Life without Rice not so great for Rutgers

Sep 12, 2008 - 10:42 PM By Zachary Ingraham PA SportsTicker Staff Writer

After being dominated in its first two games of the season, Rutgers is starting to look like the team of old.

Ray Rice left the school after his junior year for the the NFL and the Scarlet Knights offense appeared to go with him.

Rutgers was defeated by Fresno State, 24-7, in its season opener and then suffered a 44-12 loss to North Carolina on Thursday night.

Despite the embarrassing losses, coach Greg Schiano has little doubt that his team will return to form.

"Tough night for us, but we will be back," he said. "I felt like we were a yard short a bunch of times, which certainly is frustrating. Every game takes on a life of its own. We just don't understand how to seize the moment right now, so we need to get better at that."

The offensive woes can be traced to the Scarlet Knights' rushing attack - or lack there of - and turnovers. Neither was a problem when Rice was in the backfield.

"The turnover margin period - we're 0-6 right now," Schiano said. "You're not going to win many games, especially back-to-back games, if you are 0-6. We haven't gotten any and we've given it up six times."

Now with the Baltimore Ravens, Rice rushed for nearly 5,000 yards and scored 50 touchdowns as a three-year starter for Rutgers, which went 26-12 during the tailback's tenure after being considered the laughingstock of college football for decades.

Rice, who racked up 2,012 rushing yards for 24 scores last season, ended his collegiate career with eight consecutive 100-yard performances. The Scarlet Knights have yet to find a replacement for the most successful running back in the program's history.

Rutgers, which is yet to have a running back reach triple-digits in rushing yards this year, has rushed for 246 yards and one score on 63 carries as a team. With the running game not being as effective, it has put more pressure on quarterback Mike Teel.

Teel has not responded well, throwing five of the team's six interceptions this season, which is nearly half the total (13) it had in 2007.

"It's uncharacteristic of us to play like this," Teel said. "We have no excuses. Everyone on this team knows we are better than our record. We will get through this, but there's work to do, and it's time for us to take the steps to improve on our mistakes."

While he may not admit it, Teel definitely misses having Rice in the backfield with him.

A second-round pick - 55th overall - in April's draft, Rice finished his collegiate career with his best performance in a 52-30 win over Ball State in the International Bowl. He rushed for a school-record 280 yards with four touchdowns.

The Scarlet Knights are still searching for a suitable replacement. Sophomore Kordell Young, who rushed for 94 yards and a score on 26 carries in the opener, injured his knee and did not play against the Tar Heels.

With Young sidelined, Rutgers has turned to Mason Robinson and Jourdan Brooks. They combined for 124 rushing yards on 23 carries against North Carolina but did not get into the end zone.

"Mason and Jourdan both got a chance to carry the ball and I thought at times they did good things," Schiano said. "But I felt that can be a little bit misleading, when some of those runs happened. We really have to look at everything."

Schiano now needs to turn his focus to making sure his squad still believes they can win after the surprisingly woeful 0-2 start.

"I'm sure it's not very high after the last couple games," Schiano said of the club's morale. "This is certainly unchartered waters for most of the guys in the locker room. Not for me, and for some of my staff, but it is for a lot of those players in that locker room."

Rutgers visits Navy next week and then hosts Morgan State, an FCS team, before starting the Big East portion of its schedule. Schiano warns not to overlook the Scarlet Knights because they are not giving up on this season.

"You don't want to be naive in any way, but I do believe that you can't count this team out," he said. "I do believe that this group will turn this around. There are things that I need to figure out as a head coach, and things we need to figure out as a staff, and we need to impart that onto the players."