How Rutgers is working to avoid late collapse
PISCATAWAY – The final four games of Rutgers’ football 2023 season told a story that the Scarlet Knights want to avoid in 2024.
Four consecutive losses.
Sure, three of those defeats came against ranked opponents in Ohio State, Iowa and Penn State. And yes, by that point Rutgers had already secured bowl eligibility.
But it was still a concern – and coach Greg Schiano says he’s intent on fixing it.
“I felt last year we literally stumbled to the finish,” Schiano said following the Scarlet Knights’ scrimmage on Saturday. “We just didn’t have the size and the stamina to finish like this (climbing). We limped to the finish. It’s my goal not to do that this year.”
How can Rutgers do that? By building up and developing depth now so the team can withstand any injuries and fatigue from the course of a long season.
The Scarlet Knights rebounded from that skid by beating Miami in the Pinstripe Bowl to earn their first winning season since 2014, but the four losses, including lopsided defeats against Iowa and Penn State, reflected just how much injuries can take their toll.
That was especially true on defense, where star linebacker Tyreem Powell suffered a season-ending hand injury against Indiana.
Rutgers football’s defensive depth
What’s encouraging now for Rutgers is that it does have depth on that side of the ball on every level – even linebacker, where it’s without Powell for the spring after he suffered a torn Achilles as he returned to workouts following the injury (he’s expected to be ready for the season opener).
The Scarlet Knights have depth on
the defensive line, though it lost one piece of that depth Tuesday as Rene Konga entered the transfer portal. They still return starting defensive ends Aaron Lewis and Wesley Bailey, as well as defensive tackles Kyonte Hamilton, Zaire Angoy, Troy Rainey, Henry Hughes and Keshon Griffin, among others.
They also brought in Florida State defensive tackle transfer Malcolm Ray.
At linebacker Rutgers returns Mohamed Toure, as well as Moses Walker, the former top recruit in New York, Dariel Djabome, Abram Wright and Paterson Kennedy product Jamier WrightCollins, whom Schiano said has had a good spring.
In the secondary, defensive backs Desmond Igbinosun, Flip Dixon, Shaquan Loyal, Robert Longerbeam, Eric Rogers and Al-Shadee Salaam, who moved to cornerback from running back late last season and has impressed.
True freshman early enrollee Kevin Levy also had a solid showing in Rutgers’ scrimmage on Saturday.
So simply put, the Scarlet Knights have solid depth. It’s not going to go to waste for a team that prefers to rotate players throughout games to maintain stamina.
“If you have depth on defense, you’ve got to play it all,” Schiano said. “You want guys that are fresh, that are running around.”
Use of new technology could also help
Something else that Schiano believes will help is the use of tablets to view in-game video, part of the rule recommendations that are headed to the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel for approval on Thursday.
“That’s going to help too,” Schiano said. “Sometimes you worry, well, a guy can’t get in the flow because he’s not seeing it. Well, he’s seeing it now, he’s watching it in between series. You may be able to play even more guys. I love that, for two reasons: 1, they practice harder all week when they know they’re going to play. No. 2, it keeps everybody fresher for the long haul.”
That’s exactly what Rutgers needs to finish the season as well as it started it.
“We’ve got to be able to finish the season going like that (up),” Schiano said. “A lot of thoughts going into that as well.”