![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/rutgers.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n\n There\u2019s one more tune-up on the horizon before Ohio State clashes with Michigan for the 121st time. <\/p>\n
\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t5-5\u00a0(2-5)\n\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\tNOV. 22, 2025\u00a0– Noon\n\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\tOhio Stadium\n\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\tColumbus, OH\n\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Buckeyes welcome Rutgers to the Shoe for a noon clash on Saturday. Coached by former Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano, the Scarlet Knights don\u2019t present a major threat to Ryan Day\u2019s squad on paper, especially given how their defense has faltered under their defensive-minded head coach. Rutgers is 107th nationally in scoring defense, allowing 30 points per game, and 122nd in total defense at 425.5 yards allowed per game.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tIn 10 meetings, Rutgers has never toppled Ohio State. It\u2019s never come within two scores of doing so. Schiano is 0-4 against the Buckeyes since the start of his second head coaching tenure in Piscataway, New Jersey. OSU shouldn\u2019t look past anybody, and hasn\u2019t all year, but its Senior Day should bring another lamb to slaughter.\n<\/p>\n
\tBattling for Bowl Eligibility<\/p>\n
\n\tWith an even 5-5 record on the season, Rutgers needs one more win to become bowl-eligible for a third consecutive season. Should the Scarlet Knights lose as heavy underdogs to the Buckeyes, the best their record can finish is 7-6, the exact same mark they posted in 2023 and 2024. Oh, how the other half lives, Buckeye fans.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Scarlet Knights scraped by Ohio in a 34-31 ballgame to open their season, then crushed their other two nonconference foes of Miami (Ohio) and FCS Norfolk State. Any momentum there, albeit against inferior competition, unraveled as Big Ten play began.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tRutgers dropped four consecutive games to Iowa, Minnesota, Washington and Oregon, the last of those contests being a 56-10 whooping by the Ducks. Oregon nearly quadrupled the Scarlet Knights\u2019 yardage in that game, outgaining them 750 to 202.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n\tTwo victories in the last three games have Rutgers within a win of a bowl game.\u00a0The Scarlet Knights beat Maryland, 35-20, in their most recent game. It\u2019s unlikely that win No. 6 for the Scarlet Knights comes on Saturday, so a postseason game for its seniors will likely come down to a home matchup with Penn State on Nov. 29.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\tRunnin\u2019 Raymond<\/p>\n
\n\tRunning back Antwan Raymond presents easily the biggest threat on Rutgers\u2019 roster. He\u2019s emerged as one of the Big Ten\u2019s best rushers this season.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tRaymond is second in the conference for rushing yards, trailing only Nebraska\u2019s Emmett Johnson, taking just 10 games to reach exactly 1,000 on the season. He averages five\u00a0yards per carry and has posted 11 rushing touchdowns. He\u2019s added 15 receptions for 163 yards and a score.\n<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\tVincent Carchietta-Imagn Images.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tSchiano has quietly put together a lineage of great running backs in his time at Rutgers. Isiah Pacheco rushed for 2,442 career yards (though never more than 800 in a season) before becoming a seventh-round NFL draft pick of the Kansas City Chiefs and becoming their featured running back for two Super Bowl victories. Kyle Monangai was a 1,200-yard rusher in both 2023 and 2024 who\u2019s racked up 390 rushing yards at a clip of 5.2 per carry in his rookie year with the Chicago Bears.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tRaymond put together a career day against Minnesota last week, carrying the football 41 (!) times for 240 yards and a touchdown.\n<\/p>\n
\tKaliak(manis) Attack<\/p>\n
\n\tRutgers complements Raymond\u2019s efforts with a solid passing game quarterbacked by Athan Kaliakmanis, a fifth-year senior and former Golden Gopher who transferred to Piscataway in 2024 after his first year as a starter with Minnesota.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tAfter completing less than 55% of his passes in each of his first three seasons seeing game action, Kaliakmanis is putting up by far his best numbers in his final collegiate season. He\u2019s completing 62.3% of his passes and picking up 8.3 yards per attempt, both his best rates yet as a starter. He\u2019s already up to a career-high 2,705 passing yards in 2025 as well, adding 17 touchdowns against seven interceptions.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tWide receiver KJ Duff is a major weapon to watch on the outside, collecting 53 receptions for 923 yards and six touchdowns thus far in 2025. Ian Strong and DT Sheffield round out a strong trio for Kaliakmanis at the receiver position. Strong has 48 catches for 716 yards and five touchdowns and Sheffield has 40 receptions for 532 yards and four scores this season.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThe marriage of Rutgers\u2019 run and pass games has given the Scarlet Knights the No. 39 total offense in college football, averaging\u00a0420.5 total yards per game.\n<\/p>\n
\tThe Worst Run Defense in the Country<\/p>\n
\n\tOhio State played the second-worst run defense in the Big Ten last week, UCLA. This week, it faces not just the worst run D in the conference, but in the country.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tRutgers allows 6.6 yards per carry this season. Let that number sit for a minute. That\u2019s more than 13 yards every two times their opponent runs the ball. That\u2019s a first down with some extra change to donate to your favorite charity.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tMore context for how bad that number is: It\u2019s dead last out of the\u00a0136 teams in the FBS, and not by a slim margin. The second-worst run defense in the nation, Georgia Southern, allows 5.6 yards per carry. It\u2019s a whole yard of difference from the Scarlet Knights to the next-worst team.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tRutgers\u2019 front six is no better at rushing the passer, with a meager 10 sacks this season as a team, also last in the Big Ten and 132nd in the country. Ohio State\u2019s offensive line got to build some confidence in a 222-yard rushing performance vs. UCLA, and the opportunity to output a similar number is golden against the Scarlet Knights.\n<\/p>\n
\tThe Cannon War<\/p>\n
\n\tFor 150 years, Rutgers and Princeton, which are separated by just 17 miles in New Jersey and are college football\u2019s two oldest teams (they literally played the first-ever college football game against each other in 1869), have battled over two Revolutionary War cannons that are dug into Princeton\u2019s university grounds.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThe two cannons, nicknamed simply \u201cBig Cannon\u201d and \u201cLittle Cannon,\u201d were left on the Tigers\u2019 campus following the Battle of Princeton during the war in 1777, at least as the legend goes. Legends often embellish. There are reports to the contrary, but in any case, they are revolutionary war cannons.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n\tBig Cannon was transported from Princeton to New Brunswick, near Rutgers, to bolster the city\u2019s defenses during the War of 1812. Two decades later in 1836, a Princeton militia force named the \u201cPrinceton Blues\u201d dug the cannon up from Rutgers grounds and hauled it back to Princeton\u2019s campus. It was used to taunt Rutgers football players during that first-ever football game, which Rutgers won before going on a 33-game losing streak vs. the Tigers.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tSix years later in 1875, a group of nine Rutgers students trekked out with a horse and buggy after midnight had fallen. They dug up Big Cannon, but it was too heavy for them to move anywhere, so they instead heisted Little Cannon and hauled it back to Piscataway on a seven-hour journey. Princeton students responded with a raid on Rutgers\u2019 campus, stealing some muskets, before a committee met and decided that Little Cannon should be returned to Princeton. But 100 years later, one more heist would ensue.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tIn 1976, a group of five Rutgers students and one of their grandmothers created a fictitious New Jersey Citizens Bicentennial Committee (NJCBC), using the USA\u2019s 200-year anniversary as a cover for their plot. They contacted a Princeton official and obtained a security pass for the campus. The grandmother posed as the chairman of this NJCBC, and it was enough cover to get their trucks and heavy equipment onto campus. Then they handed a letter to security guards stating that they were digging up Big Cannon to take on a statewide tour for the bicentennial and had obtained permission from University officials.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThey would have gotten away with it if not for one lone Princeton University detective whose wife\u2019s friend happened to be on the board of the real New Jersey State Bicentennial Commission (NJSBC). He reportedly walked up to the six robbers and told them, “All right, you guys, we know you’re from Rutgers.” The plans were ruined. Related charges were later dropped by police.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tRutgers and Princeton played 71 editions of their rivalry game, with the Tigers going 53-17-1, before it was discontinued after the 1980 season as Princeton dropped down a division to what is now the FCS. Scarlet Knight students still occasionally sneak onto Princeton\u2019s campus and paint Big Cannon red as a reminder that it\u2019s rightfully theirs. At least in their mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s one more tune-up on the horizon before Ohio State clashes with Michigan for the 121st time. 5-5\u00a0(2-5)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-297225","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}