Rutgers Football Preview

College football is almost upon us! Training camp has started. So, I thought I'd give a little preview of RU's season, and try to make a prediction based upon that.

Of course, a lot of this depends on who RU's quarterback is. Can he manage the offense and not make mistakes? Will the new defenders gel quickly? Lots of questions this year, but lots of reasons for optimism as well.

So let's get to the schedule, shall we?

9/7 Cincinnati: Opening up the season and the Big East season with last year's conference champs. The Bearcats have lost a lot on defense, and we've lost a lot on offense. The renovated RU stadium should have fans pumped and loud. I expect a defensive barnburner, but I have a bad feeling about this game. Cincy 17 RU 14 (0-1, 0-1 BE)

9/12 Howard: A quick turnaround, but Howard isn't good. The new players click on offense against a subpar defense. Our defense causes a ton of TOs and scores on one. RU 35 Howard 10 (1-1, 0-1 BE)

9/19 Florida International: Competition gets a little better but not great. RU starts to find itself and wins pretty convincingly as the score is closer than the game. RU 27-FIU 14 (2-1, 0-1 BE)

9/26 Maryland: This is another game that scares me. We're going to need to play tough defense at this one, and limit mistakes. Hopefully the practice against the other two teams helps, but I still say we're a little far away from winning this game. Another close one--fans get a little nervous. Maryland 21 RU 17 (2-2, 0-1 BE)

10/10 Texas Southern: Texans can play football, but I've never heard of this team. RU gets one back. RU 28 TS 7 (3-2, 0-1 BE)

10/16 Pittsburgh: This is the team the Big East coaches picked to win the league. But we have them at home, the players have settled in... the d-line is clicking. We win. Big defensive stop in the last 2 minutes. RU 21 Pitt 14 (4-2, 1-1 BE)

10/23 Army: We play army all the time. Even when we were winning one game a season, that one game was against Army. RU 44 Army 27 (5-2, 1-1 BE)

10/31 UConn: I hate playing UConn. At UConn. There's a rivalry here. They always play us close... I don't know much about UConn this year. So I'll go on optimism... RU 33 UConn 20 (6-2, 2-1 BE)

11/12 South Florida: Another team that's good, but we have them at home. We beat them two years ago when they were #2 in the country. We're starting to roll. Our freshman are integrated. We win. RU 14 USF 10 (7-2, 3-1 BE)

11/21 Syracuse: OOOHHHH I can't wait for this game. I don't like 'Cuse... and as an athelete I don't like their new QB starter Greg Paulus... he's a former Duke hoops player. The new Cuse coach has some optimism in his program now. But not against the RU defense. RU 27 'Cuse 12 (8-2, 4-1 BE)

11/27 Louisville: Louisville is down. We're confident. We're looking at our first Big East Championship. Need to win this game. RU does, close... setting up a huge showdown with West Virginia next week. RU 17 'Ville 14 (9-2, 5-1 BE)

12/5 West Virgina: We never beat WVU. They beat us 80-7 once. They don't have Pat White anymore. But they're WVU and they're still good. We just don't have the horses in a classic. WVU 35 RU 32 OT (9-3, 5-2 BE)

Disappointing, but we're still winning. It sets up a big 2010 season when we have almost everyone coming back and battle tested. That's the year we win the Big East.

Thoughts?