, and they turned in perhaps their best performance (although that may have been in large part due to the opponent). They forced six three and outs and two turnovers on South Florida's eleven possessions, holding the Bulls to just a pair of field goals on the night. The front seven, led once again by Steve Longa and Darius Hamilton, dominated, and the secondary held up fine for the first time all season. The Bulls did not record a first down until the second quarter, and they had to settle for both of their field goals in that period, after two drives that lasted13 and 11 plays. In the second half, the Scarlet Knights defense was completely in control. USF was held to just one first down and negative three total yards after half time.

As for the big plays, Darius Hamilton was once again a menace to the opposing offense, recovering a fumble t o set up a score. He also recorded a sack and drew a pair of holding penalties. He has really become a star in the second half of this season. Gareef Glashen intercepted a pass late in the first quarter, setting up another scoring opportunity that ultimately resulted in the James fumble.  Marcus Thompson, Quanzell Lambert and Jamil Merrell all chipped in with a sack each as well. Lambert has emerged a a pretty good pass rusher late in the season, and that is a positive sign going forward.

Rutgers did what they were supposed to do and dominated an inferior South Florida team that was cold and had nothing to play for. It was nice to final get back into the win column and clinch another bowl berth, but it didn't really change the fact that the program is still headed in the wrong direction. Beating Notre Dame would make everyone feel a lot better going into the offseason, but this program still has a lot of work to do as the will take a step up in competition next year.

Game 12: USF

 Tonight's game marks the end of a few eras for Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights will play their final Big East contest and the senior class will play at High Point Solutions Stadium for the last time. There's also the possibility that the 2013 season could come to an end tonight and this may very well be Kyle Flood's last game as Rutgers head coach. They will need to beat a very bad USF team to avoid those last two fates.

The prospects of getting destroyed by Notre Dame in a bowl game isn't too appealing, but it is imperative that the Scarlet Knights get there. They are a very young team and they would greatly benefit from the fifteen additional practices they would receive to prepare for the bowl game. If they fail to do so, they are facing even more of a disadvantage as they head into the Big 10 next year.

The Willie Taggert era at USF got off to a disastrous start when they were blown out by McNeese State in their season opener, but the team has improved significantly  over the course of the season.They somehow managed to beat Cincinnati and they gave Central Florida a very competitive game last Friday. They have a very strong defense led by linebacker Dede Lattimore, who I think has been there for about 7 years now, and Notre Dame transfer Aaron Lynch who has played very well of late after starting the season very slowly.

Taggert comes from the Harbaugh coaching tree, so the Bulls are all about the power running game on offense. Despite this, they only rank 117th nationally in rushing offense and have just four rushing touchdowns on the season. At quarterback, true freshman Mike White will start his sixth game, and he has thrown 3 touchdowns and 8 interceptions so far. Needless to say they have one of the worst offenses in the entire country.

On offense, Rutgers will once again be with out Leonte Carroo, but they should get Betim Bujari back and Paul James should be good to go. They are going to need to establish the run, but I'm not optimistic about that. They are a bad running team and USF has a good defense. Their best chance of moving the ball may be taking deep shots with Dodd again, but I have a hard time seeing them having much success on offense.

If Rutgers defense can't stop White, they can't stop anyone. USF will come out running the ball, and that will play right into the Scarlet Knights' hands. This is almost certainly Dave Cohen's finally game, regardless of Flood's status.

The cold weather will be a factor here and maaaayyyyybbbeee Rutgers will be playing with a little motivation on senior day when they need a win to become bowl eligible

USF 21 Rutgers 24

Rock Bottom: Rutgers Loses to Connecticut

 I try to be as optimistic as possible about Rutgers football, but there is nothing positive to say about this game or really this season. Everything started to collapse two months ago when they blew a three touchdown lead in the fourth quarter against SMU, and they have not been able to recover at all. They are in a free fall and there is a very good chance they won't even make a bowl game after starting 4-1. This team is flat out playing bad football, and they could easily be 2-9 right now if it wasn't for a few miraculous plays by Gary Nova and Leonte Carroo. Change the quarterback, blame the injuries, say the secondary is too inexperienced, it doesn't matter. Bottom line is Kyle Flood is doing a terrible job leading this program, and they are dangerously close to falling off a cliff.

Rutgers offense now consists of throwing shit against the wall and seeing what sticks. With Chas Dodd starting at quarterback, they spread the defense out much more than we have seen this season prior to this game, and for some reason they ran a bunch of read options with an immobile quarterback. Unsurprisingly, it didn't work at all. Paul James was hurt again early in the second quarter, and the running game proved again to be non existent. The offensive line was getting no push and the backs themselves didn't do anything. Dodd was also shaky passing the ball, but he did complete a couple deep balls to Quoron Pratt. Ruhann Peele also made a nice run after catch a crossing route and had a touchdown nullified by a penalty. As poorly as Gary Nova has played this year, he at least dominated bad teams. Can't say the same about Dodd after this one. The Scarlet Knights first score came on a fake field goal from holder JT Tartacoff to Tyler Kroft, and the other Rutgers touchdown was a six yard run by Justin Goodwin.

The defense --surprise!-- sat back in cover two for the entire game and was torn to shreds by Casey Cochran who is a red shirt freshman and started the season as a third stringer. Rutgers has been all about attacking offenses with blitzes over the years, and they have gone away with that for no apparent reason. Yes, their secondary is a mess and the soft zone coverages are there to protect them, but guess what? It's not working. At all.They need to get back to what has made them a successful defense for the past decade. If your corners get beat, so be it. It's disgraceful seeing every god damn team throw 15 yard digs at will as they march down the field against this defense every week. They know what's coming, and they exploit it. I would also like to know the rationale of taking Darius Hamilton off the field on third down. He is by far their best pass rusher and arguably their best player on defense. Leave him out there on the field in every situation. Maybe he can generate a pass rush since they refuse to blitz. The defense was very strong against the run --Connecticut averaged a hair over 2 yards per carry-- and they recorded 8 tackles for loss. Hamilton, Steve Longa, Kevin Snyder and Dwajny Mera all had pretty good games.

This loss might have been the most embarrassing game in school history. At least Connecticut was a 5-7 team last time they lost in East Hartford.I don't know where the team goes from here, but I really, really hope they don't just give up and pack it in against USF. They desperately need to win so they receive the extra fifteen practices they would get if they reach a bowl game. They may be playing for their head coach's job on Saturday too. How they come out to play will be a big indication of the handle Flood has on his team.

Game 11: UConn

What happens when an infinitely movable object meets an infinitely resistible forces? I guess we will find out today when Rutgers visits UConn, the only other OG Big East school left in the conference.

The two teams have played some pretty fun games over the last decade or so, and it's kind of sad to see this mini-rivalry go out with such a whimper. You know about the Scarlet Knights' struggles, but Connecticut has had a much worse season. They are 1-9 and they have been under the watch of an interim coach since Paul Pasqualoni was unceremoniously fired in September.

The Huskies play a similar style of football as Rutgers, as they run a traditional offense with little success, and can stop the run on defense, but can not defend the pass to save their lives. I would expect an ugly, low scoring, grind it out game like we saw last year.

Rutgers will probably rely heavily on the run game, but unless Paul James rediscovers his September mojo (sorry, I just watched Austin Powers), I don't see them having much success doing so. If that is the case, the Knights are going to have to rely on Chas Dodd's arm to win. Making that task more difficult will be the absence of Leonte Carroo, who was concussed last Thursday after being victimized by a head shot against UCF (which wasn't called, love those Big East officials). Hopefully Brandon Coleman is healthier after the long week, and Tyler Kroft can keep finding holes in coverage over the middle. They really need their offensive line to step up and dominate today too.

I don't think the defense will have to worry too much about Connecticut's passing attack, so we should see a lot of defenders stacking the box. The secondary will still be worrisome left out on an island, but the Huskies don't have the quarterback or the weapons to exploit them. I expect a big day out of the four guys up the middle, Darius Hamilton, Steve Longa, Kevin Snyder and Ike Holmes. Those guys have been great all year, and they will face an offense more to their liking.

It's worth noting that Ruhann Peele will start at corner and also be Rutgers' primary slot receiver today.That's pretty cool, you rarely see guys play both sides of the ball at this level.

Injuries: Carroo is out, and Beteim Bujari and Delon Stephenson are both questionable. They have really missed Bujari, and it would be a tremendous boost to have him back.

Losing this game wold be very, very bad for Kyle Flood's job security.

Prediction- Rutgers: 23 Connecticut: 21

A safety by Hamilton will prove to be the difference.

Chas Dodd Named Starting Quarterback

 Kyle Flood announced on Monday that senior Chas Dodd will get the starting nod over Gary Nova at quarterback on Saturday against Connecticut in East Hartford. The change comes on the heels of Nova's fourth miserable performance in a span of five games, and Dodd will make his first start since the 2011 Pinstripe Bowl. The move marginally improves the team this season, but it really does nothing for the program going forward.

I have long been a big Nova supporter, but this change is probably over due. His Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde act has grown old, and he's just not giving the team a great chance of winning right now, even though there are bigger problems than him. His gun slinging ways have resulted in many more turn overs than positive plays as of late, and all of those turn overs are killing the offense and putting an already struggling defense in tough spots. He has definitely been the victim of bad coaching over the last two years, but he's not a youngster anymore. It's late in his junior season and he is making the same mistakes over and over again. There may not be hope for a turn around.

Dodd did an alright job as the Scarlet Knights' primary signal caller in 2010 and 2011, but he was replaced by Nova for a reason. He was recruited to play in a wide open spread offense, and Rutgers has obviously changed philosophies since he first set foot on campus. He is at his best when he can get the ball out quickly on short passes out of the shot gun and be a distributor in the spread, not dropping back from under center and throwing vertically in the traditional offense they now run. He has played only garbage time minutes the past two seasons, and I honestly have no idea what to expect out of him. Hopefully he can at least manage the game.

Considering Dodd only has between two and three games left in his career as a Scarlet Knight, I would have liked to have seen Mike Bimonte or Blake Rankin get a shot since they will compete for the starting and/or back up spot next year. I'm not at practice every day, so I don't know how ready these guys are to play, but at some point you have to see what you've got in these two. The only thing Rutgers has left to play for at this season is a bowl bid, and considering they only need one more win with two very week opponents left, they could probably attain that goal with any of these guys. (You can throw in Chris Laviano here too, but it's not worth burning his redshirt this late in the season).

Dodd is no certainty, but this is probably the safest decision Kyle Flood could have made. The team is in an uncontrollable slide, the fans are angry, and he needs to save his own skin. A change was needed, but I'm not sure how this will payoff in neither the short term nor the long term.

Rutgers Craps the Bed Against UCF

Different stadium, different opponent, same story. Rutgers was blown out --this time on national TV!-- by Central Florida on Thursday by a score of 41-17. It was uglier than the final score indicates too, since two special teams plays set up both of Rutgers touchdowns. The secondary continued to be a major weakness, and Rutgers could not do a thing on offense. Bad, bad football, but this is what we have come to expect out of Kyle Flood's team. The Scarlet Knights are now 5-8 in their last 13 contests.

On defense, Rutgers played soft zone coverage for most of the game, but I think they did blitz a little more than they did last week. Hooray for one size fits all game planning! Blake Bortles predictably picked the secondary apart, and he even made some guys look bad tackling in the open field when he took off running. I would venture to guess that Rutgers didn't hit this week in practice since they had a quick turn around. If that is indeed the case, it really showed. They did a pretty solid job against the run, but Long Island native Will Staback ran over a couple Scarlet Knights on two different plays like he was a Humvee rolling through some high grass or something.

The lone bright spot on defense was Darius Hamilton, who recorded two and a half sacks, as well as a few other hurries on Bortles. He probably could have had like six sacks if they just let him go one on one against UCF's interior lineman, but they decided to stunt him to the outside (on a couple of running downs too!) and drop him into coverage quite often. I can not for the life of me figure out why. He was also once again a big part of the strong run defense. I legitimately feel bad for this kid, he could have gone anywhere he wanted and he picked Rutgers. He is developing into a star, but now he's stuck on a struggling team that is going nowhere in a hurry.

I have long been a believer in Gary Nova, but...I just don't know what to say anymore. He's not getting the job done right now. He shows flashes of brilliance, but he is just as often flat out terrible. He completed an impossibly bad 11-34 passes, and continued to make poor decisions and throw inaccurate balls. I would say he should be benched, but they don't have a viable replacement. I want him to succeed so much, and poor coaching no doubt is a big reason for his struggles, but he is just not giving them a chance to win.

Outside of Michael Burton's 38 yard run on a fake punt, the Scarlet Knights ran the ball 16 times for 31 yards. That is really bad. They have five offensive line coaches on the staff, and this is what they get? It took them four chances to punch the ball in from the 1 for their lone offensive touchdown of the game, and they threw the ball on a few 3rd and 1's. They have no faith in the running game I guess. Paul James has been a nonfactor since returning, even though he scored a touchdown Thursday. I'm not sure why they didn't even attempt to go no huddle.

Tyler Kroft caught a career high 9 passes in this one, but that was pretty much it for the positives. The team clearly misses Betim Bujari at center, since they seemingly can not set up pass protections or identify who to block in the run game with out him. Nova was very bad, but his receivers did not help him either. I think Brandon Coleman dropped three passes, Leonte Carroo two.

Burton had the run on the fake punt to set up the first touchdown, and Anthony Cioffi blocked a punt that was recovered by Andre Patton in the endzone. Hooray for two guys who should be redshirting! Special teams is the only reason Rutgers didn't get shut out.

UCF is a really good team. They might even have more talent than Rutgers, which I did not believe was possible before the season. But still, the Scarlet Knights should not be getting trounced like this. They were totally and complete dominated, humiliated, what ever you want to say. Enough is enough. I'm sick of watching this shit. Be competitive and beat an actual team once in a while. It is just flat out not fun watching this team play anymore.

Game 10: UCF

Rutgers has played better on the road than they have at home.......ah fuck it. Who the hell am I kidding?

Blake Bortles is a quarterback with a pulse, UCF is a winning team, and George O'Leary has a big edge over the opposing coach. Rutgers doesn't stand a chance.

I'm sure the Scarlet Knights will be flat and unprepared again. Why should this game be any different from the last five? They will play some soft zones on defense and run for two yards per carry on offense while playing at a lethargic pace again too.

Darius Hamilton is back, so he should make a few plays to make the final score slightly less embarrassing than it would be otherwise.

UCF 52 Rutgers 17

The Latest Controversy

 Unfortunately, Rutgers is once again in the national spotlight for all the wrong reasons. And this time, the microscope is firmly on the football program, which has been the university's beacon of light. Considering recent history, the school, particularly the athletic department, is not getting the benefit of the doubt here, but these recent scandals are different from the previous ones. Much different.

The man at the center of these scandals is new NJ.com sports reporter Dan Duggan. Duggan joined NJ.com last week after working at the Boston Herald, and he appears to be an unethical muckraker. He has written not one, but two pieces attacking the character of two Rutgers football coaches, while only seeking comment from disgruntled ex-Scarlet Knights and not from either of the men whose character he is defaming, or anybody else.

The first controversial story he broke was allegations of bullying brought against defensive coordinator Dave Cohen by former cornerback Jevon Tyree, who recently quit the team. Tyree and his family allege that last spring, Cohen verbally abused him during a study hall session, getting in his face, yelling and calling him a pussy, amongst other things. Why he is only bringing these allegations to light now is sketchy. He is clearly unhappy because he was not seeing the field after all the attrition Rutgers has had in the secondary, especially after having a wide receiver jump him on the depth chart. That is one reason to question his motives. He may very well have been bullied, but there is plenty of reasonable doubt at the moment.

We have no idea what actually happened here, so nobody on the outside -fans, media, etc- should rush to judgment either way. But of course, in today's society that is impossible. All we know for sure is that there was a verbal confrontation between Cohen and Tyree in April and Kyle Flood was made aware of it in September and reprimanded Cohen in a way he deemed fit. Julie Hermann was also made aware at some point, but all she has done in this situation is continue her pathological lying, so she is irrelevant here. Say what you will about Flood as a coach, but he is a good honest man and I believe him when he says he handled the situation. This brings me to the next controversy.

Just days after breaking the Cohen/Tyree story, Dugan went back to his muckraking ways and contacted former Rutgers cornerback Ian Thomas, who had also  recently quit the team. When Thomas left the program, Flood announced that it was because he had decided to pursue a baseball career. Thomas denied that, and said he has no idea where that came from. Dugan never reached out to Flood to comment on his story, in which basically called the coach a full on liar.

The next day, Flood was reportedly as angry as anybody had ever seen him, as he stood by his word, mentioning that Thomas told not only him, but senior linebacker Jamal Merrell about his intentions to play baseball as well. Tom Luicci of the Star Ledger spoke with an academic adviser at Rutgers who had helped Thomas pursue baseball opportunities, solidifying Flood's word.

Two big stories on Dugan's first week on the job, one turned out to be a bold face lie, and the other is still up in the air. He appears to just be trying to make a name for himself, ethics be damned. And it's working for him personally. He got to make an appearance on ESPN! And in that appearance, he spoke about how well Tyree played in Rutgers spring game, which was seven months before he started covering the team.

Seeking comment from more than one side of a story is journalism 101. And it's not like he is a rookie, he covered sports in Boston for six years. If you are going to flat out call someone a liar or a bully or anything else, you need to seek comment from them so they can tell their side of the story. It would also help if maybe he could talk to some other people with in the program about these two issues, rather than just the two disgruntled ex-players. Luicci did that with the academic adviser, as well as some players on the team. He is a true pro. Dugan, on the other hand, is just a self promoter who is doing a good job of that at the cost of his journalistic soul. Sadly, those are the people who make it big in the industries now a days coughJason WhitlockcoughSkipBaylesscough.

Rutgers Gets Embarrassed at Home Once Again

 As I write this, I am watching Central Florida play Temple because Rutgers is so unwatchable, and I realized that the Owls will give the Golden Knights a more competitive game than Rutgers will on Thursday. The Scarlet Knights currently trail Cincinnati 31-7 with 4:54 left in the second quarter. God only knows how awful the final score will end up being. This is Rutgers football under Kyle Flood.

Rutgers has --oh Cincinnati just scored again-- played extremely passively on defense and Brandon Kay has thrown all over them as a result. They keep playing soft zone coverages with two deep safeties, and Kay splits them every time on the post like an extended hand off. The few times they have brought pressure, Kay has rushed his throws and thrown incompletions. But why be aggressive and reap the benefits when you can sit back and be soft and get beat? Rutgers football under Kyle Flood.

Paul James is back, but he hasn't kick started the running game like you would have hoped. Cincinnati is giving Rutgers receivers a lot of cushion, but why take the open short throws when the defense is handing them to you? Run the ball and throw deep! Rutgers football under Kyle Flood. Why go uptempo to give your offense a jolt when you can use the entire play clock and go three and out? Rutgers football under Kyle Flood.

Tommy Tuberville has pulled out all the stops with an onside kick, a fake punt and some trick plays. His team is fired up and having fun. They came ready to play. Rutgers looks unprepared and flat yet again. Rutgers football under Kyle Flood. 

Gary Nova threw a nice touchdown pass to Brandon Coleman for a touchdown, and that was Rutgers only highlight of what I watched.

The program is a disgrace right now, Kyle Flood is emulating Nero, and they will probably go 3-9 next year and be competitive again when they have a different coach in 2015 or 2016.

Game 9: Cincinnati

Cincinnati scored a total of six points in their last two games against Rutgers, but those games might as well have been a lifetime ago. Rutgers defense isn't nearly that good anymore.

In those last two contests with the Bearcats, Rutgers has had a dominant ground attack, and I would expect to see that again today.

Rutgers is banged up and will be with out Darius Hamilton and Betim Bujari, but Lorenzo Waters and Paul James will be back.

Cincinnati is a winning team, Brandon Kay is a QB with a pulse, and Tommy Tuberville has a huge edge over the head coach opposite him. Rutgers is probably going to lose.

Cincinnati 38 Rutgers 31

Rutgers and Red Zone Inefficency

 Back in May, I came across this article about the best and worst redzone offenses in college football over the 2010-2012 seasons, going by touchdown percentage. Rutgers was the third worst team in the country by this measure, and only Colorado State and Boston College were worse. Throughout those three seasons, the Scarlet Knights came away with a touchdown just 49% of the time they moved the ball inside their opponents twenty, and the redzone inefficiency was a significant part of the problem for an offense that has struggled mightily in recent years. The issue has reared its ugly head again for the Scarlet Knights in 2013 (they are 75th in TD% inside the redzone), especially in their most recent game against Temple..

Against the Owls two weeks ago, the reasons for not scoring touchdowns in the redzone were pretty cut and dry. They committed a few penalties, lost a fumble, and failed to convert a fourth down. But what is the deeper cause of this problem that dates back four years now? Let's take a look at the best redzone offense and see if there is a common thread:

Via Coachingsearch.com

With the exception of a few Air Raid teams like Texas Tech, East Carolina, and Louisiana Tech (who run a lot of screens, which are basically run plays, in the redzone), most of these teams have dominant running attacks. They go about it different ways, Wisconsin and Stanford do it with the behemoth lineman and power plays, Oregon does it with their spread zone, and Air Force does it with the triple option, but they can all rely on their ground attack to reach the endzone from short distances. That seems to be the ticket here, running the football.

Football has become an increasingly pass heavy game at all levels recently, but it's still difficult to throw the football in the redzone.The reason for this is all about spacing. When you have a condensed field, there is obviously less room vertically, so there is less ground the other team's defense has to defend. They are closer to one another in coverage, and have a better chance of making a play on the football. There also isn't enough room for your receivers to get the proper spacing necessary for the pass plays to work. Bill Walsh, who coached two hall of fame quarterbacks and is one of the most influential men in today's passing game, knew the limitations of passing in the redzone, and he famously relied on the power sweep in the redzone.

Even though Rutgers has branded itself as a run first team, they have not been a great running team since Ray Rice left. Their best players on offense have been receivers like Kenny Britt, Mohamed Sanu, Brandon Coleman and Leonte Carroo, so they have had to rely on the passing game a lot, and that leaves them short in the redzone. Those guys theoretically should dominate in the redzone with their size and physicality, and they all have scored their fair share of touchdowns, but passing the ball is still the lower percentage option. The running game is much more reliable time in and time out.

Now what can be done about this? Well, having Paul James back this week will help a lot. He had six touchdowns in the first four games of the season, and his vision could be a huge asset on the goal line. One of the other things I think they could do is give the ball to Savon Huggins more in the redzone. He has been a disappointment, but he is serviceable in short yardage situations. Another thing that could help is running some read option plays close to the goal line. Going back to the best offenses in the redzone, you see a lot of teams with running quarterbacks (Colin Klein at Kansas State, Denard Robinson at Michigan, Braxton Miller at Ohio State, etc.) who can utilize their quarterback's wheels in the redzone. Gary Nova isn't the fastest quarterback in the world, but he's not exactly slow either and Rutgers has dabbled with zone reads a little bit this year.

The team has simply left too many points out on the field over the past few years, and they will need to rectify this if they want to take the next step as an offense.

Pondering the Uptempo Offense

During Rutgers' most recent game, the Scarlet Knights had a lot of success on offense in the two instances they went uptempo against Temple. With 1:07 left in the first half, they drove 51 yards to get into field goal range, and with 1:53 left in the second half, they went to the hurry up on their way to scoring the game winning touchdown. Those two drives would have resulted in 10 points if Rutgers had a competent kicker, and it could have easily been 14 if they had any time outs left in the first half.

Gary Nova looked cool, calm and in control while operating at this high speed, completing 9-13 passes for 120 yards with a touchdown on those two drives. Watching how easy it was for them to move the ball was almost hilarious. And it made me think: should Rutgers start going up tempo more? Tom Luicci of the Star Ledger asked Kyle Flood about picking up the pace on offense, and he pretty much dismissed that idea. But I think he needs to reconsider his stance on this topic.

Rutgers tried running an uptempo spread offense in 2009 and 2010, and it was an unmitigated disaster. The offensive line could not pass block at all, and no running back could run the ball with out being embarrassed. It was so bad that Tom Savage was kept off the field to keep from being injured, and it may have been a big reason why he decided to transfer (even though Rutgers switched back to pro style before he left). That experience understandably soured the program and presumably Flood on this philosophy, but let's consider why it didn't work on the banks like it did in most other places.

There were two major reasons why this offense didn't work at Rutgers, and one of those reasons no longer applies. The main factor why the offense didn't work was Kirk Ciarocca's incompetence as an offensive coordinator. Don't think I need to add much more to that, just look at how he's doing at Western Michigan. He's not here anymore. The other reason I think it didn't work was the entire coaching staff (including Flood, the offensive line coach at the time) did not buy into this scheme. This may still be an issue, but really who knows? Ron Prince has done a pretty solid job so far at Rutgers, and he seems open minded to trying new things. He does have some experience with no huddle/uptempo offenses from his time on the Colts coaching staff when they had Peyton Manning.

Luicci went on to say that he believes Flood does not want to change the offenses identity of a run first, grind it out offense, but these two ideologies are not mutually exclusive.They can still rely heavily on the power running game, while playing at this accelerated pace. I have wanted to see a team deploy this strategy for a while, but it hasn't happened yet. Imagine how broken a defense's will would be in the fourth quarter if they were getting body blow after body blow like they were playing Stanford, while playing at the frantic pace Oregon makes their opponents play at.

Considering how good the offense and Nova specifically has looked going fast paced against the likes of not only Temple, but Fresno State, Arkansas and SMU as well, it needs to be a bigger part of their offense. Maybe there can be a compromise and they could go fast paced some of the time, but not all the time, similar to what you see in the NFL. The offense has looked stagnant at times, and the fast paced style of play could give them the jolt they need. They have plenty of receiving options, and if they can spread a defense out, throw the ball around and then substitute and go to the power game, they may catch some defenses off guard* and create a numbers advantages inside or match up advantages on the outside.

*You have to allow the opposing team to substitute when you substitute, but if the other coaching staff is unprepared for the fast pace, they could be caught off guard and make a mistake.

I don't see Rutgers going uptempo in a non two minute drill anytime soon, but it's certainly something fun to think about. Considering that the temperature on Flood's seat is rising, he should give this more thought. The easiest way to appease a frustrated fan base is scoring points. There are some draw backs to going uptempo, namely wearing out your own defense, but the risk is worth the reward in my opinion. I think that the fast pace style of play should be a bigger part of Rutgers offense, but they should not run it exclusively.

Rutgers Escapes With Last Minute Victory Over Temple

Today we spell redemption G-A-R-Y

 How can you not feel great for Gary Nova right now? After all the negativity he had to go through last week, dealing with empty threats of being benched and hearing from fans and the media about how awful he is and how the next opponent's quarterback should have his job, he shut everyone up with one of the best games of his career in the Scarlet Knights come from behind 23-20 victory over Temple. The team once again turned in a very poor performance overall, but they were able to pull out a victory late against the 1-7 Owls.

Rutgers began the game offensively with a very conservative game plan and rightfully so after Nova's previous two games. They ran the ball on their first eleven offensive plays, but still managed to move the ball into Temple territory on each of their first two possessions on the back of Justin Goodwin. Yet somehow, they came away with zero points. They could not convert a fourth and one on their first possession, as Temple linebacker Nate D.Smith burst through the line unblocked to bring Goodwin down in the backfield and a penalty besieged their second possession, forcing them to punt from Temple's 35. If you follow Big 10 people on twitter, you will realize Kirk Ferentz does this all the time too, so Rutgers will fit right in.

Late in the first quarter, Nova was finally allowed to throw the football, and his fine passing eventually resulted in three points. He picked up a first down completing a pair of passes to tight end Tyler Kroft, and he threw a nice ball on a corner route to Brandon Coleman to get into Temple territory. He hit Leonte Carroo on a crossing route to get the Knights down to Temple's four, but three consecutive penalties set Rutgers back and they had to settle for a field goal. They weren't action penalties either, they were mental errors that were the result of the team being undisciplined and disorganized. That's coaching, if you ask me.

Following a three and out on the previous possession, Nova led the team on an impressive drive while going uptempo with just over a minute left in the half. They didn't have any time outs left, since they wasted them earlier (coaching), and had to settle for a 40 yard field goal attempt that Kyle Federico missed.*He completed first down passes to Coleman, Pratt and Carroo on the drive that ultimately resulted in zero points.

*Rutgers has two! Two! Place kickers on scholarship and they can't even make a chip shot field goal.

The Knights began the second half offensively with a three and out, but struck quick with a three play touchdown drive the next time they had the ball. Gary Nova made perhaps the most impressive throw of his career, stepping up in the pocket to elude a pass rusher while keeping his eyes down field and hitting his second read, Quron Pratt, on a deep crossing route over the middle. Pratt made a nice run after the catch, and the play got Rutgers down to Temple's 6 after the 41 yard gain. Michael Burton was finally rewarded for all his great blocking this year with the a score of his own on a toss from Nova, on Jon Gruden's favorite play, Spider 2 Y banana. And then of course Federico missed the extra point.


Rutgers moved the ball again on their next possession as Nova converted a pair of third downs with passes to Carroo and Pratt, but the drive once again stalled out in Temple territory and Rutgers was forced to punt. On their final possession of the third quarter, Savon Huggins (remember him?) took a screen pass 14 yards, but Rutgers once again had to punt after Nova was sacked. On that play he was sacked, Temple jumped offsides, but the top notch, world class Big East officials missed it. Even more stunningly, it was the second time in the game Temple got away with jumping offsides on defense. Incredible.

Trailing by four early in the fourth quarter, the Knights' defense came up with a big turnover, and Ron Prince called for the home run ball on the first play after the sudden change. Nova connected with his trusty side kick Carroo on the go route for a 34 yard score off a play action fake. Rutgers had its' first lead of the day, but unfortunately, it didn't last long, as the defense gave it right back. Rutgers offense seemed poised to create another lead change, thanks to some Temple penalties and a couple scrambles by Nova, but Goodwin lost a fumble in the redzone and the Owls recovered with 8:54 remaining. It seemed like the cutback lane was open for Goodwin on the play, but he ran into traffic and lost the ball.

Rutgers came dangerously close to not getting the ball back (more on that in a bit), but they did get another opportunity to win the game. With the ball at their own 28 with 1:53 left, Gary Nova would have to lead another fourth quarter comeback, and that's just what he did. Looking very comfortable once again going uptempo, Nova completed short passes to Huggins and Kroft to get Rutgers to midfield. Pratt hauled in another pass for a first down, but after a sack, Rutgers faced a do or die 4th and 10 from the Temple 33. And as he has done so many times this year, Gary Nova found Leonte Carroo open down the sideline for a deep bomb that resulted in a touchdown. It was a very risky throw, but his trust and confidence in throwing to Carroo really showed and he threw a beautiful ball for the game winning score with just :35 seconds left.

Nova had a phenomenal day, obviously, and the rest of the offense was pretty good too. Nova made some great decisions, even tucking the ball and running when nothing was there. They ran the ball very effectively early in the game, but saw a drop off later as they failed to secure blocks at the second level of Temple's defense. The offensive line was blowing Temple off the ball, and they did a good job in pass protecting, even though they allowed two sacks (remember: Temple was offside on one of those). It was nice to see Carroo, Pratt and Kroft reemerge after being put in hibernation, and Ron Prince called yet another solid game. It wasn't all peaches and cream though. Rutgers was very inefficient in the redzone, making four trips inside the 20 and coming away with only three points on those possessions.This has been a problem with this offense for a few years now. I'm also not sure why Savon Huggins doesn't get the ball at all. He hasn't lived up to the hype, but he's still and ok option, especially in short yardage situations and when Goodwin is struggling a bit.

 The defense had some what of a bounce back game after being embarrassed a few times this year, but they were merely solid and not spectacular by any stretch of the imagination. Things got off to a great start for Knights' defense, as freshman Delon Stephenson, making the first start of his career, intercepted PJ Walker's first pass on the second play of the game. They followed that up by forcing a three and out, thanks to two plays in the backfield. Djwany Mera stuffed a Zaire Williams run for a loss of five, and wide receiver Ruhan Peele sacked Walker on a corner blitz while temporarily filing in on the depleted secondary.

After those two impressive stops, Temple started to find their groove offensively. Walker moved the ball down field with the quick underneath passing game, and Williams broke off a pair of eleven yard runs. Walker capped the drive with a nice deep ball to Robbie Anderson over tight coverage from Stephenson in the endzone for six points. The Owls once again moved the ball on their next possession, but they wound up punting from midfield, and that really helped them in the field position battle. Especially after Nick Marsh shanked a 26 yard punt. Beginning at Rutgers' 36, the Owls drove methodically into the endzone, with some nice runs and the short passing game. Walker hit Kevin Harper in the flat for the score. Temple went into the break with a 13-3 lead.

Ike Holmes batted down a third down pass to force a three and out on Temple's first possession of the second half, and Kevin Snyder and Darius Hamilton teamed up to stop Walker on a read option to force another three and out the next time the Scarlet Knight defense took the field. The Owls managed to get their lone first down of the third quarter on their final drive of the period, but Marcus Thompson made  tackle for loss and Quanzell Lambert chased down a scrambling Walker on third down to force another punt. Jamal Merrell intercepted a pass from Walker early in the fourth quarter, and that  eventually led to Rutgers taking the lead for the first time. The defense looked dominant, but unfortunately, that didn't last.

Walker continued to gash the Scarlet Knights with the short passing game, and the Owls continued to pick up first downs by taking small bites. Temple converted a fourth and one along the way, and Kenneth Harper took a third down hand off twenty five yards for the score, making Rutgers' first lead short lived. On the play, Rutgers was bringing pressure off the right side, and everyone else was bailing. There was nobody on the left to defend the run, except for Darius Hamilton who was being triple teamed.

Temple got the ball back with 8:54 left in the game, and they very nearly ran out the entire clock. The Owls were piling up 5 yard run after five yard run, and were chewing up a ton of clock. It wasn't like they were just out physicaling Rutgers upfront, it was a matter of being out schemed. Rutgers inexplicably was playing with two deep safeties against a run first offense, and when a linebacker had to go out to cover the slot receiver, the Knights were left with six defenders in the box against six blockers, plus the tailback and the running quarterback they had to account for. So that's basically 6 against 8. You are not going to get many stops this way. They respected Temple's passing game more than Houston's or SMU's or Fresno State's, which absolutely blows my mind. The lack options int he secondary may have something to do with that, but still. Fortunately, Kevin Snyder and Steve Longa met in the backfield on a cross dog blitz to bring down Harper on a fourth down play to force the turn over on downs and get the offense back on the field to win the game.

Temple did get the ball back with 35 seconds left, but Peele put his helmet on the ball while making a tackle, and forced the ball out and also recovered it. One game in and he's already the team's best defensive back!

I thought the secondary played their best game of the season against Temple. Peele made some big plays and I thought Stephenson and Glashen were  pretty solid. Jonathan Aiken did a nice job filling in for the injured Lorenzo Waters, and Waters absence may have been a reason why they didn't bring a safety down in run support more. Walker completed 67% if his passes, but only averaged 6.5 yards per attempt. The run defense gave up more yards than they should, but again, it was a numbers issue. Holmes and Hamilton (who is third on the team in passes defended, by the way) were both doubled on almost every play, but Longa and Snyder did a nice job cleaning up and preventing big runs.

Rutgers escaped with a win, and although it was to get back in the win column, the cracks in the program's foundation were on full display. They were sloppy, undisciplined, borderline unprepared and out schemed. There is too much talent on the roster for the team to struggle and need some luck to beat Temple like this, and it was just more fuel to the fire for a fan base quickly turning against Kyle Flood after a very, very bad month. The school is just 5-6 in their last 11 games dating back to last season, and they have not beaten a winning team in that time. Flood needs to pretty much win 4/5 to end the season to inspire confidence in the fan base.

Game 8: Temple

 I have no ill-will towards the Owls, but I want the Scarlet Knights to crush them like a bug today. There is a lot of frustration around the program after two ugly losses, and it would be nice to take it out on somebody. Temple is exactly the kind of team you can take your frustrations out on, especially since little brother can't keep his mouth shut.

I'm SICK of hearing about Rutgers not recruiting PJ Walker as a quarterback. He is more of a runner than a passer and he is just simply not a fit for the style of offense Rutgers runs. Chris Laviano was a better prospect than he was coming out of high school too, and you usually don't want to take more than one quarterback per recruiting class.

I'm also not sure why people think Rutgers would be better if he was their quarterback instead of Gary Nova. As I said, he's not exactly a strong passer, so do you think he would have been able to lead the comeback against Arkansas like Nova did? Do you think he would make those fourth quarter and overtime throws against SMU like Nova did? I don't. Rutgers would be 2-5 with him. Maybe they would have beaten Louisville with out the turn overs (probably not), but let's not forget that the defense gave up 52 and 49 points in two of the three loses on the Knights' record.

Rutgers will almost certainly go with a run heavy game plan considering Nova's turn over problems, and they should find sucess in doing so. Justin Goodwin is running really well, and the offensive line looked as powerful as ever last week and appear to be back on the right track. Hopefully a strong running game will open up the play action pass, and Nova can get the ball down field to Brandon Coleman and Leonte Carroo with out having it picked. Those two have been way too silent lately.

On defense, the Knights fortunately will not have to deal with another spread passing attack. They can stay in their base personnel with out worrying about the inevitable mismatches, and focus on stopping the run. Expect to see nine defenders in the box. Rutgers' front seven is one of their biggest strengths, and they can finally start doing their thing after being neutralized by quick passing attacks. I don't think Walker can beat you with his arm, and if they can't run they will be in big trouble. A big early lead would help in this regard too.

Prediction:
Temple's style of offense will be much easier for Rutgers to deal with than Houston or SMU or Fresno State, so I expect a strong performance from the defense. Rutgers' ground and pound offense will be too much for the Owls to handle, and Nova will connect for a deep touchdown pass.

Rutgers 31 Temple 10

Rutgers Honors Terry Shea on Homecoming

There isn't much to say about this game. Rutgers was humiliated on their home field by a decent, but by no means great' Houston team last Saturday on homecoming, 49-14. I guess they were paying homage to the style of Rutgers football alumni over thirty are accustomed to. The team is way too talented to lose to teams like Houston, never mind by 35, and the loss left me wondering about the future direction of this football program.

Once again, Gary Nova turned the ball over way too often. I've long been one of Nova's biggest supporters, but it's getting really unacceptable how often he turns over the ball. He is in his third year as a starter, and this can't keep happening. He is making the same mistakes over and over by forcing passes into triple coverage. He was so good earlier in the season, and he needs to get his act together, shake off these last two awful performances and start playing better. He's clearly the most talented player Rutgers has at the position (they have no other legitimate options at the moment, honestly) and he needs to start showing it again.

Justin Goodwin had another big day in the loss, and running the football was the only competent thing Rutgers could do all day. Kaleb Johnson and Keith Lumpkin did a great job clearing the way for him on the left side,  and the offensive line played much better as a whole, especially in pass protection, than they did last time out against Louisville. Unfortunately, they had to overly rely on the passing game since they were behind by so much, and couldn't fully exploit their advantage up front. I've loved what Ron Prince has done this year, but I'm not sure why Desmond Peoples was running the ball on a third and one in the second quarter or why Savon Huggins was throwing passes while Rutgers was playing catch up.

The defense once again could not stop the other team's spread passing attack to save their lives. They are obviously young and short handed in the defensive backfield, but have you seen a modicum of improvement out of them this year? Have you seen one defensive back make a tackle in space? Intercept a pass? Knock a ball down? The extremely poor play is alarming. The coaching staff should have made some adjustments to improve this by now and the young players should be improving. Neither thing is happening. The Knights could not stop the run either, but that's probably in large part due to selling out against the pass. This isn't much of a concern. Yet.

 Not only was the team a no show today, but the crowd was too. I don't understand how you can not show up until half way through the second quarter and then have the nerve to boo the team. They should boo you, you are an embarrassment. Can you just imagine what a laughing stock Rutgers will be next year if their Big Ten debut against Penn State is at noon and ESPN shows how empty the stadium is at kick off?

I'm not saying he should be fired, but I'm really starting to have a lot of doubts about Kyle Flood leading this program. The team is far too talented to lose games like this at home against teams like Houston, no disrespect to the Cougars. Rutgers should be long past having games like this, yet here we are. The team is starting to perform below expectations again, and I'm going to write more about this issue in my next post.

Rutgers has been stuck in neutral for quite a few years now, and it looks dangerously close to going back in the wrong direction after Saturday's nightmare of  a game. They still play three very bad teams in their final five games (Temple, UConn and USF), so they should still make a bowl game. They will do no better than the Pinstripe Bowl, and they will almost definitely end up there thanks to proximity, even though they might end up belonging in the BBVA Compass Bowl or St Petersberg Bowl. They will most likely play Notre Dame in the Bronx.

It's also probably time the school considers canceling home coming. To recap the last four home coming games: this one, a loss to Kent State, a 21-20 win over Navy where the Midshipmen had a field goal blocked late in the 4th quarter, and a loss to Tulane. Yea. That's pretty bad.

So There Has Been A Lot of Departures.....

This has been called a transition year for Rutgers, and that apparently not only applies to their conference affiliation, but their roster as well. Through out the season, there have been numerous departures, and while it may not effect the starting line up or the two deep much, it hurts the team's overall depth, and trickles down to the practice squad, where the starters won't get as good of a look practicing as they should.

The most notable departure is that of former starting corner back Ian Thomas, who has decided to quit football and pursue a baseball career. This is peculiar not only because he decided this in the middle of the season, but because he didn't even play baseball in high school. I won't fault a guy for making this type of decision, football is really hard and if he has any prospects of turning pro in baseball at all he is better off doing that, but this leaves Rutgers in a major bind. Corner was already a weakness coming into the season, and his departue combined with Lew Toller's season ending injury leaves just Gareef Glashen, two true freshman and a bunch of back up safeties as their depth at corner. His absence also leaves the position as a question mark in the future too.

Also leaving is defensive tackle Al Page. Page wasn't playing a whole lot, but he made the most of his limited opportunities and was an injury away from being thrust into the line up. This leaves the Knights with less depth at a position where depth is arguably the most important.

The other two transfers are runningback Dontea Ayers and offensive guard Marquise Wright. Ayers probably saw the writing on the wall that he was going to be burried on the depth chart because of the emergence of Justin Goodwin and the three runinng backs committed as part of Rutgers' 2014 recruiting class. Wright recently moved to guard from defensive tackle, but he was not listed on the two deep and probably never really had a chance to start next year.

Defensive linemen Myles Jackson and Jamil Pollard have also had to call it a career, due to injuries.

According to my unofficial count, Rutgers now has only 77 players on scholarship. That may not seem like a problem, but you need a strong roster from top to bottom, and they are getting dangerously thin at the bottom. The silver lining here is that they won't have as bad of a scholarship crunch when they welcome in their colossal 2014 recruiting class.

Sloppy Play Does Rutgers in Against Louisville (Again)

I went into this game fully expecting Rutgers to lose, yet I still managed to get infuriated while watching it between Reece Davis, Jesse Palmer and David Pollack talk about Louisville's national title chances (LOL).The Scarlet Knights played very poorly on both offense and defense, as they dropped the Thursday night contest on the road to the paper tiger Louisville Cardinals 24-10.

When you are facing a quarterback like Teddy Bridgewater, you are going to have to score a lot of points. Rutgers mustered a meager ten points in this game, a season low by far, as the unit was a complete disaster.It was like a 2010 esque nightmare of a performance. Gary Nova threw four interceptions, the offensive line could not pass protect to save their lives, and the running game produced next to nothing.

With Nova, these types of games can unfortunately happen. He had the game against Kent State last year, and he just couldn't take care of the ball in this game. He's a gunslinger; that's who he is. These types of quarterbacks are double edge swords, and he hurt the team for the first time all year after coming up huge for them so many times earlier in the season. He forced a lot of throws through tight windows, and it just was not working. He had no time to throw the ball, and that certainly didn't help matters. I wonder if he put too much pressure on himself thinking he would have to outplay Teddy in order for his team to win. I still have a lot of faith in Nova going forward, but he was just awful in this game, there's no way around it.

Rutgers was also unable to run the ball in this contest, as they looked very much like a team playing on short rest following a triple overtime game. The line could not get much of a push, and the backs were unable to do anything with limited space to run. This was especially unfortunate if you watched Louisville lose to UCF last week, as the Golden Knights won by running it down their throats. If you like playing pointless hypotheticals, you could think the results would have been different if Paul James played, but injuries are part of the game and you have to just deal with it.

The defense only gave up 24 points, which isn't too bad, but they did a whole hell of a lot of bending with out breaking. The secondary predictable got torn to bits by Teddy Bridgewater (he missed quite a few throws and was missing his top receiver too), and more disconcertingly struggled against the run for what feels like the first time in three years. They managed to make some big plays to prevent the Cardinals from putting more points on the board, and gave the offense and opportunity to win, despite not playing well overall.

The red zone defense was very good, but they were in the red zone way too much for my liking. Jeremy Deering made a nice play providing coverage over the top to intercept a pass from Bridgewater in the end zone late in the first half. Jamal Merrell also blocked a kick, and Anthony Cioffi timed a blitz perfectly and sacked Bridgewater while also knocking the ball loose. Dave Milewski had an opportunity to scoop and score after that, but he fell on the ball instead. There was nobody around him, but it's tough to fault a lineman for just falling on top of it,

The star of the game for Rutgers was middle linebacker Steve Longa, who continued to be an explosive play maker on the inside. He burst through the line to make some plays in the back field,and continued to pile up his tackle total.

Rutgers played pretty poorly in this game, and it cost them a chance at an upset (even though the two teams are pretty evenly matched talent wise). Fortunately, UCF's win the following week over Louisville opened the door for Rutgers to win a share of the conference title should they win out.But there's still a long way to go before that.

Game 6: Louisville

Should have been Gary Nova with that trophy

Last season, Rutgers lost the final game of the regular season to Louisville, in a game that would have sent the Scarlet Knights to the Sugar Bowl had they emerged victorious. Dropped passes, costly turn overs and a very bad call by the officiating crew did Rutgers in, and prevented them from their date with the Florida Gators in the Super Dome. A year prior to that, Rutgers dropped a close contest to the Cardinals, thanks to a pair of chip shot field goal attempts missing. This lost ended up costing the Knights a share of the Big East crown. Two years, two tough losses in games that should have been won.

A year ago, I felt that Rutgers had every advantage going in their favor in their Thursday night contest against Louisville. They were at home. Teddy Bridgewater was playing not only with a broken wrist but a sprained ankle as well. Charlie Strong was rumored to be in the running for the head coaching positions at Auburn and Tennessee. The new Call of Duty game had just been released. None of that stuff ended up mattering though, and Louisville won the game.

This year, everything seems to be going against the Scarlet Knights. They are playing their second road game in five days. They were pushed to triple overtime in their latest contest. And they've dealt with a number of injuries. Maybe they can turn the tables this time, and beat the Cardinals for the first time since 2009.

Charlie Strong's squad has yet to be tested this year. The Cards handled Ohio, Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky, Florida International and Temple with relative easy. All of those games were pretty much over before half time. This is one area the Scarlet Knights could have an edge, Rutgers has played three close games down to the wire, and Louisville might not be ready to play all four quarters.

Another factor working in favor or Rutgers is special teams. Janarion Grant has been a dynamic kick returner this year, and he could change this game with another one of his explosive returns. Nick Marsh is going to be very important as well for Rutgers to win the field position battle. I'm expecting a trick play out of this unit as well. They are going to maybe have to make multiple big plays for Rutgers to win tonight.

On defense, Rutgers will of course face Teddy Bridgewater, who is the best quarterback in the country in my opinion. The Knights' secondary has been torn to shreds by Fresno State and SMU, so they will be facing another tough test tonight. I'm not feeling good about this group, but schematically, Louisville isn't as much of a challenge. Rutgers had trouble with three and four receiver sets since they have stayed in base personnel, but Louisville will run more traditional sets than those two.Also, they are going to attack you more vertically, so the alignment issues and natural picks on short crossing routes won't be as big of a problem. The front seven is going have to continue to get to the quarterback like they have done so often thus far this season. The Cardinals running game should not pose much of a problem for Rutgers.

Offensively, Rutgers is going to have to put a lot of points on the board. Gary Nova has been great so far this year, and he needs to have another big day. Hopefully they can get Leonte Carroo more involved early, and maybe Brandon Coleman will be healthier than he has been so far this season. Pass protection has been some what of a problem this year, and Louisville gets after the quarterback, so some screens and short passes early should be used to try to slow them down. Savon Huggins will start, but I think Justin Goodwin will and should receive the majority of carries. Regardless of who is running, the offensive line is going to need to knock people around up front. It will be intersting to see how they split time at right guard between Chris Muller and Antwan Lowery. Muller has been very good this year, but Lowery received the bulk of playing time last Saturday.

I really hate Louisville and I really, really think the Scarlet Knights have a shot, but I sadly do not see the secondary being able to stop Bridgewater. The offense will score points and it will be closer than the experts think, but ultimatly I think the Scarlet Knights will come up just short.

Rutgers 41 Louisville 44

Game 5: SMU

Rutgers opens up Big East play for the final time today, as they travel to Dallas to take on the Ponies of SMU.

SMU is not a good team, and Rutgers should be able to push them around up front on both sides of the ball. QB Garret Gilbert is a turn over machine, and I don't think this will be close.

The biggest thing to watch is how the secondary plays against a pass heavy offense in their last tune up before facing Tedddy Bridgewater next week. THis won't be a physical game, and hopefully Rutgers can rest their starters late in the game to get them ready for Thursday's game.

Injuries continue to be a big problem for Rutgers, and Paul James and Jamal Merrell are the to most notable absences today. I'm not saying the next two games will define Savon Huggins career, but they probably will.

Rutgers 41 SMU 17

Rutgers Rallies to Overcome Early Mistakes to Beat Arkansas

Game 4: Arkansas

After a tough season opening lose to Fresno State, the Scarlet Knights took care of business against the two cupcakes on their schedule. They will face their second real test of the season today, as they welcome the Arkansas Razorbacks to Piscataway this afternoon. The Hogs are the first SEC team to come to High Point Solution Stadium. Arkansas is off to a 3-0 under new coach Brett Bielema, although they have not faced a real tough test as of yet.

Rutgers on Offense- Gary Nova tore up Arkansas last year, and he should be throwing early and often today. He missed most of last week's game after suffering a concussion, but he is fine now and should play well against a weak Hogs secondary. I would like to see Leonte Carroo more involved in the offense after seeing hardly any targets the last few weeks. The Nation's leading rusher Paul James should keep the offense some what balanced, but I think he will take a bit of a back seat today.

Rutgers on Defense- Arkansas quarterback Brandon Allen is apparently not going to play today, so expect Arkansas to run the ball. A lot. The Razorbacks are a power running football team at heart (their coaching staff was at Wisconsin, remember), and they will be more so with out their signal caller. True freshman and 5 star recruit Alex Collins has been great so far, and sophomore Jonathan Williams has been nearly as good. Both backs are averaging over 100 yards per game. This is a big game for Ike Holmes, as he needs to hold double teams to free up Darius Hamilton and Steve Longa to make plays. Longa has been getting better every week, but he faces a great challenge today and must show he can come off of blocks and make plays. I would also expect Lorenzo Waters to play down in the box a ton in this game in an effort to stop the run.

Prediction- Rutgers 27 Arkansas 21
With Allen out, the Razorbacks will be a one dimensional offense and Rutgers can load up to stop the run. I think Nova is in line for another big day against this Arkansas defense.

Game 1: Fresno State

Rutgers will kick off the 2013 season tonight against Fresno State. This is a very tough match up for the team, since their young secondary faces Derek Carr, who is one of the best quarterbacks in the nation. Tim DeRuyter' squad has BCS aspirations this year, and this is their marquee out of conference game, so they should be fired up tonight.

Rutgers defense has to get a lot of pressure on Carr one way or another (their offensive line is very bad), and have some resemblance of a quality offense to win. But Carr against a young defense is a daunting task, especially since this is a late night game on the west coast. I want to pick Rutgers to win, but I think they will lose a tightly contested game tonight. Here's to hoping I'm wring.

If you missed it, I previewed every position group on Rutgers earlier this week. Read it. Also, I will have more on what I expect from the team this season and the remaining 2013 recruiting profiles next week after I finish this game review.

Rutgers 2013 Season Preview: Defensive Backs

Rutgers 2013 Season Preview: Defensive Lineman

The defensive line should be one of Rutgers’ biggest strengths this season. The Scarlet Knights not only have a talented starting four up front, but they have a ton of quality depth at the position, and that will be huge since they figure to face a lot of up tempo offenses this year. As usual, this group will be a bit undersized, but they will more than make up for any size deficiencies with speed and quickness. They should be a pain in the ass for opposing offenses to block, and also free up second level defenders to make plays.

Senior nose tackle Ike Holmes was outstanding last year while receiving his first opportunity as a starter, but his season was cut short after he suffered a wrist injury in the fourth game. When he is healthy, Holmes can provide some much needed size at the center of Rutgers’ defense. He is a very strong player who can hold double teams and fight through them, and that allows everyone around him to make plays. It is an unglamorous job, but it is vital to the success of the defense as a whole, and you won’t find a lot of guys in college who can eat up blockers as well as Holmes.

Starting next to Holmes as the three technique tackle is sophomore Darius Hamilton. The former 5 star recruit was involved in the defensive line rotation as a reserve last season, and he flashed his talent and made some plays. Hamilton is undersized for a defensive tackle, but he makes up for it with his technique that is second to none (having a father who played in the NFL probably helped a ton in that regard) and his quickness and burst off the snap. With Holmes eating up blockers next to him, Hamilton should be freed up to make a ton of plays in the back field.

Backing up at nose tackle is Kenneth Kirksey, who received a lot of praise from Kyle Flood during training camp. He would probably start on a lot of teams, and he is another big bodied guy who can take on double teams. Third string nose tackle Al Page is a talented player who should see some playing time as well, and he fits the same mold as Holmes and Kirksey.

Daryl Stephenson and Sebastian Joseph are listed as the co-backups at the three technique spot. The red shirt sophomore Stephenson is a quick player who missed all of last season with a lower body injury. Now that he is healthy, he should be a productive back up. Joseph is a true freshman, and he is quick off the snap and has a massive wing span on him that can not only combat blockers, but knock down some passes as well.

On the outside, Jamil Merrell starts at the strong side defensive end spot. He really broke out last year when moving inside to tackle, but he is a better fit on the end. He is capable of containing the outside and standing his ground against blockers, and he has tremendous quickness that allows him to make plays in the backfield. He is not an explosive pass rusher, but he is a very solid all-around player. Like his brother Jamal, he was named a captain and must take on a big leadership role on this defense.

Starting at the weakside end or “R” position is the senior Marcus Thompson. Thompson was effective last year in this position a year ago, and like Merrell, he is very strong against the run. It is tough to get outside of him, and he has the quickness to beat blockers off the ball and make plays in the backfield. He is also not a dominant pass rusher, but he will often drop back into coverage, as the “R” is considered a hybrid lineman/linebacker in the Scarlet Knights’ defense.

Backing up on the strong side are sophomores Djwany Mera and Max Issaka. They will both probably be utilized as situational pass rushers. At the “R” position, converted linebackers Dave Milewskki and Quanzell Lambert make up the second unit. Milewski missed all of last season with a knee injury, and he will finally get an opportunity to see the field after suffering multiple torn ACLs. Lambert came to Rutgers as a highly touted middle linebacker, but he is a better fit at end. He is quick to diagnose plays and is a very strong tackler. Red shirt freshman Julian Pinix Odrick would have been involved in the the line rotation, but he suffered a serious injury during spring able and will likely miss the entire season.

The defensive line will be the backbone of Rutgers’ entire team. This position group has by far the most talent, depth and experience of any at Rutgers right now. The departure of Scott Vallone will certainly hurt, but this may be the best group Rutgers has ever had up front on their defense.

Rutgers 2013 Season Preview: Linebackers

It’s tough to replace players like Khaseem Greene and Steve Beauharnais. The two linebackers have been the heart and soul of Rutgers’ defense the last three years, making plays all over the field and providing important leadership and communication to the rest of the defense. Those two were a big part of Rutgers defense which was amongst the best in the nation the last couple years, and Rutgers defense won’t be the same without them. The current group of linebackers, however, is still very talented, and should be able to provide leadership to the rest of the defense.

Senior Jamal Merrell leads this current pack of linebackers, starting on the strong side. Merrell is a long, athletic player who can do a lot of different things for a defense. He can make plays outside in space, and take on the tight end one on one in coverage. He plays a lot up on the line of scrimmage, and he can hold the edge as well. As a three year starter, Merell must step up and take a leadership role on this defense. He is the most experienced player on this defense by far, and he was named a team captain.

Starting at weak side linebacker is junior Kevin Snyder. This is Snyder’s first crack at being a starter, but he has played a lot of football for the Scarlet Knights the last two years, backing up all three linebacking positions. He is a tough player who can stop the run on the interior, and he is also pretty athletic on the outside and in coverage. Playing on the weakisde, he should be freed up to make a ton of plays and be the unit’s top playmaker.

Taking over in the middle is red shirt freshman Steve Longa. Longa is interestingly enough from the same high school as Beauharnais (Saddle Brook), and he will have to make the majority of the defense’s calls despite seeing the field at the collegiate level for the first time. Longa is a very fast and athletic player, and he should be able to make plays all over the field. He is a bit smaller than a traditional inside backer, so it will be interesting to see how he handles blockers and fighting through trash.

Quentin Gause will back up on the strong side. He doesn’t have the length you usually see from Rutgers strong side backers, but he makes up for it with his burst and speed. He has some experience, but that has mostly come on special teams. True freshman LJ Liston makes up in the middle, and he is a big backer who can lay the wood on ball carriers inside. Davon Jacobs moves down from safety to back up the weak side, and he should be a very good player in coverage who can also make plays in space.

Rutgers linebacking corps lost two very special players, but this unit should still be very solid this year. Merrell should be able to take on a lot of that vacated leadership role, and Snyder will make a lot of plays on the weakside. Longa I very talented player who has a lot of potential, but he is a question mark right now since he hasn’t played at this level yet. He has to prove himself not only as a player at a new position, but as a signal caller as well. I believe in him, but it may take some time. Gause, Liston and Jacobs are youngsters at the position who should provide some quality depth behind these solid three starters. 

Rutgers 2013 Season Preview: Wide Receivers

Rutgers has a very rich recent history of producing quality wide receivers. Every receiver that moves on from Rutgers seems to catch on with an NFL team, and that even includes the ones who transfer out. The Scarlet Knights have traditionally preferred big receivers in their pro style of offense and this year’s crop of receivers fit that mold, and is a very exciting bunch. This group underachieved to a certain degree last year, but I think they will improve a lot this season. There are big play threats, reliable possession receivers, and some exciting freshman. This is a well-rounded group, and they should provide plenty of options for Gary Nova.

When you look at Rutgers roster, it’s easy to see who their very best player is. That would be red shirt junior wide receiver Brandon Coleman, who projects as a first round pick in this upcoming April’s draft. Coleman has drawn Plaxico Burress comparisons on the field, since he is a huge target on the outside who can outrun corners as a dangerous deep threat. Despite his tremendous size, Coleman is a true burner, and he is explosive with the ball in his hands as well. On top of all that, he can go up and get the ball with the best of them, and can provide some physicality. A staggering 23% of his catches went for touchdowns a year ago, and he will be the offense’s go to weapon. The biggest question about him will be his health (he is coming off knee surgery), but all indications are he’s ready to go. If they throw enough passes his way, he very well could earn All American honors.

One dimension Rutgers really lacked on offense last season was a reliable possession receiver who can work the middle and make the tough catches on third down. Mohamed Sanu’s early departure obviously played a huge role in that, but they appear to finally have a receiver who can do the things Sanu did ready to play. Red shirt freshman Leonte Carroo will be that guy, after a monster training camp. Carro played with Gary Nova in high school, so they have a natural connection, and he is a big bodied receiver with great hands and toughness over the middle.

Qurron Pratt seemed poised to step into that Sanu type role last year after a solid 2011 campaign, but he never really stepped up and was relegated to being the team’s fourth receiver. This year, he will have another opportunity to take on this possession receiver role, as the team’s third receiver. He has good hands and can find holes in the defense and get open over the middle.

Red shirt freshman Ruhon Pehlee will see a lot of time as well, as the team’s forth receiver. He is a much smaller receiver than Rutgers’ other receivers, but he is as explosive as they come, and he could be a big play target out of the slot.

At tight end, the Knights return Paul Carrezola, who has seen a lot of action as the team’s second tight end the past few years. He has not been much of a receiver, but he has been a pretty solid blocker, and he may catch more passes now that he doesn’t have to play fullback. The team’s second tight end will be Tyler Kroft. Kroft is on the smaller end of the size spectrum at the position, but he is a movable H-back type who has soft hands and can stretch the seam.

Carlton Agudossi is a huge target with some serious speed, and he seemed to have a chance of earning playing time early in camp, but he has yet to return from a hamstring injury he suffered during training camp. True freshman Janarion Grant is a smaller receiver, but he is as explosive as they come and should contribute right away as a kick returner. Andre Patton is a true freshman in the big, speedy mold that Rutgers prefers, and he and future slot receiver John Tsimis will redshirt.

Backing up the two tight ends are freshman Nick Ardiacono and Taylor Marini. Both player could see action this year, and they are both strong in-line blockers who will need a lot of work to become threats as receivers.

Junior wide receiver Miles Shuler decided to transfer from the school prior to the team’s Fresno State game week preparation. Shuler is a good kid and this is a very amicable split, but he saw the writing on the wall and decided to leave. He isn’t the kind of big receiver the Knights like and he was buried on the depth chart. It was a shame they never red shirted him or tried him out at defensive back. Early signs point to him transferring to California to play in Sunny Dykes’ air raid offense.

Rutgers proud tradition at receiver should continue this year, with their talented stable of receivers. Coleman may go down as the best receiver Rutgers has ever had, Carroo and Pratt provide solid possession options, and Pehlee and Grant provide plenty of game breaking explosiveness. Rutgers won’t be a pass first team this year, but they have plenty of weapons to attack defenses with when they do go to the air.