Penn State Football: 3 keys to beating Rutgers

Continued dominance over Rutgers

After joining the Big Ten, Rutgers seemed to try to create a rivalry with Penn State football, and logistically it would make sense.

Bordering states, recruiting battles that Penn State has long won, getting a ton of talent out of New Jersey, and neither team truly has a primary rival otherwise.

However, in his weekly press conference Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said Rutgers must hold up its end of the bargain before even having that conversation.

"To your question, as far as a rival goes – look, we’re not Penn State’s rival,” Schiano said Monday. “The reason is we haven’t given them a reason to make us their rival. When rivalries develop, it’s because there’s great contests on the field. There’s great recruiting battles.”"

As previously mentioned, Rutgers has yet to beat Penn State since joining the conference in 2014 and has not scored a touchdown in there previous five meetings.

This matchup is similar to Penn State’s matchup with Maryland earlier in the season, where Penn State entered a heavy favorite and having dominated the past few meetings. However, Maryland did not get the memo and dominated Penn State in every facet of the game en route to a 35-19 victory in Happy Valley.

Rutgers is much improved in 2020 and will be highly motivated to beat Penn State, as this type of win could go a long way in rebuilding Schiano’s program. Despite being 1-5, Penn State is a perennial power within the Big Ten and one Rutgers will use as a barometer for where they stand in the conference. Rutgers went up against Michigan just two weeks ago, with the Wolverines seemingly sleep walking through the first few quarters and ended up narrowly escaping in triple overtime.

This game brings about recruiting implications, and a loss would add further embarrassment to an already troubling 2020 campaign. Penn State head coach James Franklin will need to keep his team motivated and hungry to build on last week’s performance or Saturday is going to be a dog fight for his Nittany Lions.