Big Ten Football Betting -- Schiano Ushers in New Rutgers Era vs. Michigan State

  • In Charles Jay
  • Sat, Oct 24th, 2020 9:12:33 am
  • By Charles Jay - Exclusive to OSGA


Greg Schiano begins the rebuilding process at Rutgers as the Scarlet Knights take on the Michigan State Spartans in Big Ten football action.


As the Big Ten season finally gets underway, there are plenty of observers who are very anxious to see the debut (or should we say the re-debut) of Greg Schiano as head coach of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. And for a change, the Michigan State Spartans will not have Mark Dantonio patrolling the sidelines. These teams will get together in East Lansing at high noon (Eastern time).

MICHIGAN STATE SPARTANS at RUTGERS SCARLET KNIGHTS

BetAnySports Big Ten Football Odds: Michigan State -11,  Total: 44

If you follow college football relatively closely, you know that the story of Greg Schiano being re-hired as head coach at Rutgers was filled with drama. It has been an aborted mission, at which point the school administration caught hell. Ultimately talks were re-opened, and Schiano's acceptance of an offer created some very happy fans and alumni.

Schiano is the coach under whom Rutgers had success, and that amounted to six appearances in bowl games, along with national rankings. He developed a lot of players for the NFL, which is reflective of his recruiting abilities, and he eventually got the call from the Tampa Bay Bucs. That was a short stay, but Schiano didn't disappear, as he wound up a defensive coordinator at Ohio State. So he knows the Big Ten, and he's got a major market to cultivate.

But he is behind the eight ball in terms of talent. And this is the Big Ten, not the Big East. They do have seven starters returning on the defensive side of the ball. But this offense was punchless, tallying the lowest number of points per play of any Power 5 team, by far. In nine conference games last season, they were held to ten points or less eight times.

Schiano's energy does add to the value of the package. But the Scarlet Knights didn't have the benefit of spring workouts to get everything in place, although this delay on the start of the season probably works to the new coach's advantage.

BetAnySports customers will see a new offensive coordinator in Sean Gleeson, who had been at Oklahoma State, and Schiano reached out to nab a quarterback from another Big Ten school, as Noah Vedral transferred from Nebraska. It will be the eleventh different offensive coordinator in eleven seasons for them. And the QB situation, according to Schiano, is up in the air until game time, as Art Sitkowski could get the nod. He took a redshirt early in the 2019 season, but as a frosh two years ago, he had a ratio of four TD's to 18 INT's. Vedral, incidentally, played at Central Florida before following Scott Frost to play for the Cornhuskers.

Schiano does have some impact transfers. Wide receiver Aaron Cruikshank played at Wisconsin and once ran a kickoff back for a touchdown in the Rose Bowl. And safety Brendon White was the Defensive MVP of the Rose Bowl two seasons ago while playing on Schiano's unit at Ohio State.

Still, this is bound to be a long haul. It would surprise us if Rutgers was extremely competitive right away, although we do believe they should manage more than the 140 net yards they had in last year's 27-0 loss to the Spartans.

At Michigan State there is a transition taking place as well, as Mark Dantonio leaves and Mel Tucker, who spent one year as head coach at Colorado but has been an assistant at Ohio State, Alabama and Georgia, takes over. It's more of a "cleansing" thing, with all the scandal that has taken place in and around the athletic department.

Explosiveness isn't the hallmark of this offense. And we doubt seriously whether Rocky Lombardi or the others at the QB position are going to make a major impact. Without a heck of a lot of time to install a new system, one could expect tailback Elijah Collins (988 yards last year) to carry a lot of the load.

The Spartans were one of the nation's top defenses last year, particularly across the front line. Very few starters return, but there was some depth last year, so don't expect a huge downgrade.

Defense should dominate here. Yes, most of that dominance will be on the Michigan State side, but we're thinking the Spartans won't get off to the most auspicious offensive start. We're going to look UNDER in this conference lid-lifter.

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