A closer look…

The Teams — Pitt (4-2, 2-1 Big East) looks to win its third straight when it hosts… The Teams — Pitt (4-2, 2-1 Big East) looks to win its third straight when it hosts Rutgers (4-2, 1-1) Saturday at noon. The game will be televised on ESPN regional (WTAE-TV) as the Big East game of the week.

Last Meeting — Last season, Pitt raced out to a 42-7 halftime lead against the Scarlet Knights, only to see Rutgers nearly pull off an improbable comeback Rutgers scored four second-half touchdowns but fell to the Panthers, 42-32.

The Series — Pitt has won the last five meetings between the schools with the last Rutgers victory coming in 1998. The Panthers lead the all-time series 18-3.

The Coaches — Greg Schiano, in his third year at Rutgers, is 12-29 as head coach of the Scarlet Knights. Panther head coach Walt Harris is in his 8th season heading the Panther sideline, accumulating a 48-42 record at Pitt after last weekend’s 20-17 overtime victory over Boston College.

I-AA Frenzy — Both schools played Division I-AA teams this season but with strikingly different results. The Scarlet Knights fell to Maine 35-24, while the Panthers outlasted Furman 41-38 in an overtime thriller.

Streaking? — Rutgers and Pitt are both currently on two-game winning streaks, but the Scarlet Knights haven’t won three straight games since 1992 while the Panthers have put together a winning streak of at least three games each of the past four seasons

Hart Attack — Ryan Hart, Rutgers’ junior quarterback, is second in the Big East in passing with 1,634 yards through six games. Hart is currently inside the top 10 in Rutgers history for passing touchdowns and passing yards, landing sixth and fourth respectively.

Doing it all — In the backfield, Rutgers halfback Brian Leonard leads the conference in all-purpose yardage with more than 134 yards per game. Leonard has 402 rush yards and 268 receiving yards in the five games he has played in.

Sack happy — The Scarlet Knights’ defensive line has piled up 24 sacks in six games, with Ryan Neill leading the way with 5.5 so far.

Homecoming — Saturday marks Pitt’s homecoming, a day the Panthers have historically been successful on. Since 1970, the Panthers are 23-10-1 on homecoming games. In last season’s homecoming game, the Panthers defeated Syracuse, 34-14.