College Football Action on Saturday afternoon and we will see the Big 10 Conference take on the Atlantic Coast Conference as the Rutgers Scarlet Knights grapple with the Boston College Eagles at Alumni Stadium in Chesnuthill, Massachusetts. The Scarlet Knights went just 5-8 last year while the Eagles were 6-6.
It was a rough season for the Scarlet Knights last year as they went just 5-8 overall. Still, they made it to a bowl game with a 5-7 record and that was because a team bowed out. Rutgers lost their bowl game to Wask Forest by 28 points, but they also got valuable extra practices, which is very important for a young team. The Scarlet Knights have six starters back from each side of the ball this year, but still, their talent level is not all that good, compared to the rest of the Big 10. It could be a long season for the Scarlet Knights.
After putting up 26.7 ppg in 2020, Rutgers saw their offense average just 19.7 ppg last year. We could see the offense make a bit of a comeback this year as in steps red-shirt freshman QB, Gavin Wimsatt, who was the 7th ranked high school QB a couple of years back. He did play in four games last year, but threw just 21 passes. He will be missing their top running bac k from last year, but five of the top six receivers do return. We could see more of an aerial game from Rutgers this year and that would be huge for them after ranking 114th in that department last year at 172.8 ypg.
Rutgers has not been a great defensive team for the past few years, but they did have their best showing in the last seven years on that side of the ball last year. The Knights allowed 32.1 ppg back in 2020 and 36.7 ppg in 2019, but gave up just 25.6 ppg a year ago. They were led by their pass defense and with all four starters back in their secondary, that will be a strength of them once again. The Knights will need their secondary to step up here again a solid QB in Phil Jurkovec.