Rutgers football faces a huge task on Saturday at No. 3 Ohio State and will need to play a flawless game if they are to remain in it. If Rutgers is going to keep things close and competitive, then the defense will have to be impeccable.
Rutgers has had a strong defensive start to the season, allowing just 13 points last week in a 27-10 loss to Iowa. Against an Ohio State offense that is among the best in the nation, it clearly will have to be a perfect and flawless effort from Rutgers.
For Ohio State head coach Ryan Day, in his game prep leading up to this week he has seen the DNA of Greg Schiano in the Rutgers defense. Schiano, who spent three seasons as defensive coordinator at Ohio State, has pieced together a unit that is the best he’s had since arriving back with Rutgers in 2020.
“Certainly, Greg’s a big part of what they do. They have a new defensive coordinator there, but really haven’t changed very much at all in terms of the way that they’re doing it,” Day said this week during his weekly radio show.
“The secondary has become veteran you know, these guys have played a lot of football. And you have some bigger guys up front then in the past. So, you know, statistically, they’re doing a great job, and they played well again last week. So, you know, this is a defense by far in the three years, we played the best one we played since Greg’s been there,”
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Ohio State’s defense is no slouch either. Linebacker Tommy Eichenberg was named to the Chuck Bednarik Award weekly honor roll for his strong showing in last week’s 52-21 win over Wisconsin.
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