The Rutgers football team will look to right the ship on Saturday when the Scarlet Knights travel to Evanston, Ill. to take on Northwestern.
It is the first of four out of the next five games Rutgers will play on the road. Rutgers will make its first trip to Northwestern since 1989 and for the initial time since joining the Big Ten.
Kickoff at Ryan Field is set for noon ET/11 a.m. local time.
SIGN UP AND GET TKR PREMIUM FREE FOR 30 DAYS — CLICK HERE
Road warriors
Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano and the players always talk about how they need the home crowd to come out and show support, but something different takes place on the road. Since last year, Rutgers is 4-2 playing in opposing team's venues including a win over Syracuse this season.
"Look, I think we have a really good road routine, but I also think we have a good home routine. Maybe I need to examine our own routine in relation to our road routine, but I think it might just be chance right now," Schiano said on the road success. "If it gets to continue on and become a reoccurring theme more than it has I really have to examine it, but I look at everything. I mean I study everything and the only thing that you might say is there's only 74 players and that's it. I like the energy our players bring on the sideline. We have our guys that are dressed, we have a guys that are not that are in sweats. They bring incredible energy. We missed that on the road. You really got to rely on everybody to come together and who knows maybe that galvanizing factor is something to look at. We've talked about it for sure though, it's a valid question."
Sustaining offense
Rutgers was able to really move the ball during its opening drive against Michigan State last week. The Scarlet Knights hit the Spartans in the air and on the ground and finished it out with a touchdown. After that, not so much. Meanwhile, Michigan State was explosive, gashing Rutgers for four touchdowns 63 yards or more. That's pretty much how MSU scored other than a field goal. Going forward, Rutgers is looking to be more explosive and keeping possessions alive.
"We studied the tape. We had opportunities on film that we had to cash in on, and if we do that, we're gonna score points. If we don't, we won't. It's really not more complicated than that. The easy ones or the deep balls that you missed, but there's some runs that if we get one block done correctly it's going to be one-on-one with the safety and that's what you ask for. You get to 12-13 yards deep into the secondary and you see what happens. So there's plenty of plays out there that we're not that far off. But that's coach speak, you got to get the job done. We got to coach better we got to play better and that's what we're gonna try to do."
On that note, getting the run game going is critical. Rutgers is averaging just 3.6 yards per carry which is 11th out of 14 teams in the Big Ten and it is 9th in the league at 142.8 yards per game.
"Finishing on blocks, running the ball, reading it correctly. There's not one issue," Schiano said. "Again, let's tip our hat to Michigan State. They have a big solid front for that was very physical and they out-physicaled us at times."
Backup QB
Scarlet Knights starting quarterback Noah Vedral got dinged up in week 6, but Schiano he'll be OK to play. Cole Snyder came in late in the game and completed 5-of-9 passes for 54 yards, and this season, in spot duty, he is a solid 14-of-19 for 117 yards and a touchdown. Evan Simon saw brief action versus Ohio State two weekends ago completing all five attempts for 27 yards.
"I'm comfortable,' Schiano said. "I won't tell you who it would be or how much we distribute it but I'm comfortable with both of them. They've done a very good job in their preparation. They've both improved considerably, and I think they'll continue to do that. They're hard working guys."
For Snyder, specifically, during his time at Rutgers, he's come in and played well, though his time is mostly with the game out of hand. Still, he hasn't made mistakes and ran different offenses efficiently. However, Vedral is the guy.
"Only if you're not pleased with what your quarterback's doing, not just to do it, I don't think," Schiano said when asked if he thinks Snyder should get reps with the ones in-game to see what he could do. "I think Noah has done a really good job leading our football team and leading our offense. If thought someone could do it better, they'd be doing it. So no, I don't just do it to do it."
Super Shameen
Wide receiver Bo Melton missed the game against MSU, and it is unknown he'll play against Northwestern, but Shameen Jones stepped up and made eight receptions for 109 yards. Aron Cruickshank went down as well, leaving a void. Jones had 16 targets.
"Yes, it's really important. Again we may be really challenged, we'll see," Schiano said. "I don't know if they're going to be able to play. I know this if they can, they will, because those two are warriors, AC and and Bo. They want to play desperately, so we'll see if they heal up. They're doing everything that you can treatment wise and we have the best training staff in America and the doctors I think are unbelievable. We're doing everything we can. Just got to see if it works in time for the game."
Lewis coming on
In the first two weeks of the season, Mike Tverdov dominated snaps at defensive end compared to Aaron Lewis. He did so again in the contest at Michigan. Against Delaware, the snap count margin was closer (37-26), but that game was out of hand. The tides really started to turn the last two weeks. Tverdov saw 30 snaps and 31 snaps, respectively in weeks five and six while Lewis saw 26 and 32. According to Pro Football Focus, Lewis is outperforming Tverdov with an overall defensive grade of 61.0. Tverdov is at 56.5. Lewis has better grades in run defense, tackling, and pass rush.
The 6-foot-5, 255 pounder has 13 tackles with 1.5 sacks on the season.
"I think Aaron Lewis is a player that's really matured. He's playing at a much higher level than he was as a true freshman which we expected," Schiano said. "He's bigger. he's stronger he's faster, he's a better football player today than he was any time last year. We need him to continue to grow because he has the growth potential, number one, physically, and he's really athletic for a big, rangy guy. He's been very productive. He and Mike have literally split the split the reps there. We want to play a lot of people up front. That's an all day long wrestling match."
Northwestern insight
Coming off of a 56-7 loss at Nebraska, the Wildcats enter the game at 2-3. They beat Ohio and Indiana State and fell to Michigan State and Duke as well. Northwestern will have had two weeks to prepare for the Scarlet Knights and it averages 22.0 points per game offensively and allows 27.2 points on average.
"They're a really well coached football team," Schiano said. "They're kind of finding their way at quarterback right now. There are several guys have played. We're not sure who's going to play. I think what you know is that they've had this week to look back at what they've done, and Pat Fitzgerald is a real good friend of mine and he's one of the best coaches in America. So he and his staff, I know the way he works. They will have unpeeled that onion 15 times to figure out this is what we've done well, this is what we haven't, let's look at what Rutgers has done well and what they have and how do we take advantage of it and ow do we stop what they do well. That's the approach. Like I said to our team in many ways we're playing ourselves this week, and we need to really be a better version of us. That's all we can control."
Mirroring the Wildcats
In its history, Northwestern has been to 16 bowl games -- 10 under Fitzgerald. After a long time of below average football, Fitzgerald is 104-79 in his time at the school, and Northwestern won the Big Ten - West twice in 2018 and 2020 under his watch.
"First off, it's a tribute to Pat, right, I mean he's done an incredible job," Schiano said. "If you remember the tragedy that led to Pat getting the head job was coach (Randy) Walker passing away. Pat and I were represented by the same guy early on and we visited together some at the beginning of his tenure as a head coach, and I was so impressed. I said this guy is a star. And sure enough, he's been every bit and then something. Pat's turned down multiple opportunities to coach in the NFL. If there's a right guy for Northwestern he's the guy, and he's done an incredible job and all they've done is continue to build. That's a great model for us to follow as far as building. If you get a chance when you're out there, go look at their new football building. It's incredible. Sits right there on the lake. It's really, really special. Pat has built Northwestern into a year in and year out legitimate contender in the Big Ten. And so to answer your question it sure is something that we'd like to pattern ourselves after. Now we're a public research institution, they're a private, very good school obviously, there's some differences, but when it comes to football and growing a program, yeah I think they've kind of laid a blueprint."
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisNalwasky.
--------------------------------------------------------------
• Subscribe to our YouTube Channel