Rutgers Team Report

INSIDE SLANT

Rutgers is not yet at a stage where it gets blase over second-tier bowl games. It might be getting close.

The St. Petersburg Bowl wouldn’t have been the Scarlet Knights’ first pick of destinations a month ago, but most fans would have taken that and been grateful following the season-opening loss to Cincinnati. It’s a good result from a young team that starts a true freshman at quarterback, and a poor result from a team that, at its best, looked capable of doing more.

In short, 12 games into the 2009 season, this is a Rutgers team that is probably in an appropriate spot. It did well against the lesser teams on his schedule, save for a surprising loss to Syracuse, but fell to the Big East’s big three: Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and—for the 15th time in a row—West Virginia.

Rutgers enters the St. Petersburg Bowl with an 8-4 record, but only three of those wins came against bowl-bound teams—Connecticut, South Florida, and Army. So it’s not a team that can take an opponent like Central Florida lightly.

In that respect, the short turnaround time could be a blessing. Coach Greg Schiano noted that it’s similar to a bye week, with just a week off between the team’s regular-season finale against West Virginia and the kickoff of the bowl game.

That would be good news for the Scarlet Knights. Rutgers had two bye weeks in the regular season, and won the following games by a combined 73-0, knocking off Texas Southern 42-0 and South Florida 31-0. So George O’Leary and his offensive coaching staff should prepare for a Scarlet Knights defense that is prepared for whatever they’ve shown on film.

NOTES, QUOTES

Scouting The Offense:   Rutgers can score points, but a bunch of them come from the defense and special teams. The offense has been inconsistent in 2009, and comes down to two big factors. Can the running game, led by Joe Martinek, gain tough yardage against good defenses? And can the offensive line hold off the pressure long enough, and quarterback Tom Savage throw it accurately enough, to get speedy Tim Brown and dangerous Mohamed Sanu the ball with room to move? If either of those happens, the offense looks smooth and sharp. If not … there’s a lot of three-and-outs.

Scouting The Defense:   Rutgers defense has been dominant but only against the bad teams on the schedule. The dirty little secret of the Scarlet Knights is that they wound up 0-3 against the elite Big East teams, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and West Virginia. Running quarterbacks have traditionally hurt the Scarlet Knights, but any team that turns the ball over is going to have a hard time overcoming it because the Rutgers defense has a knack for turning those into defensive scores.

Matchup To Watch:   Rutgers’ offensive line vs. Central Florida DEs Bruce Miller and Jarvis Geathers—Miller and Geathers led Conference USA in sacks during the regular season. The duo has a knack for getting to the ballcarrier behind the line of scrimmage. Preventing that from happening has been a problem for the Scarlet Knights offensive line, and Anthony Davis in particular will be under the microscope as he looks to impress scouts at the next level.

Quote To Note:   “Look, it’s going to be what it’s going to be. If we won more games then it wouldn’t be a situation where you have to worry. We didn’t. Right now we are who we are. I’m not ashamed of who we are. I think we’re growing. We’re going to become great. Right now we’re not great. So you know what? We’ve got to deal with it.”—Rutgers coach Greg Schiano told the Newark Star-Ledger, on playing in an early bowl game in the middle of the school’s exam period.

STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL

Bowl Breakdown:   Rutgers vs. Central Florida, St. Petersburg Bowl, Dec. 19, St. Petersburg, Fla.—The Big East -Conference USA matchup may not be a sexy as one that would have pit the Scarlet Knights against a major conference foe, but Greg Schiano’s crew can’t underestimate the Knights. UCF finished the regular season on a three-game winning streak, including a five-point win over what was a surging Houston squad.

Players To Watch:  

QB Tom Savage—How does he handle the blitz? That’s been the question surrounding the freshman quarterback most of the season, and certainly since a disappointing performance in a November loss to Syracuse that saw the Orange succeed by blitzing the freshman early and often. He can definitely expect the same treatment in the bowl game.

CB Devin McCourty—McCourty is on the field more than any other Rutgers player, considering he’s an every-down cornerback and on all the special teams units. Wherever he is, the opposing team has to keep track of him, because the fifth-year senior can turn an opposition mistake into a touchdown.

WR Mohamed Sanu—Everyone knows to gameplan against Tim Brown by now, assuming the senior is healthy. But Sanu may be an even trickier matchup, because the Scarlet Knights get him the ball through the air, on the ground on end-arounds, and in the pocket in the Wildcat formation.

DE Jonathan Freeny—Freeny leads the Scarlet Knights with 8.5 sacks on the season. He’ll be relied upon to put pressure on the quarterback and allow the opportunistic Scarlet Knights linebackers and secondary the chance to make plays in the back.

Roster Report:  

• Senior WR Tim Brown missed all but a token portion of his final home game on Dec. 5, thanks to a sprained ankle that he tweaked in warm-ups and re-aggrevated on a second-quarter run. He’ll probably play in the bowl game, but the fact that it’s one of the earliest on the slate won’t make it any easier.

• LB Antonio Lowery missed the last two games with an undisclosed injury, but hopes to be back for the bowl game.