Blue White Illustrated

N O V E M B E R 8 , 2 0 1 7 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 3 The performance of the running game has allowed Rutgers to remain competitive even with an unstable situation at quarter- back. They began the season with Kyle Bolin under center, but the graduate trans- fer from Kentucky was demoted behind Giovanni Rescigno during the team's bye week in October. Rescigno had started five games last season, all losses, but was deemed a better fit for an offense that has been increasingly reliant on the read-op- tion. He hasn't been asked to carry the team since rejoining the starting lineup. Rutgers is averaging 127.0 passing yards per game to rank 121st in the Football Bowl Subdivision, but it's 3-1 with Rescigno as the starter. If they're to pull off a rare upset over Penn State, the Scarlet Knights will need that running game to operate at peak efficiency on Saturday. And they'll also need to stop a Penn State ground attack that gouged them the past two seasons. In 2015, the Nittany Lions rushed for 330 yards, includ- ing 195 by Saquon Barkley, in a 28-3 vic- tory. Last season, they didn't have a 100-yard rusher but still totaled 339 rush- ing yards as a team in a 39-0 win. Ash said Barkley "can do it all. He can run the ball, he can catch the ball out of the backfield, he can line up as a wide receiver, he's very strong, tremendous balance. Just unbelievable change of direction. The way he can stop and restart and make you miss in the open field is as good as there is. He's outstanding. "You never want to say that a particular player is as good as you've ever seen, but I'd say he probably is." The Nittany Lions have had trouble cre- ating running room for Barkley the past two games, but it's unlikely that they will abandon the ground game against Rutgers the way they did against Michigan State last weekend. Ash is expecting his team to get a heavy dose of the junior running back, who was verbally committed to the Scarlet Knights before flipping to Penn State in February 2014. The Knights will also have to be ready for a Penn State team that is eager to get back on the winning track. The Nittany Lions have lost their past two games by a combined margin of four points and need to start stringing together wins to avoid slipping into a second-tier December bowl. But while everyone knows that the Nit- tany Lions have had a tough couple of weeks, slipping from No. 2 in the country to No. 16 in the most recent Associated Press poll, Ash doesn't particularly care about their mindset. The Scarlet Knights' focus is internal. "We're focused on us, our improvement," Ash said. "I don't care who we play, how many games in a row they've won or how many they've lost. It doesn't matter. They've got to go play their game, and I'm sure they're going to prepare to play the best game like they do every Saturday, and that's all we're going to do also. "I don't get caught up into that. Don't even worry about it. I don't care what they're doing. It's all about us and what we need to do to continue to go out and get closer and closer to playing as good as we can play."

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