PISCATAWAY, N.J. (AP) -Opening the season with a conference game probably wasn’t what Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly and Rutgers counterpart Greg Schiano were hoping for when they looked at their teams’ schedules.
But that’s not because their nationally televised Labor Day game isn’t a good matchup.
Kelly’s Bearcats are the defending Big East Conference champions, while Schiano’s Scarlet Knights are looking to do what Cincinnati did last season – win a first league title.
“Do I really want to play them? If I had my choice, no, I wouldn’t play Rutgers in the first game, but it’s not my call,” Kelly said. “I’m a football coach. They tell me who to play and I show up. … No, I wouldn’t play the game if it was my choice, but it wasn’t mine.”
Even so, the way the game sets up on the field also is perfect.
re the most depth on the line since Schiano took over the program in 2000.
On the other side of the ball, both teams are questions marks. Rutgers has not decided on a replacement for quarterback Mike Teel, who made the Seattle Seahawks’ 53-man roster on Saturday. So it may use three quarterbacks, with fifth-year seniors Dom Natale and Jabu Lovelace and true freshman Tom Savage going against a defense that lost 10 starters from last year.
Kelly was blunt in saying he believed the game was moved to prime time to accommodate ESPN.
“I do have opinions on that, and that is that we don’t need to scramble around to take care of ESPN all the time,” he said. “We’re a BCS conference – which we seem to do maybe a little bit more than I would like. But, it’s not my call.”
Schiano has not been as outspoken about the game, but he has concerns after last season. Rutgers also opened on Labor Day and lost to Fresno State, triggering a 1-5 start that was righted with a season-ending seven-game winning streak.
However, he has stopped worrying about how his team will play early.
“I read a book by Bear Bryant and he said 20 years into it he could never tell, no matter what he thought,” Schiano said. “So he stopped trying to figure it out. I’m kind of like that.”
o proven receivers in Mardy Gilyard and Marcus Barnett.
“I don’t worry about him running, because he can get the first down,” Schiano said. “But I don’t think he is going to go 60 yards. What I worry about is him moving in the pocket and launching it downfield. He can get 60 easy that way.”
The pressure will be on cornerbacks Devin McCourty and Brandon Bing.
“The seniors on their team have never beat us,” Pike said. “That’s going to be a fire that’s probably driving them all season, and that’s probably going to have them fired up.”
Not only have the Bearcats lost every defensive starter except strong safety Aaron Webster, they are switching from a 4-3 front to a 3-4 this season.
Webster said this will be “the test” for the group.
“From the start of spring (workouts), we tried to have our own identity as a defense and separate ourselves from last year and get that name ‘last year’ out of our mouths and concentrate on this year,” Webster said.
The Bearcats’ defense will be facing an offensive line that returns all five starters led by highly touted tackle Anthony Davis. While there isn’t a featured back, Joe Martinek and Jourdan Brooks have seen extensive action.
It’s unlikely any of the Rutgers quarterbacks are going to be asked to carry the team.
said. “The fact that we are inexperienced at quarterback and receivers, we’re not worried about that. We just need everybody to go out there and do their job. In a perfect world, we would run the ball every play.”
For Rutgers and Cincinnati, the difference between winning a league title might well depend on what happens on Monday.
“Any time you’re defending a title, you have a different agenda,” Kelly said. “Anything less than repeating would be disappointing.”
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AP Sports Writer Joe Kay in Cincinnati contributed to this report.
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