Rutgers Football: Danny Breslauer Q&A

3.) Rutgers plays a pretty rigorous non-conference schedule to begin the season including Fresno State, North Carolina, Navy, and Morgan State. Which of these games are you most worried about?

There is no doubt in my mind that I'm most worried about the season opener against Fresno St.  The Bulldogs will be a Top 25 team and have that up-tempo offense and put a ton of points on the board.

Rutgers defense is historically susceptible to lapses early in the season (see Maryland last year) and they will need to be sharp on Labor Day in order to avoid a season opening loss in Piscataway.

Pat Hill has Fresno St. on the upswing and Rutgers will need to be ready to avoid a shootout.  If points are put up early, the onus will be on Mike Teel to win this ballgame.

I think that Rutgers will handle Butch Davis and North Carolina due to the Tar Heels inexperience and Navy and Morgan St. simply based on talent.

4.) Do you think playing West Virginia early in the season helps or hurts Rutgers?

Playing West Virginia early in October is a huge advantage for the Scarlet Knights.  RU hasn't defeated the Mountaineers in 15 years and they usually match up late in the Big East slate when WVU has found its groove.

Seeing as it will be the Big East opener, you can expect a raucous crowd in Morgantown but if the Scarlet Knights can contain Noel Devine better than they did Steve Slaton, this is a serious opportunity for an early statement win.

If RU can get off on that foot in conference play, it could lead to the pundits changing their mind about Schiano's gridiron gang.

5.) How realistic is it that we see the Scarlet Knights on top of the Big East come season's end?

I don't think that it's realistic to call the Scarlet Knights the frontrunner or even the next option for the Big East champion.  West Virginia and Pittsburgh are the clear one and two right now, in my opinion.

Rutgers could probably get into that two spot by season's end by knocking off USF and/or Pittsburgh, but West Virginia may be too tough to handle in Morgantown.

I'd put the odds at 25 % for winning the Big East title, but 50 % for the two spot.  RU is clearly an upper echelon team in the conference purely due to talent.

6.) It is clear that Rutgers is slowly building towards becoming a power in the Big East. How long do you think it will take the Scarlet Knights to
begin recruiting similar 5- and 4-star athletes as West Virginia and Louisville seem to sign every year?

It will not take Greg Schiano much longer to get to that level.  As I said, it's June 20 and he's already signed 15 players for 2009, with three 4-stars and five 3-stars in that mix.

After a couple of more successful winning seasons (and once the Penn State job passes by, which I believe it will), Schiano will start to bring in the talents from all over the country (and not just on the East Coast).

The nation is on notice - Rutgers football has arrived and the State University of New Jersey will never be a college football laughingstock again.

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