Taking a look at the size and experience of the Rutgers Lines and LBs and seeing how they match up against Purdue's equivalents.
- Purdue’s defense will face a Rutgers O-line which will be more typical of the units that Purdue will face this year at 306.4 lbs. which is slightly below average for B10 teams. As mentioned in previous weeks, the O-lines for this year’s B10 and OOC opponents are much younger than in years past. Still, Rutgers comes in at 2.6 years of experience which even this year, is slightly below the B10 average. The left side of their line (LT & LG) both are multi-year starters with the RT also having starts in a prior year. The Center and RG are both 1 year starters and once again, Purdue will play a team with a Freshman (or R-Frosh) at Center (Others were Louisville, Missouri, Minnesota & Wisconsin) . Combined, they have 65 collective starts.
- This year’s Purdue’s D-Line (Larkin, Robinson, Neal, Ezechukwu) averages about 277.5 lbs, down from the 283.5 lbs average of last year. They will be outweighed by the Rutgers line by about 28.9 lbs per man on average. Purdue’s average experience is 3.5 years, up from last year’s line of 3.2 year average. The size of this group will be well below average for a B10 team but conversely, well above average in terms of experience. As a unit they have decent experience as going into Saturday they have 71 collective starts.
- Purdue’s LBs (McCollum, Bentley, Bailey) come in at 243.3 lbs and are at 3.33 years of experience. That’s up about 1.5 lbs from last year and an additional year in collective experience (Up from 2.33 the last two years). They have a collective 79 starts between them (Counting McCollum’s starts at WKU). Size wise, this group is the largest in the B10 by 10+ lbs per man and above average in terms of experience. I’ve factored in McCollum instead of Hudson here. Should Hudson start, the average size increases slightly, years of experience doesn’t change but number of starts would drop off dramatically as Hudson has just 3.
- Purdue’s O-line (Hermanns, Evans, Baron, McCann, Steinmetz) will average 307.0 lbs per man, down by 2.6 lbs from last year’s 309.6 lbs. This puts them slightly below average compared to other B10 programs.They average 2.60 years of experience which is a significant drop from last year (3.6 years). This also places them just below average for the B10 and also for all opponents.Collectively, this group has 84 starts among them. Like McCollum, I’m still penciling in Hermanns instead of Swingler. Should Swingler start, again the average size will increase by 2lbs per man, the average experience would go up to 3.0 years and the number of starts would only drop by 5.
- At 290.75 lbs, Rutgers’s D-line is well above the average sized D-Line Purdue will face this year and just about the same as Wisconsin’s, size wise. They will be also well above average in terms of experience with a 3.5 year average. Unlike Wisconsin, only one player is a multi-year starter (DT-Joseph). The remaining three starters are all new this season.. They’ll be outweighed by Purdue’s O-line by just 16.25lbs per man. As mentioned, they return just the one starter from last year and have a collective 42 starts between them.
- The Scarlet Knight LBs also come in well below the average for Purdue’s opponents at 224.0 lbs. and will be one of the smallest they’ll face this season. On the other hand, they are going reasonably experienced and slightly above average with 3.33 years at the position. They have two multi-year starters. Together they have 43 starts.
Vegas predicts Purdue by 8.0 points
Compughter Ratings.com predicts a 24-13 Purdue win
MasseyRatings predicts a 27-17 Purdue win
Sagarin predicts an 9.98 point Purdue win
CollegeFootballPoll predicts a 3.71 point Purdue win*
*CollegeFootballPoll is the Cosgrove Computer formula for picking winners. So far this year in Purdue’s games it’s picked:
- Louisville by 20.09 points (Purdue lost by 7, computer off by 13 points)
- Ohio by 8.57 points (Purdue won by 23 points. computer off by 31 points)
- Missouri by 7.63 points (Purdue won by 32 points, computer off by 39 points)
- Michigan by 9.16 points (Purdue lost by 19, only game where computer didn’t underplay Purdue)
- Minnesota by 5.74 (Purdue won by 14, computer off by 19.74)
- Wisconsin by 28.25 (Purdue lost by 8, computer off by 20.25)
So, take that prediction with a large grain of salt.
After a fairly daunting gauntlet to start the first half of the season, Purdue finds itself at .500 with a 3-3 record. While Purdue can’t let up in the back half of the season, the schedule does get much more manageable.
Next up is Rutgers, who battled it out with Illinois last Saturday as to who would take over the coveted 13th spot in the B10 Power Rankings. Rutgers won, snapping a conference losing streak that covered two years and as many head coaches. It was also their first win of the year against a BCS opponent. Prior to Saturday, their only win was against Morgan State, and FCS team who entered their game Saturday with an 0-5 record. This will be the very first time Purdue and Rutgers will meet.
The average opponent rank (Using Compughter Rankings) for the two schools is Purdue 84.7 Rutgers 168.5. Unlike Purdue which doesn’t face any more ranked teams this season, Rutgers is just getting into the meat of their schedule and will face three ranked teams in their final six games.
Last Saturday, Purdue had several chances to make a close 17-9 loss even closer but as luck (much of it bad) would have it, it couldn’t. Such is the difference right now between a Top 10 team in Wisconsin and one that’s a year removed from being one of the worst P5 teams in the county.
Here’s a tidbit most people don’t know. Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor is pretty good and was on target to gaining 1,000 yards in 6 games, the first true freshman to do so. I’m surprised the TV people at ESPN didn’t pick up on that. Dws.
What has been impressive is the way that Purdue has continued to bring effort game in and game out. The good effort-bad effort roller coaster was a hallmark of the DH and DH2 eras. In fact, you even had a bit of that back in the Tiller days. Under Coach Brohm however, we haven’t seen any of that. There’s a part of me that still is waiting for the other shoe to drop but, who knows? Maybe it never does and this is the new “normal” for Purdue. Wouldn’t that be nice.
Between stifling defenses and stiff winds, Purdue’s offense has been largely underperformed these last three contests. Right now, the weather forecast for Saturday shows a high of 74 degrees, no clouds and 4mph winds. In other words, conditions should be perfect for Purdue.
A lot of Purdue’s “deficiencies” at O-Line and playmakers on offense have been hashed over but I suspect that Purdue will get “better” this weekend simply based on the competition.
I’d look for Purdue to try and establish their running game again and, Fuller or not, Purdue should be able to get outside the larger Rutgers line and get their running backs out in “space”. Rutgers is a respectable 51st in Total Defense and 47th in Rushing Defense but drilling down a bit, they haven’t faced a lot of teams adept at running the ball. In terms of ranking, they’ve faced just one program who’s rushing offense is above average (Ohio State at #17). After OSU, the next highest Rush Offense is Washington at 70th. Even with OSU ranking that high, the average for Rutgers’ opponents in Rushing Offense is 87th. Total Offense is slightly better with the average of teams they’ve faced coming in at 79.5th. (More on Purdue’s opponents below)
In the passing game, Purdue must hit their TEs down the seam when given the chance. Two weeks in a row, Purdue’s had TEs open and the QB’s have thrown low resulting in (contested) incompletions instead of 20-30 yard gains (or more). With Rutgers’ issues with their DBs, Purdue has to exploit those matchups more.
It’s probably also important to note that Rutgers has not been very good at getting into the opponent’s backfield. They rank 114th nationally in Sacks and 126th in Tackles For Loss. They’re big but don’t seem to be very agile or quick.
For the season, Rutgers is ranked 75th in Passing Yards Allowed and 70th in Pass Efficiency Defense, both are below average ranks so one could argue that they weren’t particularly good even before their injuries.
From the line up at the start of the season, Rutgers has had to replace a starting Safety and CB, promoting younger backups into starting roles. They’ve also resorted to moving WRs over to DBs. The starters all have good size but once you get past those front line players, the size and experience drops off significantly.
I’m unsure how much Nickle defense they played against Illinois but have to believe that is an area that can be specifically exploited by Purdue. With so many new bodies, and some new to the position, Purdue should get some open looks with the amount of misdirection they run.
Switching over to Purdue’s defense, it was unfortunate that the rookie LBs couldn’t step up and fill in for McCollum. It wasn’t surprising, just unfortunate. While you never know if Wisconsin would have eventually scored on its first two drives, having the rookie LBs in the game certainly sped up the process. Credit Hudson for coming in and filling in the gap created by McCollum’s injury. If McCollum can’t go this weekend, I’d expect to see Hudson out there from play one.
If you just look at the stats, it appears that Purdue is still pretty poor holding teams on the ground. However five of the six teams Purdue has played ranked above average in Rushing Offense. Only Michigan (#71st) falls below average. Note that the ranking of the worst team Purdue has faced is basically the same rank as the 2nd best team Rutgers has faced. Overall, the average ranking for Rushing Offense of Purdue’s opponents is 40.33rd. The Total Offense ranking average is 53.17th.
When you also consider Purdue’s faced the reigning Heisman Trophy winner in one game plus giving up half of their rush yards against Michigan after Bentley and Thineman was ejected and giving up 95 of the 295 that Wisconsin amassed in the first two drives without Hudson, those numbers don’t look nearly as bad.
Purdue’s defense continues to turn teams over. Once again, it forced a fumble in the redzone. After being able to force (by my count) four fumbles in that area of the field, you have to start considering it to be less a fluke and more of a concerted effort. Conversely, Purdue turned it over just the once, but it was a critical mistake at a critical time and against a team like Wisconsin, was just too difficult to overcome.
Purdue is currently a +.67/game in turnover margin (34th nationally) while Rutgers is a -.33/game (86th nationally). Last year at this time, Purdue also had a 3-3 record but was a horrid -1.17/game in turnover margin “good” for 122nd nationally.
Regarding Rutgers:
Last season, when Chris Ash took over the Rutgers program, Rutgers was pathetic on the field. So far this season, they’ve shown a bit more life but still have some serious issues.
They had an opportunity to bring in former Minnesota HC Jerry Kill as Offensive Coordinator and he’s been able to get the team focused and provide it with an offensive identity.
If you want to see what Rutgers wants to be, just take a look at Minnesota under Kill. They have several backs that can handle a heavy work load (including a grad transfer from Miami) as well as a “change of pace” back which adds more speed and agility plus a QB who isn’t going to put the ball up in the air much and really only wants to throw the ball off of play-action passes. In concept, it looks a lot like the Gophers of 2013 -2015.
Based on my viewing of their game with Illinois, Rutgers isn’t going to do much outside the ordinary. They are going to use power runs and counters to pound away at the line between the tackles. They often keep in a TE as a “H” back and will also use two backs to use as a lead blocker. They’ll run the read option but the QB keeps the ball about the same amount of time as did Minnesota’s this year, or, not much.
From a Purdue perspective, that type of offense would seem to play right into Purdue’s strong points, a fairly stout D-line and experienced LBs. However, Minnesota was able to reel off a long drive against Purdue late in their game leading up to their go-ahead field goal and Wisconsin also ran out the clock on Saturday with a long drive as well. That said, Rutgers is not Minnesota and certainly not Wisconsin.
Much like Purdue, Rutgers doesn’t yet have all of the pieces in place to be that effective running their offense. Their national ranks are 118th in Total Offense, 58th in Rush Offense and 123rd in Pass Efficiency Offense. Needless to say, these numbers are well below average and are dangerously close to the bottom of D1 Football (129 teams).
As for Rutgers’ QB spot, Rutgers got a Grad Transfer QB in Kyle Bolin from Louisville. He started the first five games of the season but was replaced during their bye week after a “competition” with Giovanni Rescigno, who also had five starts last season. Much more mobile than Bolin, Rescigno was able to move Rutger’s offense fairly efficiently (playing Illinois didn’t hurt). What did hurt was a helmet that Rescigno took to his knee while keeping the ball on the zone read. He was knocked out of the game for a short while and re-entered the game with a brace on his left knee. At one point, he crumpled to the ground untouched while making a throw but putting weight on that knee during the follow through. May end up be nothing but something to watch come Saturday. In today’s press conference, Ash listed him as “day to day”. I’m sure Coach Holt will prepare for both.
Rutgers does play a 3rd QB in true freshman Jonathan Lewis. At this point, he’s more of a runner than a QB, (3 of 10 for 21 yards and 2 interceptions) he’s had just limited snaps this season and he too, is nursing an ankle injury so his availability is also in question.
Rutger’s offensive stats are going to be greatly boosted due to their 65-0 win over Morgan State. There are FCS teams and then there are bad FCS teams. Morgan State falls into the latter category. Thus, whenever you see any comparisons between the two teams, it’s good to keep the relatively easy schedule in mind. Again, this team lost to Eastern Michigan, at home and its only win against a FBS school was against the B10’s version of a Freshman team masquerading as a varsity team.
On defense, again, Illinois wasn’t a real good test on which to base any predictions. Rutgers looked decent against Washington to open the season but lost to the previously mentioned EMU, a reeling Nebraska team and were blown out 56-0 against Ohio State. As it was, Illinois scored 24 on Rutgers and put up over 300 yards of passing outgaining Rutgers 394 to 376 in total yards of offense. Also note that Illinois starts four freshmen (3 of them true frosh) on their Offensive Line.
One bright spot to Rutgers these past few years has been WR/Return Man, Janarion Grant. He returned against Illinois after sitting out two games due to concussion symptoms and while, he didn’t break off any large returns against Illinois, it would be wise for Purdue to know exactly where he is and make sure he doesn’t get the ball with a lot of daylight ahead of him.
In order to win this game, Purdue needs to get it’s offense back to the Ohio and Missouri game level. Again, it should be easier to accomplish that than it’s been in recent weeks. Defense needs to step up and produce another solid performance and it wouldn’t hurt to win the turnover battle this week. Keep the ball away from Grant on kickoffs and punts and Purdue should be able to get a comfortable win.
Saturday can’t get here soon enough. Let’s play football! (Friday might be fun, too!)
- Purdue’s defense will face a Rutgers O-line which will be more typical of the units that Purdue will face this year at 306.4 lbs. which is slightly below average for B10 teams. As mentioned in previous weeks, the O-lines for this year’s B10 and OOC opponents are much younger than in years past. Still, Rutgers comes in at 2.6 years of experience which even this year, is slightly below the B10 average. The left side of their line (LT & LG) both are multi-year starters with the RT also having starts in a prior year. The Center and RG are both 1 year starters and once again, Purdue will play a team with a Freshman (or R-Frosh) at Center (Others were Louisville, Missouri, Minnesota & Wisconsin) . Combined, they have 65 collective starts.
- This year’s Purdue’s D-Line (Larkin, Robinson, Neal, Ezechukwu) averages about 277.5 lbs, down from the 283.5 lbs average of last year. They will be outweighed by the Rutgers line by about 28.9 lbs per man on average. Purdue’s average experience is 3.5 years, up from last year’s line of 3.2 year average. The size of this group will be well below average for a B10 team but conversely, well above average in terms of experience. As a unit they have decent experience as going into Saturday they have 71 collective starts.
- Purdue’s LBs (McCollum, Bentley, Bailey) come in at 243.3 lbs and are at 3.33 years of experience. That’s up about 1.5 lbs from last year and an additional year in collective experience (Up from 2.33 the last two years). They have a collective 79 starts between them (Counting McCollum’s starts at WKU). Size wise, this group is the largest in the B10 by 10+ lbs per man and above average in terms of experience. I’ve factored in McCollum instead of Hudson here. Should Hudson start, the average size increases slightly, years of experience doesn’t change but number of starts would drop off dramatically as Hudson has just 3.
- Purdue’s O-line (Hermanns, Evans, Baron, McCann, Steinmetz) will average 307.0 lbs per man, down by 2.6 lbs from last year’s 309.6 lbs. This puts them slightly below average compared to other B10 programs.They average 2.60 years of experience which is a significant drop from last year (3.6 years). This also places them just below average for the B10 and also for all opponents.Collectively, this group has 84 starts among them. Like McCollum, I’m still penciling in Hermanns instead of Swingler. Should Swingler start, again the average size will increase by 2lbs per man, the average experience would go up to 3.0 years and the number of starts would only drop by 5.
- At 290.75 lbs, Rutgers’s D-line is well above the average sized D-Line Purdue will face this year and just about the same as Wisconsin’s, size wise. They will be also well above average in terms of experience with a 3.5 year average. Unlike Wisconsin, only one player is a multi-year starter (DT-Joseph). The remaining three starters are all new this season.. They’ll be outweighed by Purdue’s O-line by just 16.25lbs per man. As mentioned, they return just the one starter from last year and have a collective 42 starts between them.
- The Scarlet Knight LBs also come in well below the average for Purdue’s opponents at 224.0 lbs. and will be one of the smallest they’ll face this season. On the other hand, they are going reasonably experienced and slightly above average with 3.33 years at the position. They have two multi-year starters. Together they have 43 starts.
Vegas predicts Purdue by 8.0 points
Compughter Ratings.com predicts a 24-13 Purdue win
MasseyRatings predicts a 27-17 Purdue win
Sagarin predicts an 9.98 point Purdue win
CollegeFootballPoll predicts a 3.71 point Purdue win*
*CollegeFootballPoll is the Cosgrove Computer formula for picking winners. So far this year in Purdue’s games it’s picked:
- Louisville by 20.09 points (Purdue lost by 7, computer off by 13 points)
- Ohio by 8.57 points (Purdue won by 23 points. computer off by 31 points)
- Missouri by 7.63 points (Purdue won by 32 points, computer off by 39 points)
- Michigan by 9.16 points (Purdue lost by 19, only game where computer didn’t underplay Purdue)
- Minnesota by 5.74 (Purdue won by 14, computer off by 19.74)
- Wisconsin by 28.25 (Purdue lost by 8, computer off by 20.25)
So, take that prediction with a large grain of salt.
After a fairly daunting gauntlet to start the first half of the season, Purdue finds itself at .500 with a 3-3 record. While Purdue can’t let up in the back half of the season, the schedule does get much more manageable.
Next up is Rutgers, who battled it out with Illinois last Saturday as to who would take over the coveted 13th spot in the B10 Power Rankings. Rutgers won, snapping a conference losing streak that covered two years and as many head coaches. It was also their first win of the year against a BCS opponent. Prior to Saturday, their only win was against Morgan State, and FCS team who entered their game Saturday with an 0-5 record. This will be the very first time Purdue and Rutgers will meet.
The average opponent rank (Using Compughter Rankings) for the two schools is Purdue 84.7 Rutgers 168.5. Unlike Purdue which doesn’t face any more ranked teams this season, Rutgers is just getting into the meat of their schedule and will face three ranked teams in their final six games.
Last Saturday, Purdue had several chances to make a close 17-9 loss even closer but as luck (much of it bad) would have it, it couldn’t. Such is the difference right now between a Top 10 team in Wisconsin and one that’s a year removed from being one of the worst P5 teams in the county.
Here’s a tidbit most people don’t know. Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor is pretty good and was on target to gaining 1,000 yards in 6 games, the first true freshman to do so. I’m surprised the TV people at ESPN didn’t pick up on that. Dws.
What has been impressive is the way that Purdue has continued to bring effort game in and game out. The good effort-bad effort roller coaster was a hallmark of the DH and DH2 eras. In fact, you even had a bit of that back in the Tiller days. Under Coach Brohm however, we haven’t seen any of that. There’s a part of me that still is waiting for the other shoe to drop but, who knows? Maybe it never does and this is the new “normal” for Purdue. Wouldn’t that be nice.
Between stifling defenses and stiff winds, Purdue’s offense has been largely underperformed these last three contests. Right now, the weather forecast for Saturday shows a high of 74 degrees, no clouds and 4mph winds. In other words, conditions should be perfect for Purdue.
A lot of Purdue’s “deficiencies” at O-Line and playmakers on offense have been hashed over but I suspect that Purdue will get “better” this weekend simply based on the competition.
I’d look for Purdue to try and establish their running game again and, Fuller or not, Purdue should be able to get outside the larger Rutgers line and get their running backs out in “space”. Rutgers is a respectable 51st in Total Defense and 47th in Rushing Defense but drilling down a bit, they haven’t faced a lot of teams adept at running the ball. In terms of ranking, they’ve faced just one program who’s rushing offense is above average (Ohio State at #17). After OSU, the next highest Rush Offense is Washington at 70th. Even with OSU ranking that high, the average for Rutgers’ opponents in Rushing Offense is 87th. Total Offense is slightly better with the average of teams they’ve faced coming in at 79.5th. (More on Purdue’s opponents below)
In the passing game, Purdue must hit their TEs down the seam when given the chance. Two weeks in a row, Purdue’s had TEs open and the QB’s have thrown low resulting in (contested) incompletions instead of 20-30 yard gains (or more). With Rutgers’ issues with their DBs, Purdue has to exploit those matchups more.
It’s probably also important to note that Rutgers has not been very good at getting into the opponent’s backfield. They rank 114th nationally in Sacks and 126th in Tackles For Loss. They’re big but don’t seem to be very agile or quick.
For the season, Rutgers is ranked 75th in Passing Yards Allowed and 70th in Pass Efficiency Defense, both are below average ranks so one could argue that they weren’t particularly good even before their injuries.
From the line up at the start of the season, Rutgers has had to replace a starting Safety and CB, promoting younger backups into starting roles. They’ve also resorted to moving WRs over to DBs. The starters all have good size but once you get past those front line players, the size and experience drops off significantly.
I’m unsure how much Nickle defense they played against Illinois but have to believe that is an area that can be specifically exploited by Purdue. With so many new bodies, and some new to the position, Purdue should get some open looks with the amount of misdirection they run.
Switching over to Purdue’s defense, it was unfortunate that the rookie LBs couldn’t step up and fill in for McCollum. It wasn’t surprising, just unfortunate. While you never know if Wisconsin would have eventually scored on its first two drives, having the rookie LBs in the game certainly sped up the process. Credit Hudson for coming in and filling in the gap created by McCollum’s injury. If McCollum can’t go this weekend, I’d expect to see Hudson out there from play one.
If you just look at the stats, it appears that Purdue is still pretty poor holding teams on the ground. However five of the six teams Purdue has played ranked above average in Rushing Offense. Only Michigan (#71st) falls below average. Note that the ranking of the worst team Purdue has faced is basically the same rank as the 2nd best team Rutgers has faced. Overall, the average ranking for Rushing Offense of Purdue’s opponents is 40.33rd. The Total Offense ranking average is 53.17th.
When you also consider Purdue’s faced the reigning Heisman Trophy winner in one game plus giving up half of their rush yards against Michigan after Bentley and Thineman was ejected and giving up 95 of the 295 that Wisconsin amassed in the first two drives without Hudson, those numbers don’t look nearly as bad.
Purdue’s defense continues to turn teams over. Once again, it forced a fumble in the redzone. After being able to force (by my count) four fumbles in that area of the field, you have to start considering it to be less a fluke and more of a concerted effort. Conversely, Purdue turned it over just the once, but it was a critical mistake at a critical time and against a team like Wisconsin, was just too difficult to overcome.
Purdue is currently a +.67/game in turnover margin (34th nationally) while Rutgers is a -.33/game (86th nationally). Last year at this time, Purdue also had a 3-3 record but was a horrid -1.17/game in turnover margin “good” for 122nd nationally.
Regarding Rutgers:
Last season, when Chris Ash took over the Rutgers program, Rutgers was pathetic on the field. So far this season, they’ve shown a bit more life but still have some serious issues.
They had an opportunity to bring in former Minnesota HC Jerry Kill as Offensive Coordinator and he’s been able to get the team focused and provide it with an offensive identity.
If you want to see what Rutgers wants to be, just take a look at Minnesota under Kill. They have several backs that can handle a heavy work load (including a grad transfer from Miami) as well as a “change of pace” back which adds more speed and agility plus a QB who isn’t going to put the ball up in the air much and really only wants to throw the ball off of play-action passes. In concept, it looks a lot like the Gophers of 2013 -2015.
Based on my viewing of their game with Illinois, Rutgers isn’t going to do much outside the ordinary. They are going to use power runs and counters to pound away at the line between the tackles. They often keep in a TE as a “H” back and will also use two backs to use as a lead blocker. They’ll run the read option but the QB keeps the ball about the same amount of time as did Minnesota’s this year, or, not much.
From a Purdue perspective, that type of offense would seem to play right into Purdue’s strong points, a fairly stout D-line and experienced LBs. However, Minnesota was able to reel off a long drive against Purdue late in their game leading up to their go-ahead field goal and Wisconsin also ran out the clock on Saturday with a long drive as well. That said, Rutgers is not Minnesota and certainly not Wisconsin.
Much like Purdue, Rutgers doesn’t yet have all of the pieces in place to be that effective running their offense. Their national ranks are 118th in Total Offense, 58th in Rush Offense and 123rd in Pass Efficiency Offense. Needless to say, these numbers are well below average and are dangerously close to the bottom of D1 Football (129 teams).
As for Rutgers’ QB spot, Rutgers got a Grad Transfer QB in Kyle Bolin from Louisville. He started the first five games of the season but was replaced during their bye week after a “competition” with Giovanni Rescigno, who also had five starts last season. Much more mobile than Bolin, Rescigno was able to move Rutger’s offense fairly efficiently (playing Illinois didn’t hurt). What did hurt was a helmet that Rescigno took to his knee while keeping the ball on the zone read. He was knocked out of the game for a short while and re-entered the game with a brace on his left knee. At one point, he crumpled to the ground untouched while making a throw but putting weight on that knee during the follow through. May end up be nothing but something to watch come Saturday. In today’s press conference, Ash listed him as “day to day”. I’m sure Coach Holt will prepare for both.
Rutgers does play a 3rd QB in true freshman Jonathan Lewis. At this point, he’s more of a runner than a QB, (3 of 10 for 21 yards and 2 interceptions) he’s had just limited snaps this season and he too, is nursing an ankle injury so his availability is also in question.
Rutger’s offensive stats are going to be greatly boosted due to their 65-0 win over Morgan State. There are FCS teams and then there are bad FCS teams. Morgan State falls into the latter category. Thus, whenever you see any comparisons between the two teams, it’s good to keep the relatively easy schedule in mind. Again, this team lost to Eastern Michigan, at home and its only win against a FBS school was against the B10’s version of a Freshman team masquerading as a varsity team.
On defense, again, Illinois wasn’t a real good test on which to base any predictions. Rutgers looked decent against Washington to open the season but lost to the previously mentioned EMU, a reeling Nebraska team and were blown out 56-0 against Ohio State. As it was, Illinois scored 24 on Rutgers and put up over 300 yards of passing outgaining Rutgers 394 to 376 in total yards of offense. Also note that Illinois starts four freshmen (3 of them true frosh) on their Offensive Line.
One bright spot to Rutgers these past few years has been WR/Return Man, Janarion Grant. He returned against Illinois after sitting out two games due to concussion symptoms and while, he didn’t break off any large returns against Illinois, it would be wise for Purdue to know exactly where he is and make sure he doesn’t get the ball with a lot of daylight ahead of him.
In order to win this game, Purdue needs to get it’s offense back to the Ohio and Missouri game level. Again, it should be easier to accomplish that than it’s been in recent weeks. Defense needs to step up and produce another solid performance and it wouldn’t hurt to win the turnover battle this week. Keep the ball away from Grant on kickoffs and punts and Purdue should be able to get a comfortable win.
Saturday can’t get here soon enough. Let’s play football! (Friday might be fun, too!)
