The Rutgers University football program will see a change at starting quarterback, again, this Saturday as the Scarlet Knights face Army in a non-conference game at Yankee Stadium (3:30 p.m. on CBS Sports Network). Sophomore Chad Dodd, who five weeks ago lost his starting job to true freshman Gary Nova, was rewarded Monday with his fifth start of the season after last Sasturday helping Rutgers overcome a 17-3, fourth-quarter deficit to beat the University of South Florida, 20-17, in overtime.
"We just feel as a staff that that gives us the best chance to win on Saturday," said Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano during his weekly Monday teleconference. "Gary will be ready to go."
Of course, Schiano says that Dodd gives the Scarlet Knights (6-3, 3-2 Big east Conference) the best chance to beat the Black Knights (3-6), but that is what he said about Nova a few weeks earlier.
The truth is, when Rutgers is trailing midway through the third quarter against a 3-6 program or next week against the University of Cincinnati, Schiano will have no problem asking Nova to help kick start the RU offense. Currently, Schiano and the Scarlet Knights are playing for their Big East-title lives and if switching quarterbacks on a week-by-week, quarter-by-quarter or play-by-play bases is the way to keep it surviving, its seems as if they have no problem doing that.
Only in the Big East, a league with a lot of below average football programs, does a strategy like this work. Currently, Rutgers has the third-best pass offense in the league (235.89 yards per game), but nationally is ranked 58th in the nation. The Scarlet Knights rushing attack, which averages 87.3-rushing yards per game and is ranked 117th out of 120 Football Bowl Subdivision programs, is even more putrid. However, somehow, Rutgers is near the top of the league standings and if it wins out and gets a little help, it could win the BCS bowl berth.
Dodd or Nova? For Rutgers, the question doesn't matter. All that does is a "W".