2014-15 Football Previews – (Big 10) – Scarlet Knights
Rutgers makes the big jump from the AAC to the Big Ten this year. While no one can say the Big Ten is a strong football conference right now, it is a much better conference than the extremely weak AAC. The Scarlet Knights are likely to have their hands full this year.
Big Ten 2014-2015 College Football Preview – Rutgers Scarlet Knights (Link)
Head Coach: Kyle Flood
2013 Record: 6-7
Rutgers Odds to win the National Championship: +200,000
Season Win Total: 4.5
The oddsmakers obviously aren’t very high on this team’s chances based on their win total and their very long odds to win the title.
This is a Rutgers team that returns 16 starters from last year’s team, but that might not be enough. Rutgers went 6-7 last year despite playing a schedule that was significantly easier than the one they’ll play in 2014.
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A quick look down the Scarlet Knights Big Ten schedule and I’m fairly confident they’ll be an underdog in at least 7 of their 8 Big Ten games.
Team Strengths:
It’s all relative really, but I don’t see many strengths on this Rutgers team. The competition they will be playing against this year is likely to be much better than them on paper in every Big Ten conference game.
The Rutgers offensive line is deep and they have 99 career starts returning. They have plenty of size and strength on the line, and they’ll definitely need it going against much bigger and faster defensive lines than they have gone against in recent years.
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The Scarlet Knights don’t have a star like Ray Rice in the backfield, but they do have several very good runners this year. Paul James, Savon Huggins, Desmon Peoples, and Justin Goodwin are all going to see significant action this year. Rutgers needs a lot of production out of this running game.
Team Weaknesses:
Rutgers’ secondary was ripped apart on multiple occasions in a very weak conference last year. The Scarlet Knights allowed 300 passing yards or more on nine different occasions. Cincinnati threw for 507 yards, SMU threw for 484, and Fresno State threw for 456 yards.
All seven losses last for Rutgers also happened to be games where the team allowed 300 yards or more through the air. This is a major problem spot.
The Scarlet Knights have no leader at the quarterback spot. In fact, it’s hard to say who will get the starting job here.
Gary Nova is a senior, but his upside is very limited. The team would likely be better off giving this position to a youngster, but that would also likely cause some major growing pains in 2014.
Rutgers is going to have to pick it up in a big way on third down. The Scarlet Knights completed just 35% of their third-down conversions last season.
There is always a lot of talk about team speed and who has it and who doesn’t. I believe this Rutgers team is lacking team speed at key positions, and that will likely make them a blowout victim against many of the best in the Big Ten.
2014-2015 Rutgers Football Prediction: 4-8
Rutgers does have some talented players on their roster. If they were still playing in the AAC, they would be a 7-5 or 8-4 type of team. Instead, they have gone to the Big Ten to play some much tougher competition. Anyone who doesn’t think they’ll struggle with this at first must be a Rutgers homer.
This team just isn’t good enough to take on the tough Big Ten schedule and get out with more than four wins. A bowl berth is almost impossible, and a 3-9 record or worse wouldn’t shock me.
Long year ahead for the Scarlet Knights.
Rutgers Football Schedule
- 8/28/14 10:00 PM ET @WSU
- 9/6/14 TBD HOW
- 9/13/14 8:00 PM ET PSU
- 9/20/14 3:30 PM ET @NAVY
- 9/27/14 TBD TULN
- 10/4/14 7:00 PM ET MICH
- 10/18/14 3:30 PM ET @OSU
- 10/25/14 TBD @NEB
- 11/1/14 12:00 PM ET WIS
- 11/15/14 TBD IND
- 11/22/14 TBD @MSU
- 11/29/14 TBD @MD
