Sports

Scarlet bites: Red-faced Rutgers picked to finish last in Big 10

Rutgers won’t have high expectations to worry about this fall. In fact, the prognosis couldn’t be lower as the Scarlet Knights prepare for their first season in the powerhouse Big Ten.

The league’s writers picked Rutgers to finish dead last in the seven-team East division with 33 points. The only team to receive fewer votes was Purdue in the West, which received 31.5.

Third-year head coach Kyle Flood, however, wasn’t concerned with the criticism.

“I think when you enter a new conference, for us we have a lot to prove,’’ Flood told reporters in Chicago, where the conference’s Media Day was held. “We’re looking forward to getting to the business of proving it.’’

Rutgers, after all, is coming off a down year, going 6-7, which was good for sixth in the mediocre AAC, and lost to Notre Dame in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium. The Scarlet Knights lost six of eight games after a 4-1 start and this year’s recruiting class wasn’t exactly a whopper, either, ranked 57th in the nation by Rivals.com.

Furthermore, Rutgers is in the loaded East division, which includes Ohio State, Michigan and Michigan State — three programs expected to start the season ranked in the top 25.

Rutgers will begin preparation for its opener Aug. 28 at Washington State on Friday. The Big Ten opener will be Sept. 13 against Penn State at home.

“I think the perception is that it’s physical and it’s going to be physical,” Flood said. “We know that. We spent our offseason preparing for that. But we’ve played physical offenses before. We’ve played bigger teams before.”