Ohio State Football: Confidence level against Rutgers
By Eric Boggs
The X-factor Confidence Level – 7
Rutgers has two advantages in this game that I haven’t heard or seen many people talking about. The first is that Rutgers is coming off of a bye. In other words, Schiano and his coaching staff have had an extra week to prepare for this game while the Rutgers players have also had an additional week of rest and preparation. I cannot stress how much of an advantage that is for a team late in the season.
By now, everyone is feeling beat up, bruised, and just downright unhealthy after eight weeks of physical play. For some, injuries have taken a toll. If a team doesn’t have great depth, then a couple of key injuries could derail a season for a team. While Ohio State has had to deal with some injuries, their depth has aided in keeping them undefeated for the season thus far. Rutgers has also been relatively healthy this season.
The other factor worth mentioning is that the Ohio State football team is playing in its second straight-road game. After playing a prime-time game last week in Madison, the Buckeyes have to jump back on a plane again this week and travel east to Piscataway. Although the distances aren’t as dramatic as they will be next season when four West Coast teams enter the conference, it is still back-to-back road games against two of the better teams in the conference per their records.
As I wrote earlier in the week, this game is being considered the biggest that Rutgers has had in their home stadium since they upset #3 ranked Louisville back in 2006. Given these X factors, it causes me to pause, but I am not panicked. My confidence level for these X-factors is at a seven.