During his well-documented year away from football in 2011, Urban Meyer addressed the Rutgers football team in part as a favor to its former head coach and close friend Greg Schiano.
“I remember (Meyer) saying that the program we were in, it was the right way of doing things. When he watched us on film, he liked our effort,” senior center Betim Bujari said, according to NJ.com. “And I believe that effort is still here. That's one thing that we have the advantage of over a lot of teams.”
Which is why Meyer — who is, of course, now the head coach at Ohio State — will be damned if his Buckeyes overlook the Scarlet Knights when the schools meet for the first time Saturday afternoon in Columbus.
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| RUTGERS SCARLET KNIGHTS |
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5–1, 1–1 BIG TEN ROSTER | SCHEDULE |
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3:30 PM – SATURDAY, OCT. 18 OHIO STADIUM COLUMBUS, OHIO |
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“Rutgers is probably the most-improved team in the country," he said Thursday on his weekly radio show.
After a dismal 6-7 campaign last season, the Scarlet Knights are off to a 5-1 start in the first-ever campaign as a member of the Big Ten after toppling Michigan two weekends ago.
"To watch people storm the field, it caught my eye. I was watching the end of that thing," Meyer said of the game. "Our guys will really prepare for this game, I can tell you that."
After all, for as much as Rutgers seems to be the punchline of just about every Big Ten expansion joke, it has exceeded those relatively low expectations. Much of such success is kindled by an improving senior quarterback in Gary Nova, whose propensity to throw the football to the wrong team last year got him benched. Its defense is tied for third in the nation with 24 sacks.
Still, head coach Kyle Flood's crew comes to Columbus and the unfamiliar confines of Ohio Stadium as 21-point underdogs, according to VegasInsider.com. That sort of pisses them off.
“We’ve been underdogs all year,” junior wide receiver Leonte Carroo said, according to the Daily Record. “A lot of teams don’t respect us. I feel like Ohio State still has no respect for us. We’ve just got there and play hard and have a great week of practice and everything will take care of itself.”
Added Carroo: “Maybe people think (our success is) luck. You never know. I just feel like no matter who beat all year no one will ever give us respect. We’ve got to go out there and continue to earn it.”
A win against a blue blood like Ohio State, though, would surely go a long way for a program looking to make a statement.
Opponent Breakdown
For Rutgers to pull off an upset, it's critical for quarterback Gary Nova to be the 2014 edition of himself and not the 2013 version.
This season, Nova has offered the Scarlet Knights offensive stability and a bona fide playmaker. He's completing 62 percent of his passes and has 1,601 yards and 13 touchdowns through six games.
Perhaps most importantly, Nova has trimmed his interceptions to seven after throwing 14 picks last year.
That Gary Nova, the one who Kyle Flood benched late last season after 28 career starts, likely won't stand much of a chance against an opportunistic Ohio State squad.
The Gary Nova of late, the one who passed for 404 yards and three touchdowns against the Wolverines, could give them a fighting chance.
"That quarterback had a hell of a day against our rivals," Meyer said. "So we’ve got our hands full. We feel they have very quality receivers … we’re gonna be very aggressive, we’ve got to get this quarterback down because he’s playing the best he’s ever played right now."
With Nova's strong play, Rutgers average a respectable 30 points and 427 yards of offense a game. On defense, the Scarlet Knights are giving up just 22 points, but nearly 400 yards a contest. A strong defensive line that's among the nation's best in getting pressure on the quarterback should give a young Ohio State offensive line a challenge.
Buckeye Breakdown
When we last saw Ohio State, it was gut-punching Maryland on the road in arguably its best game of the season. On offense, the Buckeyes were dynamic, efficient, and, consequently, dominant against a Terrapins defense that looked three steps too slow. On defense, the long-maligned unit abused Maryland's quarterbacks and rendered the big-play threat of Stefon Diggs useless.
Since an early-season loss to Virginia Tech, Ohio State has been on the upswing. In blowouts of Kent State, Cincinnati and Maryland, the Buckeyes are winning by an average of 56-17. And most of all, they seem like a team that's improving with each passing week.
"We're a young team that's getting older. You'd expect that, you'd anticipate that, but sometimes that doesn't happen," Meyer said Monday. "I think you see a lot of maturity starting to occur ... You see a freshman quarterback that is playing very well. You see young receivers starting to develop, an offensive line that's starting to solidify themselves."
Redshirt freshman quarterback J.T. Barrett is seizing control of the offense. Ezekiel Elliott's turning into the team's feature running back. Michael Thomas, Dontre Wilson and Jalin Marshall are emerging as playmakers on the perimeter. The offensive line, which gave up seven sacks to the Hokies, has been the backbone of a resurgent run game. Ohio State's improved, but obviously far from perfect.
"We certainly have areas of weakness that we're working on," Meyer said.
Namely, he said, an offensive line that's going to face tougher tests as the conference season rolls along. The pass defense, which unraveled last season, also remains somewhat of an area of concern. The Buckeyes shut down Maryland, but Virginia Tech and Cincinnati had considerable success in the throwing game. Whether or not Ohio State's overhauled unit can withstand a truly high-powered outfit remains to be seen.
Fortunately for the Buckeyes, Nova —for as improved as he's been this season — isn't regarded as top-tier quarterback. To state the obvious, Ohio State will try and exploit his tendency to throw interceptions.
"That’s something that we definitely watch and feel like we can take advantage of. Because I mean, sometimes, he does get a little bit rattled and feels like he has to just throw it up there," redshirt freshman cornerback and New Jersey native Eli Apple said Wednesday. "But that’s something we’re going to try and capitalize on as a defense."
If the Buckeyes can do that, they should be able to snuff out any hope of an upset Saturday.
How It'll Play Out
Despite a bye week that threatened to slow down Ohio State's growing momentum, the Buckeyes come out as a team motivated to reassert themselves in a fluid national picture. Though their loss to Virginia Tech looks worse with every week (the Hokies are now 4-3 after losing to Pittsburgh Thursday night), the door to a spot in the college football playoff is cracked open.
For Meyer's squad to impress the committee that will decide its fate, Ohio State must win out and do so in dominating fashion. Expect them to play with such a mentality against a Rutgers team that, on paper, seems overmatched.
J.T. Barrett, who's been more successful than probably anyone couldn't imagined, has little trouble completing short, but effective, passes to a band of emerging playmakers in Elliott, Thomas, Wilson and Marshall. Ohio State's ability to strike a balance between the run-pass games keeps the Scarlet Knights off balance in front of the most hostile crowd they've faced all season.
Gary Nova, who was so superb against Michigan, falls backs into old habits under pressure. Against a Penn State defense that ranks in the top five for total and scoring defense, he threw five interceptions. He makes similar errors against the Buckeyes and, as a result, Rutgers is forced to overcome not only a motivated Ohio State team but itself as well.
ELEVEN WARRIORS STAFF PREDICTION: Ohio State 45, Rutgers 24.
