PISCATAWAY, N.J. — While fans and media will focus on three huge showdowns that will decide the Big East race, Rutgers can't afford to. The Scarlet Knights need look no further than three league teams falling to MAC foes — and their own Homecoming upset loss to Tulane two years ago — to ensure their focus stays on Kent State.
Saturday's game at High Point Solutions Stadium (3:30, SNY, WOR-710 AM), in which the Knights face a MAC foe before a bye week followed by a game against Army, easily could be called a trap game. But the 18th-ranked Scarlet Knights (7-0) say they can't look past a 6-1 Kent State squad coached by former Rutgers assistant Darrell Hazell and led by running back/wide receiver Dri Archer.
"When you get to this point in the season, teams that are 6-1 are 6-1 for a reason. This team knows how to win,'' Rutgers coach Kyle Flood said. "This is a very well-coached team, and certainly our players know that teams from that conference don't go anywhere in the country and are intimidated. We'll get their best shot, and we need to make sure they get ours.''
Much will be made of unbeaten Louisville's 34-31 overtime victory over Cincinnati, the first of three Big East showdowns expected to decide the league (Rutgers' games at Cincinnati Nov. 17 and against visiting Louisville on Nov. 29 are the others). But The 5-foot-8, 175-pound Archer could single-handedly ruin the Knights' hopes of an undefeated season.
"They have the most dynamic offensive player in the country,'' Flood said. "He has video-game-like statistics. He's a tremendous, tremendous offensive weapon. He's the most dynamic offensive player I've seen on film or television this year.''
Archer is averaging 10.1 yards per carry, 13.9 yards per reception on a team-high 20 catches and an amazing NCAA-best 47.7 yards per kick return. All that adds up to a nation-leading 212.9 all-purpose yards per game, numbers hard enough to put up in EA Sports' NCAA Football, much less in FBS-level football.
"They're a good team and the MAC is showing they have some good teams," safety Duron Harmon said. "They play some good football."
Hazell, who was on former coach Greg Schiano's first Rutgers staff and won a national title as an Ohio State assistant, has Kent State rising in his second year at the helm.
The Golden Flashes, however, lost their only other game against a BCS-conference foe this year, a 47-14 drubbing at Kentucky (1-7), and their defense will give Rutgers quarterback Gary Nova and running back Jawan Jamison opportunities.
brian.lewis@nypost.com
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