Jawan Jamison is a compact back who could have a big day against Arkansas' defense. (Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE)
The Scarlet Knights continued to succeed away from home last week, earning their second road win of the season last Thursday against South Florida. Now Rutgers heads to the SEC to face a battered but dangerous Arkansas team in Fayetteville.
At 3-0, 1-0 in the Big East, the Scarlet Knights are one of the favorites in the conference. But that’s comparatively small potatoes. Winning at a prominent SEC opponent, even one that’s still struggling to find itself, would be a big boost towards getting into the Top 25 and discussed on a national level.
“I don’t concern myself with that,” coach Kyle Flood said. “If we do well enough during the season, at the end of the year, we’ll be ranked, and those ultimately are the ones that you concern yourself with.”
So coach Flood, what would beating an SEC team on the road do for you in your first month as a head coach, and for your football team looking for more respect?
“It would allow us to be 4-0,” Flood said. “And Arkansas is an excellent football team and they have an excellent program, but I would never want anybody to make any complete judgments or decisions based on one game. I think you have to look at the body of work. And for us that, would allow us to be 4-0, would allow us to continue on a very positive start to our season. But then at that point, we would have to move on. Right now, our focus is on just being 1-0 this week.”
Flood has a small advantage in the bit of extra prep time. The Scarlet Knights played South Florida on a Thursday, while Arkansas got its usual Saturday game instead.
“Extra preparation is always a positive. Ultimately, will it turn it into a win for us? We won’t find out until next Saturday but did have a practice yesterday which was a little different than what our normal practice would be because we played Thursday night.”
