Rutgers Picked Third in Big East Preseason Poll

Added by Gregg Snyder on July 31, 2012.

The Rutgers Scarlet Knights were picked to finish third in the Big East Preseason Poll.

Prior to last season, Rutgers was picked to finish in last place in the Big East Conference. All they did was go out and prove the doubters wrong by narrowly missing out on their first conference title. So, with a new head coach, what are the expectations for Rutgers heading into the 2012 season?

In the poll which was released today, the Scarlet Knights were picked to finish third this year. With West Virginia having departed for the Big 12, the Big East may be more wide open than ever before.

Rutgers has an extremely talented team with a very good mixture of veteran leaders and young players. They are not without questions marks however. After Greg Schiano left the program to take the head coaching for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFL, Kyle Flood was named the new head man at Rutgers. The Knights also have a question at quarterback. Chas Dodd and Gary Nova are once again battling for the starting role. Rutgers also lost Mr. Everything, Mohamed Sanu to the NFL. Despite all of that, Rutgers has a team that could prove to be very talented and deep at many positions. 15 starters from last year are back.

Louisville, who has 17 starters returning from last year, was selected as the favorite to the win the Big East after receiving 24 of the 28 first place votes. South Florida came in second with 176 points overall, including four first place votes. Rutgers, who did not receive a first place vote, had 155 points. The Scarlet Knights were selected ahead of Cincinnati.

The 2012 Big East Football Preseason Media Poll:

Rutgers opens the season on September 1 on the road against Tulane. Their first home game of the season at High Point Solutions Stadium will be the following week against Howard. Rutgers will play just three conference home games this season (Connecticut, Syracuse, Louisville).