Rutgers opened Big Ten play at home against USC at 3:30 in Piscataway, and the matchup looked like trouble from the start. USC came in 3-0, had scored 131 points in its first three games and was making its first road game of the season on its first-ever cross-country trip to Rutgers.
That is why USC football drew so much attention before kickoff. Rutgers had already lost its first two games to UMass and Boston College, scoring 42 points while giving up 65, and 's FPI left only two Rutgers games with more than a 20% chance of winning. The spread sat at 23.5 points, a number that matched the feeling around the game rather than fighting it.
USC's offense was the reason. Jayden Maiava, described as one of the best passers in college football and listed at +2500 for the Heisman, led a team that had been averaging 47 points per game through three games. Trent Mosely was ruled out, but that hardly changed the shape of the night. The expectation was simple: USC would push the pace, score early and keep scoring.
Rutgers still had one question it had not answered cleanly after rough performances from Surace and Lonergan. The starting quarterback was unclear, and the decision mattered mostly because the game plan itself looked limited against a defense ready to absorb pressure while the scoreboard could run away. OnTheBanks staff put it bluntly, saying the game could get ugly very quickly and that the Trojans would likely bury Rutgers in points.
There was also a deeper reason the home side wanted more than a respectable showing. The last time a top 15 team visited Rutgers, the Scarlet Knights lost by 46 points, and this one carried the same kind of risk. Sean Ashenfelder was mentioned as a quarterback who could come in once the game became a blowout, with KJ Duff a possible target for garbage-time touchdowns if Rutgers were chasing points late. That is where the night appeared headed before it even began: toward the kind of margin that turns a Big Ten opener into a test of survival.
