Big East Football Preview: Rutgers

Last season, Rutgers took the place previously held by Syracuse and Louisville as the bottomfeeder of the Big East Conference. Only one year after having a great regular season and pounding UCF in the Beef O'Brady's Bowl, the Scarlet Knights failed to even make a bowl game, finishing 4-8 with 7 of their games on the season decided by 5 points or less. It's easy to say that given a few changes here and there, Rutgers was on the edge of 8-4 season if all those close games went their way, but they just as easily could have been 1-8.

2010 Record: 4-8. There's no other way to say it, Rutgers was bad. They had so many troubles with coaching and with the quarterback position that it looked like the season never really started for them. The Scarlet Knights ended up being led by freshman QB Chas Dodd for most of the season, with some help from sophomore WR/Return man Mohamed Sanu accumulating most of the stats. It looked like a rebuilding season all year, but they didn't seem to be building toward anything. The final whistle at the West Virginia season closer couldn't come soon enough, as Rutgers closed the season on a 6-game losing streak.

This season will be successful if: Greg Schiano doesn't get fired before the end. Schiano made this team what it is today, a respected team in a BCS conference with some signature bowl wins. The people in New Brunswick are surely grateful for that. The problem is that Schiano does have a 59-63 overall record in his time at Rutgers, and if he fails to get a winning record for a second consecutive year, it may be the end of his time in Piscataway.

2011 Record: 3-9. I don't even see Rutgers winning any of their conference games this year. They may have a chance at Connecticut, but that's even a longshot. Their best chance comes against their non-conference schedule, where they play an FCS team before taking on North Carolina and Ohio, then their annual games against Army and Navy. They'll need to win all those games if they want to prove to the rest of the conference that they deserve to be there. The Scarlet Knights will likely be looking for a new coach sometime soon unless they can surprise us all with a quick turnaround.