Rutgers Football enters week three of the 2024 college football season with an early season bye week after winning their first two games against Akron and Howard with ease.
Below, The Knight Report offers up four Big Ten games and one non-Big Ten game that could be worth watching for Scarlet Knight fans.
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12:00pm (FOX): No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide @ Wisconsin Badgers
REASON TO WATCH: Future opponent scouting - Wisconsin
The Alabama Crimson Tide make the trip to Camp Randall this weekend and are a two-touchdown favorite over the Wisconsin Badgers. The Crimson Tide are coming off a 42-16 win over USF, however, those who watched no it was a much closer game than the score would indicate. The performance last weekend raised questions about just how good the Crimson Tide are this season.
Wisconsin, now in their second season under head coach Luke Fickell have not looked sharp over their first two games, defeating Western Michigan 28-14 before struggling with FCS opponent South Dakota this past weekend in a 27-13 win. The Badgers were expected to make significant strides this season, but their early performances have been underwhelming. Perhaps they were looking ahead to Alabama? We’ll find out on Saturday afternoon.
3:30pm (Peacock): Washington State Cougars at Washington Huskies
REASON TO WATCH: Future opponent scouting - Washington
The Huskies are one of the more interesting Big Ten programs this season not just because they are new to the conference, but they lost a good chunk of their team to graduation and brought in a completely new staff as well. So far they've looked solid overall as they sit at 2-0, but the two program they've played include an FCS opponent in Weber State and a lowly ranked Eastern Michigan team. So this one will serve as a good test to see how good they really are in an early season rivalry game.
6:30pm (ESPN+): Virginia Tech Hokies @ Old Dominion Monarchs
REASON TO WATCH: Future opponent scouting - Virginia Tech
After a season opening loss to Vanderbilt despite being listed as 13.5-point favorites, the Hokies bounced back last weekend with a 31-14 victory over Marshall. This upcoming Saturday night, they are hoping to keep the winning ways going versus a lowly ranked Old Dominion team.
The Monarchs are entering this one 0-2 with back to back losses to South Carolina (23-19) and East Carolina (20-14) over the past two weekends, as they hope snag their first victory of the season. The matchup also serves as a reunion of sorts as Old Dominion HC Ricky Rahne and Virginia Tech HC Brent Pry both were on the same staff together at both Vanderbilt (2011-13) and Penn State (2014-19).
7:30pm (NBC): Indiana Hoosiers @ UCLA Bruins
REASONS TO WATCH: Future opponent scouting - UCLA
An intriguing matchup here in Los Angeles. Indiana through their first two games under Curt Cignetti has looked very good while UCLA is 1-0 in the Deshaun Foster era and coming off a bye week following a 16-13 victory over Hawaii.
This matchup should give us a good indication of where both programs are heading into mid-September and gives Rutgers fans an early glance at the Bruins, who come to campus on October 19th.
7:30pm (BTN): Northern Iowa Panthers @ No. 23 Nebraska Cornhuskers
REASONS TO WATCH: Future opponent scouting - Nebraska
Arguably Rutgers toughest matchup in the coming weeks will come when they travel out to Nebraska to take on the newly ranked Cornhuskers. So far they've played a meh UTSA team and dominated in a 31-0 win. After that, they welcomed Colorado to town and won 28-10 despite not scoring a point in the second half, so that kind of tells you where the Buffaloes stand. This week should serve as another dominant Cornhuskers victory, but the Panthers aren't the worst team in the world as they are receiving some solid votes in the FCS Top 25 polls.
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