Rutgers Wide Receiver Leonte Carroo: "I Feel Like Ohio State Still Has No Respect For Us"

By D.J. Byrnes on October 16, 2014 at 10:33 am
Rutgers doesn't feel respected
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While Rutgers and Maryland offered the Big Ten a door to the lucrative east coast TV markets, the acquisition of the two schools was largely dead-panned by average Big Ten fans.

After all, besides a few flashes under Maryland's old men's basketball coach Gary Williams, Maryland and Rutgers were basketball and football also-rans. 

But with Rutgers having dispatched Michigan, the Scarlet Knights know their is a historic opportunity within their grasp this weekend at Ohio Stadium. And if some of their quotes are any indication, the Scarlet Knights are hell-bent on earning some respect. 

From Ryan Dunleavy of the Morris County Daily Record:

“We’ve been underdogs all year,” said Leonte Carroo, who is third in the Big Ten with 91.3 receiving yards per game. “A lot of teams don’t respect us. I feel like Ohio State still has no respect for us. We’ve just got there and play hard and have a great week of practice and everything will take care of itself.”

For what it's worth... Urban Meyer and his team have been nothing but respectful of Rutgers in the lead-up to Saturday's tilt. Urban Meyer (who spoke to Rutgers in 2011) knows Rutgers is a feisty team looking to prove something... so why give them extra motivation?

That message, however, clearly hasn't reached Rutgers' locker room:

“Maybe people think it’s luck. You never know,” Carroo said. “I just feel like no matter who [we] beat all year no one will ever give us respect. We’ve got to go out there and continue to earn it.”

[...]

“I’m sure winning this game should get us more respect, but it doesn’t matter,” [cornerback Nadir] Barnwell said. “They could have us losing every game. It doesn’t matter. As long as the guys in the meetings and the guys wearing the Scarlet jerseys believe that we’re going to win and we stick together, that’s all that matters.”

(Bad news, Nadir. The guys in the scarlet jerseys will be Ohio State players this weekend.)

And for what it's worth, odds-makers don't think Rutgers stands much of a chance either: the Scarlet Knights are currently listed as 19½-point underdogs by Sportsbook.ag.

So perhaps it's a little bit motivational tactic and a little bit reality, but one thing is quite clear: Rutgers is coming for their respect on Saturday.

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