Rutgers faces reality as regular season winds down, hosts Maryland for Senior Day
It's hard to imagine anyone around the Rutgers football program saw these results coming.
But take it or leave it, 11 games later, here the Scarlet Knights are.
Rutgers (4-7, 1-6) has gone through more lows — many, in fact — than highs in its second year as a member of the Big Ten.
Behind the madness bestowed in the seemingly never-ending cycle of suspensions and arrests that plagued the Knights with headaches from distractions off the field — the latest of which came Friday night in an NJ Advance Media report detailing how head coach Kyle Flood and Athletic Director Julie Hermann were fighting for their jobs, according to anonymous sources — the 2015 season has been turbulent, to say the least.
With Maryland (2-9, 0-7) entering Saturday's noon kickoff at High Point Solutions Stadium in a rut of its own on a seven-game skid, much still remains on the line for Rutgers — in the present and the future — in its regular season finale.
"It's been a long season," said junior defensive tackle Julian Pinnix-Odrick, who had to step in as the starter at the three-point technique after senior Darius Hamilton suffered a season-ending injury. "It wears on you, but it's football and love to do — and that's why we come out here to play everyday."
As far as the Knights are concerned on the field, they still believe the Terrapins present a legitimate threat.
With that, the Knights understand that anything can happen in the one-week season that Saturday poses.
But Flood doesn't dwell on what happened between the two Big Ten newcomers in their first meeting as conference opponents a year ago.
"I evaluate us on a year-to-year basis and over time. Maryland's got a good football program with a lot of history and we're building a Big Ten football program right now," he said. "So we're just really — right now, we're focused on this week only."
Depleted by injuries past the dismissals of former key players and projected starters earlier in the season, Rutgers has needed all hands on deck all year long.
That remains a focal point, especially along the line of scrimmage. For the second straight week, Flood listed a season-high 24 players on Monday's injury report.
In last Saturday's 31-21 win at Army, the Knights had to shuffle their line with redshirt freshmen Marcus Applefield and Zack Heeman inserted at left and right guard, respectively, as junior Chris Muller moved into the starting center slot for junior Derrick Nelson.
Flood backed the youngsters and Muller if they're needed to toe the line of scrimmage in the same spots, as Nelson and sophomore left guard Dorian Miller both remain questionable with upper body injuries suffered from a collision two weeks ago against Nebraska.
"I've got confidence the players are working right now," Flood said. "They're doing a good job digesting the game plan. We're gonna play against an excellent group up front on defense."
Elsewhere, though, star wide receiver Leonte Carroo (probable, lower body) said he would "definitely play" in his final home game. Fitting the theme of the Knights' season, the senior has been through his own rough patch in his last year on the Banks with a pair of suspensions to go with a lingering lower body injury.
He even has a chance to set the program's single-season receiving touchdowns record — one he tied last year with 10 — sitting on nine touchdown receptions courtesy of his trifecta of three-score games.
But Carroo's concern is with more than what his legacy in the record books might be.
"It's my last game here at High Point (Solutions Stadium)," Carroo said. "I gotta go out send the right message and go out the right way."
Understanding that, not all hope is lost right now in Piscataway.
The odds remain faint for Rutgers to sneak into a bowl game at 5-7, especially after Nebraska and its higher Academic Progress Rate (APR) just fell to 5-7 on the year after Friday's loss to No. 4 Iowa.
But regardless of what the outcome is and all of the other dominoes to fall internally and externally for the Knights when Saturday comes and goes, Rutgers has no other option than to set its sights on the one — and only — contest currently left on its schedule.
"Going 1-0 is a great thing, regardless of what the record was. Anybody will tell you that," Pinnix-Odrick said. "But obviously ... us focusing on getting this 'W' and especially in conference against a conference opponent and definitely somebody so close to us in terms of the recruiting and all of the different things they relate to us with ... We're gonna be out there playing hard."
For updates on the Rutgers football team, follow @GarrettStepien and @TargumSports on Twitter.
