Rutgers football continued their winning ways in Week 3 of the college football season. They went into enemy territory and took down a game Temple Owls squad in Philadelphia, once again capitalizing on a key play from the defense to hold on for the 16-14 victory to move to 3-0 on the season for the second consecutive season.
The Scarlet Knights did add to their injury difficulties as one of the quarterbacks in the rotation, Gavin Wimsatt, left the field limping as the first quarter came to a close. Although he was seen with his helmet on, roaming the sidelines during the rest of the game – he did not return. With only one healthy scholarship quarterback available heading into Big Ten play, this will be an important situation to watch closely.
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Paul Myerberg of USA TODAY, released his weekly re-rank of all 131 FBS schools Monday morning and Rutgers, despite struggling against a team ranked in the 100’s, saw a slight increase in their ranking – jumping up six spots to No. 52. The rest of the Big Ten stayed close to their rankings last week, with only five teams swinging more than 10 spots from last week.
Northwestern’s struggles have then plummeting down the rankings. After being No. 51 after Week 1, the Wildcats are now down to No. 102 – one of two squads to from the Big Ten to be in the triple digits (Nebraksa). Indiana saw the largest jump in the conference, moving up 19 sports to No. 73. Three programs now sit in the top six of the rankings, and nine schools are in the top half with Illinois just in the bottom half at No. 68.
The easiest portion of Rutgers’ schedule is now behind them and they have some question marks heading into their first in-conference matchup at home against Iowa. The Hawkeyes are ranked just four spots above the Scarlet Knights so there will be drastic movement between these two teams in next week’s rankings. Iowa had trouble scoring in the first two weeks but dropped 27 in a Week 3 bounce-back against Nevada. No Big Ten matchup is easy, but if one of the injured QBs can get healthy in time, Rutgers may just make it a 4-0 start.
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Let’s check out how the Scarlet Knights compare to the rest of the Big Ten in the 1-131 re-rank.
| Last week’s rank | Teams | This week’s rank |
| 3 | Ohio State | 3 |
| 4 | Michigan | 4 |
| 8 | Penn State | 6 |
| 23 | Michigan State | 36 |
| 51 | Maryland | 37 |
| 48 | Minnesota | 39 |
| 47 | Wisconsin | 46 |
| 53 | Iowa | 48 |
| 58 | Rutgers | 52 |
| 68 | Illinois | 68 |
| 59 | Purdue | 70 |
| 92 | Indiana | 73 |
| 85 | Northwestern | 102 |
| 108 | Nebraska | 113 |
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