In a lot of ways, this was a spring to forget for the Rutgers football team.
No running back emerged to stake a claim to the vacancy left by departing starter Ray Rice. A home-and-home series with Notre Dame was canceled when the Scarlet Knights wouldn't agree to play its home games in the series at Giants Stadium. Private funds needed to complete the expansion of Rutgers Stadium have been slow to arrive.
That having been said, it's an interesting change from a year ago, when the Scarlet Knights were one of the hot teams in college football. Thought to be a contender in the Big East and a dark horse in the national championship race, the team proved to lack the consistency and physicality required to make that happen, and finished a relatively disappointing campaign in the International Bowl.
Now that the spotlight has receded a bit, there's still a lot to like about Rutgers in 2008. Mike Teel leads what should be a high-powered offense that includes one of the deepest wide receiving corps in college football. Teel struggled with an injured thumb a year ago, and his accuracy and touch dropped off as the season wore on, but if he's healthy this will be the most powerful passing game Greg Schiano has coached at the school.
Though Rice is going to be very difficult to replace, the team has enough options to begin the season with a running-back-by-committee approach if no leader emerges by September.
The defense is less flashy and also less certain. It's got experience returning in 2008, but it wasn't consistent a year ago and wore down late in games against top opponents. However, it's also a group that knows exactly what it has to do to compete in the Big East, and early reports are that it's spending the offseason with intensity in every practice and scrimmage.
Whether that will be good enough to beat the most talented teams on the schedule is questionable, but if the Teel-led offense can score enough points, the Scarlet Knights can play with anyone.
