SYRACUSE – Last week, it was West Virginia with Steve Slaton, Patrick White, and friends.

This week, it’s Rutgers, with Ray Rice, Mike Teel, and their buddies.

Especially Ray Rice.

Syracuse University’s football team, 1-1 in the Big East and 1-5 overall and reeling again after Saturday’s one-sided loss to WVU, will have its hands full again when Rutgers visits the Carrier Dome on Saturday. The Scarlet Knights (3-2) are coming off two losses to Maryland and Cincinnati, but remain very potent. They have one of the top offenses in the nation (480 yards a game, ranked 12th) – not to mention one of the top defenses – and Ray Rice is a big reason why.

“Ray has been productive now for 2½ years,” said SU coach Greg Robinson.
“Now he’s in on third downs. There are more elements he’s in tune with.”

Ray Rice, a 5-foot-9, 205-pounder from New Rochelle, is a one-time SU recruit – he was committed to the Orange, but decided to go to Rutgers after Paul Pasqualoni was fired following the 2004 season – who is one of the wheelhorses of Rutgers’ turnaround the last couple of seasons. He rushed for 1,120 yards as a freshman, had 1,794 yards and 20 touchdowns during last year’s 11-2 campaign, and already has 622 yards and 10 touchdowns this season, in addition to a career-high 13 receptions for 146 yards and a touchdown.

Ray Rice hardly is the only weapon available to Scarlet Knights coach Greg Schiano, whose offense is far more standard than WVU’s dynamic spread option, which employs quickness all over the field and especially to the outside, but very, very dangerous in its own way. Quarterback Mike Teel has completed 61 percent of his passes for 1,507 yards and 10 touchdowns, and receivers Tiquan Underwood, Kenny Britt and Tim Brown all are big-play types.

“They’re two dimensional,” Robinson said. That’s for sure, but it’s obvious that Ray Rice is the guy he fears the most.

“I would still say Ray is the featured guy,” he said.

Joe Fields, the senior safety who is SU’s leading tackler and pass interceptor (52 and 3) might have gone over the top when he called Ray Rice the best back in college football, but it doesn’t hurt to regard him that way going into the game. Fields and his teammates hope to keep him under control in some way.

Both Maryland and Cincinnati were able to hold him to less than 100 yards.

“Don’t let him have one-on-one situations,” Fields said. “That’s what he thrives on.”

SU had a couple of big performances Saturday from a couple of new starters, true freshmen Mike Holmes and Max Suter. Holmes played in the secondary and had 13 tackles and also had three kickoff returns for 118 yards, and Suter played strong-side linebacker and had seven tackles.