Huge win for the Scarlet Knights on Thursday, defeating a solid Top 30 USF team, on the road, in a game televised by ESPN to a national audience. I was legitimately concerned for this game before it began; after two incredibly dispirited and mediocre performances against FCS Howard and should-be-FCS Tulane under our belts, there was a distinct possibility that USF would completely overpower us. I was particularly concerned with regard to the disparity between their seemingly high-flying offense and ours, which over the first two games of the season performed like... well, a 1970's Chevy Nova.
Historically, Rutgers does play well against USF, but I've been generally willing to throw historical comparisons out the window this season since so much of the Scarlet Knights' coaching staff has changed (for better or for worse). Here are some random thoughts from throughout the game:
- I was surprised to see a Las Vegas spread consensus of USF -7 to -7.5 today. I realize that home field alone is typically worth four points, but as a general rule spreads should be tightened up when the underdog possesses a solid defense (and I think we knew that about Rutgers from the outset). I don't bet on sports, but a betting man could have easily taken Rutgers to beat that spread in this game, assuming that either a win or a close loss was in order.
- Heard Schiano was at the game tonight, but he must have done a nice job hiding himself, since I didn't notice ESPN's cameras catching him at all. (I did miss the first quarter entirely, and listened to most of the second quarter on the radio, due to work obligations - so maybe I just missed him.) Either way, it's pretty cool that he was there.
- New Coach Kyle Flood really does maintain a calmer demeanor during the game than Schiano did, right? He also delivered a fantastic interview to ESPN's sideline reporter at the half.
- Driving to the Hillsborough, NJ, Five Guys to pick up a "wife's out with friends and I'm about to watch football" dinner, I was listening to the USF radio feed on XM satellite radio. This was my first sign that Rutgers could have been in for an auspicious night; USF's analysts - who seemed reasonable enough if a bit homer-ish - were talking about Rutgers (both offensively and defensively) as if they were just waiting to destroy an objectively inferior USF team. On the radio, I listened to a few of Nova's second quarter third-and-long conversions. It was pretty clear just from listening to USF's radio guys that our WRs had too much height and physicality for USF's secondary, and that over the course of a 60 minute game, those differences would be too much for USF to handle.
- The established Rutgers blogs that do exist were about ready to impeach new offensive coordinator Dave "Chestnut Hill" Brock before this game for his plain vanilla play calling; I wonder if they will change their tune on Friday?
- That being said, I'm still surprised that the vertical game went so well for Rutgers tonight (and frankly, it could have been even better, if not for a few drops that could - not should, but could - have been caught, as well as the ill-advised HB option throw in the 3rd quarter). Going into the season, the WR position was considered tall but inconsistent and certainly prone to the dropsies. Tonight should be a huge confidence boost for these guys in particular, because everyone (especially Tim Wright and the oft-maligned D.C. Jefferson) looked solid.
- Not much to say about the running game except that I will now be surprised when Jawan Jamison does not run for 100 yards. He did yeoman work on Thursday night, running the ball a ridiculous 41 times (for 151 yards, a 3.7 average which looked much better than the average). Good thing they don't have pitch counts for collegiate running backs. I realize our offensive line is much improved over the past two seasons, but Jamison showed some really wonderful vision tonight - and the spin move on the game-sealing TD run was positively Marshawn Lynch-like.
- I am still not 100% sold that Gary Nova was the correct choice to command the Rutgers offense this season, but that said, he played very well tonight. Did my ears deceive me, or at one point did ESPN analyst Jesse Palmer state that when Nova sets his feet in the pocket, "he throws like Tom Brady?" Interesting comparison - his clutch third down calmness reminded me more of a pre-2007 Eli Manning, though. It seems like some QBs pay more attention and perform better on high stakes plays, and pre-Super Bowl 42 Eli was like that at times. (Or it could just be inconsistency and jitters for both guys; the fact that Nova stays locked in on one down out of three, on average, was enough to beat a good team tonight, which could augur good news for the future.)
- Previous jape toward Jesse Palmer aside, I always enjoy ESPN's Thursday night college football announcing team. They aren't the most knowledgeable team around, but those guys do seem to have a good time in the booth, which automatically makes them better than 60% of announcers (100% of those named Joe Buck).
- The defense spoke for itself with another dominating performance, this time against an offense notably more diverse/talented than Howard or Tulane. B.J. Daniels is a grown man with years of college experience, and a chip on his shoulder about playing Rutgers to boot; he was mostly kept in check on the ground, and absolutely kept in check in the air (15/33, 0 TD, 3 INT). Overall, our new defensive coordinator Robb "Young Wolf" Smith gets another A+ for game prep and play calling, mainly because he routinely blitzed but almost never paid the price (except for on two plays, the Hail Mary type throw early in the game, and the tip drill 50-yard completion to the 1 yard line in the second half).
- CB Logan Ryan had an overall sick game, after looking a little exposed against Howard and Tulane.
- The pass rush, which consists of at least 8-9 guys so I won't name them all, did a great job of confusing Daniels and the O-Line with different blitzes - including a fair number of CB blitzes, which we obviously didn't see much of in the first two games of the season, but worked well enough to flush Daniels out of the pocket (where he uncharacteristically brokered a throw-first, run-second approach for most of the game).
- Special teams obviously needs to improve, with a botched hold costing us three points and a couple of terrible punts costing us field position (luckily our D was able to compensate for the punts). I believe there was a botched punt return by Mason Robinson as well, but I didn't see it - if that happened, that's another issue, because sixth-year seniors shouldn't be making concentration errors at all.
- The new freshman kicker (who shares a hometown with both Tim Tebow and Scarlet Fred; how about that) did hit a long bomb 52-yard field goal at the end of the first half, though, which stands in stark contrast to RU's hesitance to let San San Te kick from far beyond 40. Might this be the first time since I was in college that Rutgers had a placekicker to write home about? And why do I even care?
Realistically, RU may not beat Arkansas (my opinion is they will, but that's just my opinion). Even if they do not, the team has to be taken seriously as a Big East contender right now (if only for their stifling defense). If this team's D continues to dominate good college offenses they way they did tonight, even replacement level offensive production would be enough to win most of the games on our schedule. I think a truer test for our D than even Arkansas will be Syracuse on Oct. 13; they've had the best offensive performance thus far in the Big East (small sample size note applies), even though they've been playing just a torturous out-of-conference schedule this year.
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