Pay The New Jersey Kids To Play Football At Rutgers: Syracuse Week
Can’t talk Jersey without starting off that our thoughts and prayers are with everyone impacted by Hurricane Ida.
Game 1 against Temple ended up being postponed to last Saturday, but this delay did not distract the Scarlet Knights from the mission. Rutgers’ 61 points were the most scored since Week 3 of the 2017 season versus Morgan State. Despite TU’s 1-6 record in 2020, they were at least competitive with their biggest loss being a 35 point rout at the hands of fellow American Athletic Conference member, Tulane.
It was a clean game for Rutgers offensively while forcing 5 turnovers - 3 fumbles and 2 interceptions. The point of the non-conference games is to get warmed up for conference play and RU should be ecstatic getting such a result against an old Big East foe. Even if Temple has struggled of late, it isn’t an FCS program. Hopefully, this momentum carries over tomorrow against yet another rival from the Scarlet Knights’ former conference.
The last time the Scarlet Knights met the Orange in 2012, a Rutgers win 23-15 at home. The last visit Rutgers had to the Carrier Dome, was during Schiano’s last year of his first stint in Piscataway, in 2011. That match, a 2OT thriller - 19-16, was also good for a Scarlet Knight win. Last season was a tough one for Syracuse, going 1-10, finishing in the basement of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Their lone win came in their home opener against Georgia Tech, a 37-20 victory. In their remaining ACC contests, the Orange were outscored 162-340. It’s been a tough time overall for Dino Babers - his lone bright spot for New York’s premier football program coming in 2018 with a 10-3 record, a #15 ranking, and a Camping World Bowl win against West Virginia. The rest of the former Rainbow Warriors running back’s tenure has seen the Orange go 14-33 overall, and a paltry 7-27 in the ACC. The win versus Ohio at least has Syracuse trending in the right direction. Let’s hope the Orange have to wait at least one more week to double their 2020 win total.
Rutgers opens as a slight road favorite with the spread sitting at -2 and money line at -130. Like last week, the run game figures to be the way to go as QB Noah Vedral led all Rutgers rushers with 58 yards. Rutgers running backs - Pacheco, Kyle Monangai, and Aaron Young - combined for 4 scores on the ground with the better version of Taysom Hill, Johnny Langan, chipping in another 2. While I don’t expect Syracuse to be THAT bad, having our way on the ground only helps secure a comfortable win.
I’ll be honest. I’m distracted. Come game time, I’ll be locked in ready to focus on the game at hand but all I want to hear about is when Gavin Wimsatt is suiting up. Wimsatt, for the uninitiated, is a 4 star QB recruit from Kentucky. What is particularly noteworthy besides his high billing is the Class of 2022 signal-caller pulling a Quinn Ewers. That is to say last week he played in a high school football game on Friday and was on campus the next day enrolling at Rutgers. He will certainly need to get situated of course but he is eligible to play and best believe I will digging through all news as to when we can expect to see him on the field.
Tiquan understands my excitement
Good things are certainly on the horizon. This column is proof that bullying works - inside joke here at WYE - as I’m sure Schiano has opened all of the under the table checkbooks to get these fine recruits On the Banks of the Old Raritan. CHOP!
