Feel good about Rutgers chances to defeat Iowa for the following reasons:
- Rutgers has similar talent
I was surprised to see this myself, but if you look at team recruiting rankings, Rutgers recruits roughly in the same ballpark as Iowa, excluding the 2016 class, which was abbreviated for Rutgers due to a coaching change. They’re not Michigan, They’re not Penn State, but what what they are is a solid blue collar team that develops under rated recruits into top notch performers who generally don’t make mistakes, and execute at a high level, for the most part.
- Rutgers players are more explosive
What Iowa is lacking is the number of explosive players that Rutgers has, because New Jersey produces better athletes than Iowa. While Iowa has 1 Ihmir Marsette, Rutgers is filled with Marsettes. Rutgers has three players capable of taking the ball to the house on any given play:
- Raheem Blackshear
- Isaiah Pacheco
- Bo Melton
Pacheco had 142 yards rushing last year vs Michigan, and Blackshear had 102 yards rushing vs Penn State last year. Both will have a decent shot at topping the century mark vs Iowa, simply because Iowa doesn’t have the talent of the aforementioned teams.
- Rutgers has competitive QB play
If this were last year, Rutgers would likely be blown out. But with his 340 yard passing performance, ability to evade the rush, and penchant for buying time and finding open receivers vs UMass, McClain Carter has served notice that Rutgers is going to be competitive this year. Had Carter played for Rutgers last year, we would’ve had a decent chance of beating Penn State and Michigan State last year. This year, Carter gives us a decent chance of defeating everyone on the schedule, save Ohio State and Michigan, whose talent is leagues better than ours.
I noted that Iowa had 1 Sack vs Miami last week. As long as Rutgers can hold Iowa to a similar total, literally and figuratively, Carter should have a career day vs Iowa.
- Rutgers has size in the WR Corp
A key difference from last year, some of Rutgers receivers tower over their Iowa counterparts.
6-3 Daevon Robinson, 6-3 Isaiah Washington, 6-4 Stanley King, and 6-5 Jalon Jordan each could get their opportunity to shine vs Iowa.
- Rutgers Corners have NFL futures
Avery Young and Damon Hayes could be the best cover corner combo in the Big Ten. Hayes should be playing Sundays next year, and Young will get his shot the year after, should he choose to take it.
Both held their Umass counterparts to minimal productivity last week, and I see no reason why they can’t do the same to Iowa.
Here are the keys to a Rutgers Victory
- Avoid Turnovers- if we turn the ball over, it’s going to be blowout city, in favor of Iowa
- Match Iowa’s level of execution
- Run the ball and stop the run- Rutgers LBers must maintain gap integrity. Huge issue for us in Q1 last week, but the. Things settled down. I think we should be fine this week.
That said, I’m expecting a heck of a game with Rutgers barely prevailing. The first major upset of the ChriscAsh era:
