Rutgers and Norfolk State are set to square off against each other this weekend on Saturday, September 13, at 3:30 p.m. at SHI Stadium. Both teams are coming into this game riding the highs of a win, as the Scarlet Knights beat Miami (OH) 45-17 and the Spartans beat Virginia State (DII) 34-31 in overtime.
Rutgers will enter this game as a heavy favorite against their FCS opponent. Last season, Norfolk State went 4-8 and ultimately fired its head coach. They brought in Virginia Tech football legend
and former star NFL quarterback Michael Vick this year as head coach to try to revive the program.
The Knights come into this game looking to secure a comfortable victory before they take on Iowa at home on Friday, September 19. With that being said, Vick’s team will be coming into this game looking for a big upset win early in his tenure. During his press conference, Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano acknowledged the difficulty of trying to game plan for the Spartans’ diverse offense because their scheme changes drastically depending on who is under center. Quarterback Otto Kuhns is a much better pure passer and has seen more playing time over the past two weeks, while his backup, Israel Carter, saw decent playing time in the Spartans’ win over Virginia State, due to his scramble ability. Based on their snap counts in both of the Spartans’ first two games, it wouldn’t be too much of a shock if they both saw major playing time in this game, especially since Rutgers has struggled against mobile quarterbacks so far this year.
A few things that Rutgers should do in this game are fix the mistakes the defense has been making the past few weeks, continue the offense’s dominance, and be up by enough points at halftime so that the backups and third stringers can get experience while the starters rest. If the defense plays mistake-free football, without any blown coverage or poor pursuit angles, that could mean positive things to come for the rest of the season, especially since Schiano has been calling the defense a “work in progress”. A lot of pressure on the quarterback would be a welcome sight as well. For the offense, the objective should be to keep rolling like they have in the past two games.
If Rutgers can do both of these things, they should have a big enough lead at halftime to roll out their backups. Maybe Rutgers QB of the future, and current backup to Athan Kaliakmanis, AJ Surace, will see his first snaps at the college level this game.
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