College football can be a numbers game. Up next in BadgerBlitz.com's preseason numbers-centered analysis are the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.

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Western Kentucky: Beat Writer Preview / 5 Numbers To Know | New Mexico: Beat Writer Preview/ 5 Numbers to Know | BYU: Beat Writer Preview/5 Numbers to Know | Iowa: Beat Writer Preview/ 5 Numbers to Know | Nebraska: Beat Writer Preview/ 5 Numbers to Know | Michigan: Beat Writer Preview | 5 Numbers to Know | Illinois: Beat Writer Preview | 5 Numbers to Know | Northwestern: Beat Writer Preview | Rutgers: Beat Writer Preview

Rutgers has been in the Big Ten for four seasons now, and their last two seasons have featured abysmal quarterback play. The Scarlet Knights ranked 14th in the Big Ten last year in passer rating (91.86) but even that doesn't paint the most accurate picture. Rutgers ranked 127th out of 130 FBS teams last year - beating out only Charlotte (91.35), UTEP (85.19) and Army (69.11).

Let's set aside for now the fact that four Big Ten teams (Michigan - 116th, Minnesota - 120th, Illinois - 126th, Rutgers - 127th) ranked in the bottom 15 of the nation in passer rating last year. The Scarlet Knights play in the toughest division in college football, and if they want to improve on last year's 4-8 record they are going to need their quarterbacks take a big step forward this year.

That's the average yards per play Rutgers' offense gained in 2008, when new offensive coordinator John McNulty was in his first stint as the Scarlet Knights' offensive mastermind. Head coach Chris Ash brought McNulty back to Piscataway during the offseason after he spent the last nine years as an assistant coach in the NFL. McNulty coordinated Rutgers' offense from 2007-2008 under former head coach Greg Schiano, helping the Scarlet Knights to back-to-back 8-5 seasons in the old Big East. McNulty will try to bring some consistency to Rutgers' offense - he is their ninth offensive coordinator in nine seasons.

That's the number of games that quarterback Giovanni Rescigno has played in for the Scarlet Knights over the last two seasons. He is technically the returning starter for the Knights this season, but his hold on the job appears to be tenuous at best. He has a career 99.7 passer rating over the last two seasons, and will have to fend off some competition from the likes of sophomore Johnathan Lewis, junior transfer Tom Flacco, and true freshman Artur Sitkowski, who enrolled early this spring. Don't be surprised if Sitkowski is under center for the Scarlet Knights by the time they take on the Badgers late in the season.

That's how many points per game Rutgers' defense allowed per game last year, good enough to rank 67th in the country - and 11th in the Big Ten. Considering the team's offensive struggles, being in the middle of the national pack is not bad. The problem was that they allowed about 10 more points per game on average than their offense scored - just 18 points per game. They bring a lot of familiar faces back to this defense, so further steps forward are not out of the question. But the difference between going 4-8 and 5-7 (let alone 6-6) is going to depend on how the Knights can shrink the gap between the points they score and the points they allow.

One way to do that would be to hold strong more often when teams get in to the red zone. Rutgers allowed teams to score on 93.88 percent (46 of 49) of their red zone trips last year, the worst rate in the Big Ten. They did manage to force field goals a few times, but Wisconsin fans should recognize what a red zone stop can do for the team's morale - and I would hazard a guess that seeing opposing offenses march down the field and score time and again has the opposite effect on an offense's morale as well. At some point the Knights are probably going to hit their heads against the Big Ten East's glass ceiling, but they still have room to move up in the pecking order - if they take the right steps forward on defense, as well as on offense.

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John Veldhuis covers Wisconsin football, basketball and recruiting for BadgerBlitz.com on the Rivals.com network. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnVeldhuis.