Iowa football: Know your 2019 opponents, Rutgers
By Ryan Sikes
Artur Sitkowski figures to still be the starting quarterback for Rutgers when they face the Iowa football team, despite his horrific 2018 season.
The Iowa football team will play host to the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in Week 2 of the regular season. This matchup will mark the earliest in a season that the Hawkeyes have played a B1G opponent since they played Nebraska in Week 1 of the 1999 season. Nebraska at the time was still part of the Big 12.
To say that Rutgers quarterback Artur Sitkowski had a bad 2018 would be a massive understatement. He ranked dead last in the B1G in completion percentage at just 49.1 while throwing for under 1,200 yards to go along with just 4 touchdowns compared to 18 interceptions. Sitkowski was thrown into the fire as a freshman and looked exactly the part.
Rutgers really has not done well since making the transition to the B1G with an overall record of 19-42. Their 2019 recruiting class ranked 63rd in the country and dead last in the B1G conference. Sitkowski is still penciled in to be the starter on the early 2019 depth chart, so obviously the Scarlet Knights are banking on a huge leap from freshman to sophomore year.
Rutgers will be bringing back talented running back Raheem Blackshear. The junior tailback rushed for 586 yards last season on 143 carries with three touchdowns. He was also a huge asset catching balls out of the backfield as he hauled in 44 receptions for 367 yards and two touchdowns there as well.
They will also have Isaih Pacheco in the backfield who carried the ball 111 times for 551 yards and three touchdowns as a true freshman last year. The Iowa football defense will need to account for speedy 5′-11″ wide receiver Bo Melton who caught 28 balls for 245 yards.
The playmakers on Rutgers offense consist of mostly underclassmen. There is potential for them to be decent in the future but it’s gonna be extremely difficult to make any noise in the B1G East division with the likes of Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, and Michigan State to leapfrog.
On the defensive side of the ball, the Iowa football team will need to account for defensive lineman Elorm Lumor, who racked up 35 total tackles, 7 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks as a sophomore last year. The defense, however, will be without safety Saquan Hampton who went in the sixth round of the NFL Draft to the New Orleans Saints.
The secondary will feature all sophomores at the starting cornerback and safety positions. The problem is that this entire Rutgers team is so young. They played a ton of underclassmen who perhaps were not ready to see the field, but due a lack of recruits or injuries were forced to play earlier than expected. So it’s fairly understandable to see why they went 1-11 last season.