Three potential trap games for Penn State Football in 2022

Penn State Football at Rutgers

Since joining the Big Ten in 2014, Rutgers has been thought of by many as being the laughingstock of the conference, or the eastern division at the very least.

However, that should no longer be the case.

With the return of Greg Schiano as head coach, the Scarlet Knights showed signs of life last year, just barely missing out on bowl eligibility with a 5-7 record. They did ultimately get to play in the Gator Bowl though as a replacement for Texas A&M.

Perhaps their best game last season was in a loss to the Big Ten champion Michigan Wolverines by a score of 20-13 in The Big House.

The Scarlet Knights return an experienced quarterback in Noah Vedral, and actually welcomed the fourth-best transfer class in the Big Ten; ranked ahead of teams such as Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, and Iowa.

Not only will this Rutgers team be more talented, experienced, and well prepared than what fans might be used to from the team from Piscataway, NJ, but this game also falls at a tricky point in the schedule.

For Penn State, if things go well and they only have one or two losses to that point, the matchup the following weekend against Michigan State could be huge. If things don’t go so well, there’s still the chance that the Nittany Lions come out flat, as they have a tendency to lose their ‘edge’ after one or two losses and seem to play with less passion and enthusiasm.

For Rutgers, they could still be fighting for bowl eligibility at this point, being that it is the second to last game on their schedule. If you’re a Rutgers fan, what better way than to clinch bowl eligibility for the first time since 2014 than with an upset win over Penn State in the final home game of the season?

That could add a little bit of extra juice to not only the fans, but also the team themselves.