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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/usffan on 2025-07-06 13:17:42+00:00.
The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here.
Rutgers (high = 41, low = 78) comes in at #48, the 6th B1G team in the countdown and closing out the predicted bottom 1/3 of the conference. The Scarlet Knights go into their 157th season and Greg Schiano’s 6th year back in charge looking to go bowling for their 3rd consecutive season, something they haven’t done since Kyle Flood oversaw the team’s transition from the AAC (bet you didn’t remember they spent a year there!) to the B1G. They’ll be looking to build on last year’s 7-6 campaign that saw them start off strong with a road win at Lane Stadium against Virginia Tech, but stall midseason with losses to UCLA and a full on stomping at home by Wisconsin. Kind of a harbinger of their Rate Bowl against Kansas State, where they blew a 12 point 4th quarter lead to lose 44-41. They’ll have to do it while breaking in new co-defensive coordinators Robb Smith and Zach Sparber, since former DC Joe Harasymiak is now the head coach at UMass.
Roster outlook
The Scarlet Knights bring back the 7th most overall production in FBS, including the 2nd most on offense in the country behind only Clemson. That includes QB Athan Kaliakmanis and most of the receiving crew, though RB Kyle Monongai was drafted by the Bears and leading WR Dymere Miller signed on with the Jets. On the other side of the ball, leading tackler Dariel Djabome is also back, but Schiano needed to bring in some reinforcements on defense. Rutgers had the 32nd best recruiting class and 38th best overall class in the country last year, but that was only good for the 10th and 12th best respectively in the B1G. The portal class was less inspiring, ranking 51st in the country and 3rd worst in the conference, but Ourlads projects 7 defensive starters were in that class, including 4 star DL Bradley Weaver from Ohio.
Schedule and outlook
There is not a lot of wiggle room on the Scarlet Knights schedule if they’re going back to a bowl. They not only play defending national champions Ohio State in the Horseshoe, but draw both B1G championship teams (Penn State and Oregon) at home. Throw in road games @ Illinois and clear across the country @ Washington and those are already 5 games where you expect them to be clear underdogs before you start even considering the rest of the schedule. The remaining B1G teams only include two ranked below them (Maryland and @ Purdue), plus @ Minnesota and Iowa. The OOC sees 3 home games against Norfolk State, Miami (OH, Peacock exclusive, baby!) and Ohio (who Syracuse fans want to make sure I know was NOT pillowy soft!). That sure seems like a tough row to hoe to try to make this their third consecutive winning season.