I just know that between some other weirdness in expansiopocolypse, family and parent duties, oh, and that whole work thing; this will be the last chance to get a post about the Rutgers game before the liveblog tomorrow. So, I should make it count.

Rutgers running game has, well, sucked. The optimism of the presently starting running back would have you believe they are close. Real close. See if you can detect the doubt from the beat writer?

“I’m really starting to feel it’s going to happen,” Jamison, the Scarlet Knights’ leading rusher, said of the running game ranked 117th nationally and averaging 84 inches per carry. “We’ve been working hard at it and everything seems to be coming together.”

Against Syracuse, Jamison had 24 runs for 1728 inches. Breaking out may be a relative term.

In case you haven’t heard, and trust me tomorrow you will probably hear plenty, Rutgers linebacker Khaseem Greene and Pitt RB Ray Graham are half-brothers and close to each other. Puffery, family bonds and minor trash talking all come standard.

Against USF, Pitt’s tempo clearly had an effect on the USF defense. Players with hands on their hips. Looking gassed. Jesse Palmer excitedly pointing it out because even Craig James could notice that. We know that Rutgers is blitz-heavy, attacking defense. They also substitute players a lot, so this could effect a lot of things if Pitt executes like it did last week.

And for a Rutgers team that substitutes liberally on the defensive line — the Scarlet Knights used 10 players there last week against Syracuse — and in the secondary with a variety of nickel and dime packages, it poses an even bigger challenge than usual.

How does a team consistently make substitutions when its opponent is running a play every 16 to 18 seconds?

“It’s hard,” said Rutgers coach Greg Schiano. “It’s hard to do. You see what we’re doing. You’ve never seen me coach on the sidelines in practice. I’ve been on the sidelines the whole week (to simulate the game substitution patterns). My signal-callers have been on the sidelines the whole week.

“That isn’t what we like to do but we’re doing it. I don’t know if you can simulate it. I know you can’t simulate it with the scout team. We’re trying our best. It’s two sets of people and running (on and off the field) as fast as we can. But it creates issues.”

There’s something encouraging about seeing a coach like Schiano out of his comfort zone in the week leading up to the game. Keeping Rutgers off-balance and unable to substitute as freely will be vital in keeping Sunseri upright against Rutgers.

Sunseri being willing to move out of the pocket, will also help.

Graham added that without the element of the quarterback run to keep defenses honest, the offense won’t work as well as it should.

“One of the key factors is to establish the quarterback as a runner in our spread out game system,” Graham said “It is very important for Tino to be a threat and run the ball. You have to take what the defense gives you and I thought we did a really good job with that. We have a read-oriented system in the passing game and in the running game.

Sunseri agreed that the running plays had been open in other games but he is still learning the system, still working on becoming better at reading what the defense is giving.

He said that he understands that even though he is not a threat to go 70 or 80 yards and run away from the defense, his ability to run for 6, 7 or even 10 yards at a clip will help the offense achieve two of its goals — getting first downs and keeping the offense on the field.

Rutgers defense is not USF’s. There’s more speed, and they are simply a better defense than Pitt has faced this year. As much as anything else, Sunseri will have to keep from falling back into old habits when the pressure comes.

On the defensive side, it is still unknown whether Chas Dodd or Gary Nova will get the start. Both will play, but the starter remains unnamed.

“Gary has been in big games (at Don Bosco),” Schiano said today after practice. “I think that helps if he’s in there. He went into the Carrier Dome in a loud environment and he wasn’t shook up.

“Chas and he are both cool customers. I’m not worried about that. I’m not worried about either one coming off the bench to play. I think they’ll just come in and play. They won’t press. They’ll just come play.”

Schiano again refused to release the amount of reps each player is taking with the first-team or go into details about his decision-making.

And since Nova came in and got the win, he is getting the puffery this week (it doesn’t hurt that he is a Jersey boy unlike Dodd who is from South Carolina) as being calm and cool under pressure. As I said earlier this week, unlike Dodd and Savage before him, it probably helps that he hasn’t been beaten to a bloody pulp over the course of a season (yet) thanks to a piss-poor offensive line.

While Rutgers running game is not much, and the QBs are getting chased behind a weak O-line, somehow WR Mohamed Sanu is thriving.

The 6-2, 215-pounder managed to catch seven passes for 65 yards — a solid day’s work — and came up big when it mattered most, hauling in a 3-yard touchdown pass from Gary Nova with 2:09 to play to force a 13-13 tie.

Remarkably, Sanu was left alone for that crucial play.

“At first, there were two guys on me,” he said. “All of a sudden there were no guys on me. I just ran vertical and put my hand up like ‘Hey, Gary, I’m wide open here.’?”

Sanu heads into Saturday with 43 catches for 428 yards and five TDs — a pace that would result in 129 regular-season receptions if he maintains it. Freddie Barnes of Bowling Green holds the NCAA record with 155.

He is currently tied at No. 2 nationally with Jordan White of Western Michigan in catches per game at 10.75. USC’s Robert Woods leads the country at 11 catches per game.

The Big East record for catches in a season is 92 held by Larry Fitzgerald. It would be nice if this Pitt defense did what it could to inhibit Sanu’s chances of breaking that record. Sanu may be the biggest beneficiary of Larry Cignetti becoming the offensive coordinator at Rutgers. Rather than waste time and plays with gadgets and gimmicks — like having Sanu line-up at QB or in the backfield as Rutgers did last year. Instead he is simply the best WR in the conference.

On the plus side, Pitt was able to hold ND’s Michael Floyd in check for a game, so maybe the same can be done with Sanu. Just, please, don’t end up letting someone else run wild over the middle.

But [Quron] Pratt surveyed the landscape and sensed a niche for himself at the slot position — an inside receiver who works the middle of the field. It fit his skill set perfectly. He was everything the others weren’t: small, shifty and elusive.

“I saw that Chas (Dodd) and Gary (Nova) did a great job reading defenses and there was a lot of work for the slot guy,” Pratt said today. “I saw we worked the middle of the field very well. I saw we could hit the quick routes on the outside. It’s working really well for us right now.”

With Syracuse doubling the explosive Sanu after his Big East-record 16 receptions the week before, Pratt stepped up in a big way with six catches for 56 yards in the Scarlet Knights’ 19-16 double-overtime victory last weekend. The Palmyra native caught a clutch fourth-down pass on the game-tying touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter.

Let’s just hit the other stuff quickly and finish this.

Keys to beating Rutger: mainly don’t turn the ball over. The ghost of Wannstedt looms large.

The QB pooch punt is dead.

If Todd Graham has a doghouse, Mike Shanahan is not in it, despite the dropsies versus USF.

The O-line may have been dealing with injuries, but the run blocking has been solid. It helps that while the O-line has been exceptionally thin, former Coach Wannstedt would favor O-linemen that would be better blocking for the run than the pass.

Q&A listing some offensive tackles Pitt is after, and the issue of Mark Myers, Trey Anderson and Mike Voytik.