Rutgers football is just under a month and a half away, with the Scarlet Knights looking to rebound to bowl-eligible status after missing the postseason entirely last year. This season, Rutgers plays three games against Power Four teams that they must win to have their best chance at bowl eligibility. Those three teams are Boston College, Maryland, and Michigan State.
To start off, the Knights must beat UMass and Howard, obviously, to reach a bowl game. If they don’t, the season will get ugly fast. Assuming that they do, Boston College, Maryland, and Michigan State become the next must-win games for Rutgers.
Advertisement
Boston College finished last season with the worst record in the ACC. Michigan State and Maryland finished last season as the second- and third-worst teams in the Big Ten. On top of that, neither team has done much that makes it seem like the needle will be moving anytime soon. Neither team has a new coaching staff (aside from MSU hiring former Northwestern HC Pat Fitzgerald); none of the three did a stellar job in the transfer portal, and none of the three are projected to win more than five games this season. While Rutgers is projected to have a similar win total, they did something in the off-season that could be a needle mover. That something is revamping the entire defensive coaching staff.
Rutgers’ struggles against teams considered to be even slightly better than them are well documented. However, this year the Knights have been seemingly blessed with the opportunity to play more teams that they are either on par with or even better than, at least on paper. While the Knights do have some uncertainty heading into next season, some of it is positive uncertainty. Last season, the Knights’ defense set records for the amount of yardage given up per play. The odds that the defense is as bad or even worse this year under the new staff are very slim. In terms of quarterback, they have a choice between two players who have at least shown some sort of promise in the past.
If the Knights pull off victories in these games, they will more than likely need to find their last win for bowl eligibility against Wisconsin, Nebraska, or Northwestern. Rutgers will likely be a slight underdog in those games and will need to pull off a small upset. However, to have the best odds of making a bowl game, they will need to take care of the three teams listed above so they only have to do this once.
