Greg Schiano is the dean of all Big East football coaches. Tough to believe, but he is in his 11th season.No coach is even close in tenure.
Schiano was hired in December,2010 and talked about Championships.
He had a great season in 2006,with a huge upset win over Louisville and had the Scarlet Knights in the Top Ten. Pretty heady stuff.
Since then,Rutgers has floundered and went a dismal 4-8 last season. Part of that was attributable to the aftermath of a career ending injury to Eric LeGrand in an October win over Army at the Meadowlands.
Rutgers has been picked to finish last this season in the Big East by nearly every scribe. We see the Knights as a bit better and the surprise team in Conference.
Rutgers returns sophomore qb Chas Dodd who threw for 1633 yards and 11 tds last season and in the process promising qb Tom Savage transferred to Arizona.
The Rutgers running game will be strong with Jeremy Deering returning and star frosh Savon Huggins coming in. He chose Rutgers over Notre Dame. All-time New Jersey rushing leader,Joe Martinek has been moved to fullback.
Dodd has some great targets to throw to in future NFLers Mohammed Sanu and Mark Harrison.
The offensive line is young and minexperienced.
Manny Abreu,Scott Vallone and David Rowe anchor a depleted defense which was one of the worst in the country last season.
San San Te, 14-20 in field goals last season,but not accurate beyond 40 yards,returns.
We see Rutgers going 6-6 and 3-4 in conference and earning a berth in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium in December. 7-5 is more probable to us
than 5-7 for the Knights.
They open on Thursday evening at home against North Carolina Central in the first meeting between the two schools.