Rutgers is coming into this game after finishing 4-8 last season and all 8 of those losses came in their conference games as they were 1-8 in the Big Ten. Greg Schiano is now in his 4th season as head coach and even though the program has improved under him, they have actually been getting worse in conference games over the last 3 years. He needs to start showing some results here and he is going to be focused on winning conference games this season. Now he is being handed a great situation at home to open up the season and he has a chance to really get this team going with a conference win to start the year. They are going up against a Northwestern side that was already bad last season as they went 1-11 overall and they have been declining under their coach over the last 2 years. Now their coach has left right before the season and a lot of their players have also jumped ship in the transfer portal so they are going to continue to get worse this season with the talent they have left on the team and now the interim head coach running the show on such short notice. Rutgers is going to jump at this opportunity to start their season with a conference win at home where they have played much better. Rutgers will cover the spread in this game.