Behind Enemy Lines: Rutgers Scarlet Knights

Chris Ash is in a similar situation to Steve Addazio, in that he needs to start putting up numbers as he is in the midst of his fourth season. With a career record of 8-30 with the Scarlet Knights, Ash's time could be running out in New Brunswick if he doesn't turn around things soon. This week's game against the Boston College Eagles has become must win for Ash, as many local papers and reporters have pondered about the security of his job if he loses to the Eagles on Saturday. "But it's a great opportunity for us to play a quality opponent here at our stadium, and with that, I hope the fans will show up. In our last home game, the fans as we talked about were an X-factor in that game, especially the student section. They showed up with great energy and passion and cheered throughout the game and really made the difference in that game and I'm hoping we can get that energy here on Saturday against a good opponent."

Rutgers On Offense

Rutgers has played two games this season, one against Iowa and another against UMass. They currently are 94th in the country in pass, averaging 197.5 yards per game, just ahead of previous Boston College victor the Kansas Jayhawks. The rushing offense is 90th in the country, a number that is a little skewed as they shredded UMass, but only managed 78 yards against Iowa. Rutgers currently is 91st in the country in scoring, averaging 21 points per game (42 against UMass, and 0 against Iowa). It's hard to put a lot of stock into these numbers so early in the season, but last year Rutgers was dead last in the nation in scoring offense.

Ash on their offensive outlook: "Wide range of all the things. If you looked at week one we threw the ball pretty well. We protected and threw the ball pretty well. We played a pretty good opponent, like I said when we met kind of after that Iowa game, a lot of that credit goes to Iowa. Their front did a good job of playing pressure to the quarterback, not necessarily sacking him but they hit him a few times. We need to be crisper with some of the routes that we're running. We need to look at what we're running, as well. Make sure that we can protect it, we can throw it, we can catch it, all of those things. So we just did a thorough evaluation of everything. You go through training camp and you say, hey, these are the adjustments we made after last season, and these are the things -- until you start playing the games you really don't know but we focused a lot on trying to improve some in some areas."

Rutgers on Defense

With two games to their name, Rutgers ranked 61st in total defense allowing 371 yards a game. They allowed 183 yards on the ground to UMass, and 194 yards on the ground to Iowa, so it looks like rushing defense is certainly an area of weakness for the Scarlet Knights. The passing defense has allowed a substantially lower amount of yards, ranking 33rd in the country, with 121 against the Minutemen and 244 against Iowa. Again those numbers might be due to the fact that they can't stop the run, but certainly worth keeping an eye on.

Ash on how what BC brings on offense: They can run the ball effectively. They are a play-action pass team. When you combine those two, you have to have great eye discipline on defense, and you have to have great gap integrity and you have to pursue the ball and tackle well against a back that's 250 pounds. They present a lot of problems. Their schematics, they are comfortable living in condensed sets. It's a little bit different and unique to college football where everybody is spread out. Some of the motions they do put stress on you defensively for alignments and communications. So it's a combination of some good players, I think a good scheme for what they have with their personnel and I think they do it exceptionally well.