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Three straight losses to start Big Ten play isn’t doom and gloom for Rutgers football. In fact, Gerry DiNardo thinks that the Scarlet Knights are headed to a bowl game.
Rutgers has come through a tough stretch of three games against three opponents currently ranked in the top 10 of the current USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll. But Rutgers is nonetheless 3-3 (0-3 Big Ten) and has a much more manageable second half of the schedule when it comes to conference play.
Big Ten analyst Gerry DiNardo believes that Rutgers can at least get three wins to qualify for the postseason. He said the Scarlet Knights returning to a bowl game is something he sees happening in the second half of the season.
“For me, it is Rutgers going bowling, because I think there were 3-0 to start with right, three games they should have won if they would have lost them [then] they would have been disappointed – they were better than those three teams,” DiNardo said on the Big Ten Network about what he sees shaking out in the second half of the Big Ten season.
“And now they had that really tough go and I think there’s three – I’m not going to pick them out, anybody can look at the schedule – I think there’s three games on the schedule where they match up and they can win. I think Rutgers goes bowling.”
Rutgers hasn’t made a bowl game since 2014 when, under then-head coach Kyle Flood, they beat North Carolina in the Quick Lane Bowl.
DiNardo, a standout offensive lineman at Notre Dame who was a former head coach who made stops at LSU and Indiana, has been consistently high on the rebuilding effort undertaken by head coach Greg Schiano at Rutgers.
Rutgers plays Northwestern (2-3) this week then has a much-needed bye week before playing at Illinois (2-5).