The Rutgers Football season is just over two months away so it is time to roll out the first round of schedule predictions. There will be one of these prediction articles released every month until the season starts meaning that this is part one of a three-part series that will be updated every month until season kickoff. These articles will have the entire Rutgers football season broken down game by game.
The Predictions
My initial prediction for the Rutgers football season is that the team will go 8-4 in the regular season making a bowl game with ease. In fact, if Rutgers does not make a bowl game this season or if they are forced to settle for a low tier 6-6 bowl game like the Fenway Bowl, it should be considered a complete letdown of a season.
The First Three Games
The first three games of the Rutgers football schedule will be against out-of-conference teams as Rutgers will finish its out-of-conference slate early in the season. Two of these games will be against “tune-up” teams in Howard and Akron. Hard to imagine that Rutgers does not take both of these games at home. Then comes the first test of the season, on the road versus Virginia Tech. Rutgers beat Tech in Piscataway last year however, that was before Tech seemingly pulled themselves together at the end of the year to finish the season with a military bowl win.
However, with the improvements Rutgers has made on offense and how Virginia Tech struggled in Big Ten games last year, this one should go to the Scarlet Knights starting them off 3-0.
Versus Big Ten Predictions
Now Rutgers starts to get into the teeth of their schedule, starting off with Washington on September 27th at 8 p.m. Washington was a great squad last year, and despite heavy losses in the offseason including their head coach, quarterback, and top wide receiver, they should still prove to be no pushover this year. However, they will still be significantly scaled back talent-wise, and Rutgers will be significantly powered up talent-wise. Plus, the game will be in Piscataway and it is a blackout game for Rutgers, so the Knights will have a strong home field advantage against their West Coast foe. All of these elements lead to a Knights win and 4-0 start.
Moving on to Nebraska the next week, my prediction is that this is where Rutgers takes their first loss of the season. Rutgers will be on the road in Lincoln which is never an easy task and for reasons that are hard to describe Nebraska has just always had the Knights number. My superstitions say that this script does not change here. 4-1
The next week is Wisconsin and my prediction is that the Knights will lose this one as well. Wisconsin is a good team, they may not be the class of the conference right now but they are not far behind. Rutgers is still taking steps to compete on that level and they may not be quite there yet. Rutgers falls to 4-2 here.
UCLA is up next and Rutgers will take this one. The game is in Piscataway meaning that the Bruins will have to make the cross-country trek that is an easy trail for no teams. The Bruins also played in a conference with a much different type of football which makes them a poor match for the ground-and-pound football of the Big Ten. Couple that with their bad record against winning power 5 teams and this matchup will fall to the Knights making them 5-2 on the year.
Then comes the USC game. After a lot of thinking and rethinking, my prediction is that the Knights will drop this game. USC lost the biggest piece on their whole team this offseason, yes and I do question their ability to succeed without him. That does not mean they will be a bad team though. My biggest issue with this game is the time.
In the game against USC, Rutgers will have to travel across the country to play a game at 11 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. That’s when most night East Coast games are ending. This is an extreme disadvantage for the Knights giving the Trojans an excellent opportunity to steal a win here. Knights fall to 5-3.
After going 1-3 in their last four Rutgers finally gets a break when they play Minnesota at home. Minnesota has been unimpressive lately and only stumbled into a bowl game last year because spots needed to be filled. They did win that bowl game, against a non-Power 5 team. Not a game the Knights should take lightly but one they should win. Rutgers improve to 6-3 on the year and secure a bowl game for the second year in a row.
They then get to play Maryland on the road in College Park and my prediction is that they will lose this game. I do not have a particularly strong reason for this, only that Maryland has done really well against Rutgers as of late. The Scarlet Knights drop this one and are 6-4 on the year.
Finally, I believe that Rutgers will pick up wins in their last two games of the season against Illinois and Michigan State. Both teams are very similar in their state as a football program. Both teams finished at the bottom or near the bottom of their division last season and neither of them has done anything spectacular to prove that they could turn that around in the offseason. Neither team made a bowl game or looked like they would be anywhere close to that in the years to come.
Yes, Michigan State did put up a scrap against Rutgers last year but that was because Rutgers had a quarterback who gave them countless opportunities to do so. With Rutgers’ improved quarterback room, Michigan State will not have that luxury this year. Rutgers takes both of these games to finish the season 8-4.