There were high hopes around this Miami Hurricanes program at the outset of the season. Coach Mario Cristobal had put together a nice recruiting class. A new offensive coordinator, Shannon Dawson, was going to facilitate something to make Tyler Van Dyke more effective at quarterback, since he appeared lost with the previous coordinator.

The team won four consecutive games to start the campaign, including one against Texas A&M. Then came a rather ill-advised and ill-fated decision to run the ball instead of kneeling on it against Georgia Tech, which turned out disastrous when Miami fumbled and lost.

The season turned in another direction after that. Sure, there were nice moments, like a comeback victory over Clemson. But for the most part it was another disappointment. By the end of the year, Van Dyke had been benched, after a lot of interceptions. Then freshman Emory Williams, who had taken his place, broke his arm against Florida State.

Fast forward to the season's conclusion, when Van Dyke, once considered a possibility to go in the top ten of the NFL Draft, decided he'd had enough of this coaching staff and entered the transfer portal, eventually signing with Wisconsin. There are a lot of Miami players who are either opting out of the game or opting to go elsewhere, and it affects the team they are going to put on the field on Thursday, as they take on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at Yankee Stadium in the Pinstripe Bowl (kickoff scheduled for 2:30 PM ET).

Rutgers is in its second go-around with Greg Schiano, one of those "stern taskmasters" who uses discipline and emphasizes defense. He signed for a lot of money to come back to the program, which he guided to six bowl games from, 2005 to 2011 and is now in the Big Ten. 

This year's Rutgers squad didn't lay down when playing the best teams in the conference, and even beat Michigan State, Northwestern and the ACC's Virginia Tech. But frankly, they just did not possess enough offense, gaining only 307 yards per contest.

In the college football odds that have been posted on this game by the people at BetOnline, the Scarlet Knights are favored:

Rutgers Scarlet Knights -2.5 (-112)
Miami (FL) Hurricanes +2.5 (-108)

Over 41 Points -110
Under 41 Points -110

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Schiano's story adds another angle to this game. He had been a defensive coordinator for the Hurricanes under Butch Davis. When Davis left to take the head coaching job with the Cleveland Browns, Schiano wanted to be promoted, but instead the position went to Larry Coker. That was Schiano's signal to move on, and he did, to Rutgers. After that, he had a regrettable stint as head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, then was defensive coordinator at Ohio State.

Rutgers is not going to overwhelm anybody with their offense. Quarterback Gavin Wimsatt is rather mediocre by any measurement; he completed just 48% of his passes, with nine TD's and eight interceptions.

Schiano, as we've mentioned, is a defensive guy. His team has allowed four yards per carry. But in an interesting metric, Rutgers ranks 127th in defensive "rush success." Consider that there are 132 teams at the FBS level.

Both teams are pretty likely to run the ball. Rutgers will use Kyle Monangai, who led the team with 1099 yards. Miami will be missing running back Donald Chaney, who is the team's second leading rusher, but they have more or less been using a committee all season long, so there's depth.

They'll need it. Apparently Cristobal didn't think Jacurri Brown was the best guy to operate the offense in the absence of Van Dyke, because he didn't get to throw a pass all season long. He did play in 2022, and threw three INT's and three touchdowns in 45 attempts.

He can run the ball, though, so Miami has another dimension. But they are missing 9-10 starters, and that's the way it is these days.

There are just too many people out of action with the 'Canes, and we'renot sure they want to be here that much. Rutgers, on the other hand, has motivation, because there are quite a few locals playing and Schiano, known as an exceptional recruiter, absolutely wants toclaim the New York-New Jersey area as his own. That's enough of an edge in what we also expect to be a low-scoring game, with wind and rain anticipated.

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