BadgerBlitz.com brings back it's Behind Enemy Lines series, where we get an opposing beat writer's take on the upcoming matchup.

For Week 7, we spoke to Richie O'Leary of The Knight Report and touched on Rutgers' hot start, sleepers to watch on both sides of the ball and much more.

O'Leary: The vibes are still very high among the program despite the recent loss to Nebraska. If you asked just about anyone around the program between fans, media, coaches, etc. if they would sign up to be 4-1 heading into this game before the season that they would’ve done so.

Greg Schiano 2.0 as most call it, got off to an interesting start with COVID nearly cancelling the season and his first game back the team forced seven turnovers against Michigan State and then some struggles started to kick in, but after leading them to their first winning season since 2014, confidence is higher than ever as they returned a good chunk of their key contributors despite many of them likely being draft picks this past offseason.

O'Leary: Rutgers is a run dominant offense and for the first quarter versus Nebraska, they were moving the ball pretty well through the ground, with 10 carries for 70 yards. However Nebraska was able to scheme against that and essentially shut that down and forced the Scarlet Knights to pass the ball. However they weren’t really able to do that as their O-Line struggled mightily against the Cornhuskers. Prior to the game, Rutgers announced that starting LG Bryan Felter was out for the season after being injured a few weeks back in the Washington game and his replacement Taj White, who mostly spent time as the backup LT filled in for him and had a rough showing. Plus starting RT Tyler Needham had lots of issues on his side as well. Combine the two and you have a QB who was pressured more times than not, thus a terrible offensive performance.

O'Leary: I’d say Athan Kaliakmanis has been very solid and he has been about everything both fans and media kind of expected of him up to this point.

When you look at Kaliakmanis’ numbers during his time at Minnesota, his best games came when OC Kirk Ciarrocca was running the show and reuniting with his old coach on the banks has paid off big time. Now Kaliakmanis doesn’t have the strongest arm in the world and doesn’t really wow you with any of his traits, but he is consistent and accurate within the first couple of levels of the defense. He can find and hit the open receiver and that’s all Rutgers really asks for with their offense as they run nearly 60% of the time anyway.

On top of that, the past two seasons the Scarlet Knights had Gavin Wimsatt at quarterback and he was ranked the most inaccurate QB in all of FBS two years running, so for Kaliakmanis to be hitting 55.6% this year is a big upgrade.

O'Leary: This is a good one, but I’ll give you one on offense and one on defense.

On offense, I’d keep an eye on TE Kenny Fletcher, he’s a converted defensive end who showed some real promise as a freshman, but was never able to put on the weight to compete consistently. He was bumped over to tight end this offseason and almost immediately earned the starting job due to his athleticism, hands and just overall toughness in the trenches. Since the OC Ciarrocca took over prior to the 2023 season, Rutgers hasn’t used their TEs too much in the pass game, but with Fletcher there now, he’s been active with 19 rec. for 130yds and two touchdowns this season. He might not light up the stat sheet, but he’s definitely a name to watch.

On defense, I had a few names to pick here, but I will go with cornerback Bo Mascoe. He missed his entire freshman season in 2023 due to an NCAA eligibility issue, but was available for the Pinstripe Bowl and played significant snaps resulting a few pass blocks and a couple tackles as well. This past weekend, he made his first career start against Nebraska as CB1 Robert Longerbeam was nursing an injury and he was targeted three times, giving up just one reception for zero yards. He has a knack for tracking the ball in the air and while he might be young, if you test him it could come back to bite.

O'Leary: This year specifically I think you have to attribute that to DC Joe Harasymiak returning and just the experience all around on this unit.

Harasymiak was the runner up for the James Madison Head Coach job this offseason and had several Power-Five programs reach out to him about being a DC elsewhere, but Rutgers upped the ante to keep him and it’s paid off. He is a very smart X’s and O’s coordinator and is best known for his ability to make in game adjustments. Despite the loss last week, Rutgers got to Dylan Raiola quite a bit and forced him to have his worst game of the season by far.

Now add in the veteran presence among this defense, led by 10 starting seniors and you have a lot of experience on that field. Now you sprinkle in some youth like Mascoe above and some other up and comers like LB Dariel Djabome and S Kaj Sanders, then you have a little pipeline of guys year in and year out. End of the day, a Schiano led team is more than likely always going to be a defense first team and will always be a solid one at that.

O'Leary: Rutgers: 24 || Wisconsin: 17

This Wisconsin team has been beat up pretty bad so far this year, as they lost their starting quarterback (Tyler Van Dyke) for the season, lost starting running back (Chez Mellusi) for the remainder of the year and the team's top two receivers aren't fully healthy, as both Bryson Green and Will Pauling exited last week's game due to injuries, but are both expected back this week.

Add all of that together with the fact that Wisconsin doesn't have nearly as strong of a defense as Nebraska did last week and they struggle a bit with stopping the run. Then you should expect the Scarlet Knights run heavy offense led by Kyle Monangai to have a good day on the ground, thus allowing Rutgers not only control the tempo of the game, but also put up some points while doing so. Expect it to be rather close throughout the first half, before the run game wears them down and takes over the game for a solid victory in the second half.

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