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Rutgers football head coach Greg Schiano may not believe in moral victories, but that is precisely what his team’s 20-13 loss at then No. 19 Michigan last week was in terms of their rebuilding process. Now with No. 10 Ohio State on Saturday, Rutgers doesn’t exactly have an ideal bounce-back game.
But, it is a game that comes at a good time for a Rutgers program looking to once again see how they stack up against the very best in the Big Ten.
Ohio State, despite seeing their spot in the polls drop following a Week 2 home loss to Oregon, is still a feared team. The Buckeyes have won the Big Ten outright the past four seasons and are brimming with talent.
But the defense is a major concern with significant turnover in the two-deep this offseason due to graduation, players leaving for the NFL Draft, and transfers. The Buckeyes are also young at quarterback and the offensive line is a concern as the unit is still coming together.
Is Ohio State set for a down year due to rebuilding or was the loss to Oregon merely a bump on the road to Indianapolis and the Big Ten Championship Game? Big Ten Network analyst Gerry DiNardo, a former head coach at Vanderbilt, LSU, and Indiana, isn’t sure what to make of this Buckeyes team quite yet.
“Hard to tell,” DiNardo told ‘Rutgers Wire.’
“The year they won their last national championship, they lost to Virginia Tech in their second game. They had some issues at quarterback which they don’t really have this year. It was a challenge so it is hard to say. Do I think they’re going to be as good as they’ve been in recent years? It doesn’t look that way but I’m not ready to say they can’t win the Big Ten and be a playoff team – it doesn’t look that way right now. The defense obviously is the biggest challenge.
“Any time a team has that kind of talent they can develop into a pretty good team in eight weeks.”
Does this make Ohio State beatable? Well, considering that Rutgers has never beaten the Buckeyes in their previous seven meetings, it is a stretch to say that Ohio State should be on upset alert. But the Buckeyes are a bit more vulnerable this year and Rutgers, especially after their second-half performance in Ann Arbor last week, must be brimming with confidence.
The hope for Rutgers is to hang in the game and keep things interesting in the fourth quarter. The Scarlet Knights made some tremendous adjustments at halftime last Saturday of what was a 20-3 game. Rutgers emerged in the third quarter more physical and dominant along the trenches.
DiNardo was positive in what he saw from Rutgers in the Michigan loss, saying that “I didn’t see Michigan take their foot off the gas, Michigan’s a really athletic defense, really well-coached.” He thinks Rutgers matches up well in the trenches against Ohio State.
Rutgers defensively limited Michigan to just 44 yards of total offense. Offensive coordinator Sean Gleeson opened things up on the other side of the ball as Rutgers very nearly tied the game late in the fourth quarter.
It is this solid second-half performance that could well be a building block as Rutgers takes a step up in opponent this weekend at SHI Stadium.
“The one thing consistent thing is how hard they play, they played hard last year,” DiNardo said.
“You look at the second half of the Michigan game and I think it is a little bit of foreshadowing of what we will see from the Rutgers offense – they ran a lot of option, they possessed the ball, short passes
“I think they’re further along offensively than they were early last year. They probably picked up where they ended. I just think conceptually they’re really good, Sean does a good job with them. They had Michigan on their heels.”