Folks, the bowl eligibowl is here.

Penn State takes on Rutgers in a battle of the 5-6 teams. The winner will get a bowl game, the loser nothing. Terry Smith has brought the Nittany Lions this far; it’s time to finish the job.

For the first time under Smith, the Nittany Lions enter the game against the Scarlett Knights as double-digit favorites. DraftKings has the line set at -13.5 points in Penn State’s favor, with the money line at -520.

The game will be the 11th time the two teams have faced each other. The last time the Nittany Lions faced the Scarlet Knights was in 2023. Penn State won that matchup 27-6 thanks to two Kaytron Allen touchdowns.

The Team

As said before, Rutgers is 5-6 this year. The Scarlett Knights opened the season with an electric win against Ohio, but struggled to ride the momentum. They have wins against Maryland and Purdue, but have stumbled in the Big Ten, other than that.

The Rutgers head coach will be Greg Schiano. He is in his 17th season with the team after rejoining the Scarlett Knights in 2020. His first stint with the team was from 2001 to 2011, but he left to coach in the NFL in 2012. He made his way back to the collegiate level in 2016, working as the offensive coordinator for Ohio State, but made his way back to Piscataway, New Jersey.

The offensive coordinator for Rutgers is former Penn State offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Kirk Ciarrocca. He joined the team in 2023 after spending one season with Minnesota. Ciarroca was named a Broyles Award finalist this season.

Robb Smith and Zach Sparber are the defensive coordinators. Smith is the play caller and was hired before this season after spending two years in Happy Valley as an analyst. In 2023, after Manny Diaz took the head coaching role at Duke, Smith helped call the defensive plays in the Peach Bowl against Ole Miss.

The Offense

Rutgers has relied heavily on its offense this season, scoring 28 points per game. A large part of this has been the starting quarterback, Athan Kaliakmanis. The Minnesota transfer has thrown for 2786 yards, 17 touchdowns, and just 7 interceptions. He has thrown for over 250 yards in eight of his games this season.

The Scarlet Knights have pretty decent depth at receiver, which has helped Kaliakmanis a lot this season. KJ Duff, Ian Strong, and DT Sheffield all have over 500 yards and four touchdowns. Duff has been the most consistent with 957 yards on the season, but if Strong had been healthy the whole season, he would likely be much closer to 1000 yards.

Antwan Raymond has been the lead back for Rutgers this season with 1086 yards and 12 touchdowns on the ground. He and Kaliakmanis have not gotten much help from the offensive line. Against Minnesota, they allowed seven sacks.

The thing for Rutgers has been the struggle to score against its top opponents. Just 19 points against Ohio State and Oregon combined is not something to write home about.

The Defense

The defense, on the other hand, has really struggled throughout the season. Rutgers is averaging 31 points against per game and allowed 56 to Oregon, 42 to Ohio State, and 38 to Washington. They have consistently struggled against run and don’t make many players behind the line of scrimmage. The Scarlet Knights are averaging 425.9 yards against per game

Defensive back Jett Elad leads the team with 69 total tackles. He also has 2.5 tackles for loss, two interceptions, and a forced fumble. Former Penn State cornerback Cam Miller has not taken the step some thought he would this offseason, but a lack of pressure on the quarterback hasn’t helped. He has one interception and 38 tackles.

Rutgers is averaging just under a sack per game, but when it has been able to hurry the quarterback, it’s been through senior Eric O’Neill. He has nine QB hurries to go along with his 2.5 sacks and 8..5 tackles for loss.

Special Teams

Similar to Penn State, Rutgers deploys a different player for field goals, kickoffs, and punts. Jakob Anderson has been the main punter for the Scarlet Knights, averaging 44.1 yards a kick. He has four punts over 50 yards this season, and nine of his 14 have been inside the 20-yard line.

The place kicker is Jai Patel. He is 13 of 18 on field goals this season, with misses at every range. Jack Scullion is in charge of kickoffs, and he has sent 33 of 61 out for touchbacks. Scullion has sent two kicks out of bounds as well.