Sports

Rutgers’ goal: Stop Carr, Fresno State in opener

The defunct Big East football conference is in Rutgers’ past, the big-time Big Ten in the Scarlet Knights’ future. But their present is a one-and-done season in the new American Athletic Conference, a campaign that starts tonight at Fresno State.

Will Rutgers look like the team that opened last year 7-0 and cracked the Top 15, or the floundering bunch that limped to a 2-4 finish and a tepid Champs Sports Bowl loss? Double-digit underdogs, Thursday night the Scarlet Knights will get a chance to start proving it will be more of the former and less of the latter.

“I do believe your emotional fires build as you get closer and closer to game day. I see that happening with this team,’’ said coach Kyle Flood, who took over before last season after Greg Schiano’s departure. “For me specifically, having gone through it, it’ll never feel the same as the first time.

“Last year was the first time that I’d ever done it as a head coach on any level, so there was a certain degree of unknown of what it’d feel like during the game. But I think having done it, there won’t be any similarities.’’

Rutgers has plenty of questions to answer, big-picture and small. Will quarterback Gary Nova start this season in the same interception malaise he ended last year? How much will having a fourth offensive coordinator in as many years and losing five players from the back seven to the NFL impact cohesion?

Thursday night, the biggest question is whether that rebuilt defense can slow down Fresno’s fifth-year senior quarterback Derek Carr, the younger brother of Giants backup quarterback David Carr and a former No. 1 pick. Derek Carr threw for 4,104 yards and 37 touchdowns last season.

Rutgers’ own potential first-round pick — wide receiver Brandon Coleman — will start despite having been limited in camp because of offseason knee surgery.

“Brandon will go out there and he’ll start the game for us and I think Brandon’s 100 percent,” Flood said. “There will always be ways that we have to make sure that Brandon touches the ball. I don’t think there will be any rust.’’

brian.lewis@nypost.com