Rutgers football has a run defense that is in the top half of the Big Ten this season. On Saturday, they host Michigan and the conference’s top rushing offense.
It is a bit of a murder’s row for Rutgers, who faced Minnesota on Saturday (the Big Ten’s second-best run offense, averaging 223.1 yards per game) and now Michigan. The Wolverines are averaging 246 yards per game and have 25 rushing touchdowns this season.
Michigan is paced by running back Blake Corum, who has 1,078 rushing yards this season. On his way to the Big Ten’s Offensive Player of the Week honors, Corum had 177 rushing yards and a touchdown in this past Saturday’s win over Michigan State.
On Monday, Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano acknowledged the difficulty they face against this vaunted Michigan rushing attack.
“Well, it’s hard. Why do they have a good running game? They have a very good offensive line. They have two really good backs, probably more, but two that play a lot, and a quarterback that can run and pass,” Schiano told reporters.
“So you have to defend the pass, you have to defend his run. The offensive line is doing a good job blocking. They have got two upper-echelon running backs. So it’s one of the better outfits in America on offense. That’s why you look at where they are ranked in all those statistical categories that are up in the top. Have we played against people like that? Yeah, we have.
“We have to do a great job. We have to be at our very best to have a chance to slow them down. Are you going to stop them? No. No one’s stopped them. But we’re going to do everything we can to the best of our ability and see where that stacks up.”
Corum is being talked about as a serious contender for the Heisman and the Maxwell Award.
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Michigan (8-0, 5-0 Big Ten) plays at Rutgers (4-4, 1-4 Big Ten) at 7:30 PM ET on the Big Ten Network.
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