Louisville @ Rutgers preview
High Point Solutions Stadium
Last Meeting ( Nov 27, 2009 ) Rutgers 34, Louisville 14
With their bowl lives hanging in the balance, Louisville and Rutgers meet in what essentially is a playoff game Friday in New Jersey.
Neither of the Big East Conference rivals has locked up a postseason spot yet and Friday’s matchup will knock either the Cardinals or the Scarlet Knights out of the mix.
Louisville (5-6, 2-4 Big East) is playing its season finale and has one more shot at that elusive sixth victory.
The Cardinals were in decent shape at 5-4 after a win at Syracuse in early November. But Louisville failed to seal the deal at home, losing to South Florida 24-21 in overtime and to West Virginia 17-10 last week.
Louisville, which has lost three of its last four games, has recently been down this road. The exact same one.
In 2008, the Cardinals traveled to play the Scarlet Knights needing a win to become bowl eligible. Things did not turn out very well for Louisville as Rutgers raced out to a 49-0 lead at the half and went on to post a 63-14 victory.
Despite being picked to finish last in the league entering the season, Louisville has shown some life under coach Charlie Strong. Preseason predictions notwithstanding, going 0-3 down the stretch while playing for a bowl would be a disappointing end to the season.
Rutgers (4-6, 1-4) is last in the conference standings and need to win its final two games to become bowl eligible.
The Scarlet Knights need a win over the Cardinals and then need to go to Morgantown and beat West Virginia on Dec. 4.
Rutgers is playing to keep its bowl hopes alive, but is also playing for pride as well after getting bombed last week at Cincinnati 69-38.
It was the highest-scoring game in Big East Conference history but that was no consolation to Rutgers, which is on a four-game slide - with all of the losses coming since defensive tackle Eric LeGrand suffered a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the neck down against Army.
True freshman quarterback Chas Dodd threw for four touchdowns last week, but he has been getting little support from the running game. Rutgers was held to minus-9 yards rushing against Cincinnati and ranks 112th out of 120 FBS schools in rushing yards per game.
The Scarlet Knights need two wins to keep from having a losing record for the first time they finished 5-7 in 2003.
Rutgers leads the series with Louisville 7-2, including a 34-14 victory last season.