Pinstripe Bowl preview: QBs could determine outcome

NEW YORK - Erratic quarterback play defined the Rutgers and Iowa State offenses this year in both victory and defeat.

If either team can budge its leader upward by even a modicum, it could mean the difference in winning and losing Friday's Pinstripe Bowl.

Iowa State is led by freshman Jared Barnett, who showed flashes of talent and was plagued at times by his inexperience. Barnett had one of the best quarterbacking days in Iowa State history in a 37-31 double-overtime upset of No. 2-ranked Oklahoma State. He completed 31-of-58 passes for 376 yards, fifth-most in Cyclone history. He totaled 460 yards, the third-highest total in school history.

But he also had ordinary days in losses to Texas A&M (16 of 36, 180 yards) and Oklahoma (13 of 28, 125 yards). Barnett spent most of December concentrating on fundamentals like footwork and throwing a better spiral. He said he met his goals for that period.

"I think as with all the players, fundamentally we're just looking to improve with everything that we're doing," Iowa State Coach Paul Rhoads said. "With a red-shirt freshman, there's a lot of room for that kind of improvement and also the understanding of this defense that we're playing."

"As the season went on my footwork started to go away a little bit," Barnett said. "I've really done a lot of work to get my footwork back right. Just different things with my arm to make sure I maintain accuracy and arm strength and stuff like that. Just watching a whole bunch of video on Rutgers and being prepared mentally for them."

Barnett also could face competition for playing time against Rutgers should he struggle. Junior Steele Jantz again is healthy after injuring his foot. Barnett replaced Jantz in the eighth game, but Jantz also produced some sterling, if not inconsistent results for Iowa State this year.

Jantz, a junior, had one of the most amazing games in the history of the Iowa-Iowa State rivalry, completing 25-of-37 passes for 279 yards and four touchdowns in a triple-overtime 44-41 win. Twice on Iowa State's final offensive series of regulation Jantz delivered big plays. He completed a 19-yard pass on third and 15 and a 40-yard pass on third-and-20 to tie the game.

Rhoads said Jantz is ready and pushing Barnett in practice. But Barnett is the guy.

"Steele has put good pressure on him, too, by performing well," Rhoads said. "Steele's finally healthy with his foot, so I think when you're young like Jared and handling both the mental and physical part of it sometimes you can leave one behind over the other, and I think he did that sometimes with his fundamentals of throwing the ball. He's back in the groove of throwing it well."

Rutgers (8-4) had its own uncertainty at quarterback. Chas Dodd started the Scarlet Knights' first four games and final three, posting a 5-2 record. Gary Nova started Rutgers' middle five games and posted a 3-2 mark. Rutgers Coach Greg Schiano was evasive since the team's final game, a 40-22 loss to Connecticut, as to who would start the bowl game.

Dodd, a sophomore, completed 56.6 percent of his passes for 1,398 yards and nine touchdowns this year, but also had seven interceptions. Nova, a freshman, completed 51.4 percent of his passes for1,533 yards and 11 touchdowns with nine interceptions.

Thursday, Schiano remained evasive, saying both would play against Iowa State.

"We have some ideas, right now we're talking it all through," he said. "We'll kind of let that happen at kickoff."

As to which quarterback completes the game for Rutgers - and Iowa State - that will be determined after kickoff.