Rutgers football is set to kick off its 2025 season this Thursday at 6 pm at home against Ohio University. This is the fourth time in school history that the Scarlet Knights and Bobcats will face off, with Rutgers holding the 2-1 series advantage. The Knights come into this game as 14.5 point favorites over the Bobcats.
Last season, Ohio finished 11-3 with a win over Jax State in the Cure Bowl. OnTheBanks’ own @arnavsarkar1 provided a film breakdown of that game, which can be viewed here.
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that sticks out about the Ohio roster is its offense, particularly quarterback Parker Navarro. Last season, Navarro had over 2,400 passing yards and over 1,000 rushing yards with 11 touchdowns through the air and 18 more on the ground. Navarro will be a good early test for Rutgers’ reformed defensive line, which will do its best to keep Navarro in the pocket and take away the use of his legs.
On the Rutgers side of things, plenty of questions will hopefully be answered in this game. One of those questions is who will be the left tackle. This is one of the few position battles where head coach Greg Schiano has not announced an official starter yet. With the injury to Ryder Langsdale in training camp, it is likely that Tyler Needham locks up the spot; however, players like Dontae Chin were seen playing with the first line several times throughout training camp.
Rutgers’ defense will be under a microscope as well. With Rutgers hitting the portal hard in the off-season, this will be our first look at their new pass rush and secondary. While this game won’t tell us the whole story, it will give us good insight into how the season will look for both of these position groups.
There are a few interesting storylines for this game. Ohio offensive tackle Shedrick Rhodes played at Rutgers last season before returning to Ohio to compete for their starting job. Rutgers defensive end Bradley Weaver played most of his college career for Ohio before transferring to Rutgers. The overlap between these schools adds another layer to this game.
The weather forecast shows good weather for kickoff, as it is expected to be 77 degrees and sunny with temperatures dropping to around 67 by game’s end.
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