Who is the best football team in the Big East? West Virginia you say. Could be. South Florida. Nah. The will have that annual swoon. Pittsburgh? Doubtful. Cincinnati. Perhaps. Rutgers? Can’t be. They were pick last in Conference.
Well the last we looked they were 4-1 and no. 35 in the Sagarin ratings. Pretty lofty.
Rutgers is coming off of a surprising 34-10 win over a Pittsburgh team who lost narrowly at home to Notre Dame.
Greg Schiano’s team may have one of the best defenses in the country and close to the best turnover ratio. They are also 3 points away from an undefeated season.
Rutgers still struggles on offense, but score many points off of defensive turnovers.
Rutgers blitzed Pittsburgh effectively, sacking their quarterbacks on many occasions and forcing many turnovers.
Ray Graham got his 165 yards on 24 carries, but many of them were meaningless. He had 226 against South Florida.
Rutgers hosts Navy on Homecoming Saturday. Many call it a trap game, but this is not as good a Navy team as last season when they played in a bowl game and Rutgers has a far improved defense, capable of stopping the tricky Navy offense.
If Rutgers can get by Navy and then Louisville on the road the following week, they should be ranked heading into an October 29 home game, probably on national tv against West Virginia.
Right now Rutgers is a lock for at least the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium.