Rutgers’ O-line under scrutiny

A ‘Slow, steady build’ for coach Schiano

PISCATAWAY – When Greg Schiano returned for his second stint as Rutgers football coach, the number of offensive linemen in the program was low.

Jarringly low.

“We had 11 linemen and only a couple of them were Division-I linemen,” Schiano said Thursday.

That’s not going to cut it for any Big Ten team, let alone one that was beginning a full rebuild and faced plenty of other questions. It forced the Scarlet Knights to move multiple players from defense – including Ireland Brown literally during the season in 2021 – just to find options and bodies to fill out the unit.

Schiano and his coaching staff have worked on addressing the issue in recent recruiting classes – and in some cases finding options via the transfer portal – to build the depth back up to an acceptable and necessary level.

“It’s been a slow, steady build from when we got back,” Schiano said.

The unit overall has been inconsistent in recent seasons. Certainly not where Rutgers needed it to be for the offense to perform at a higher level.

Has Rutgers football’s offensive line shown progress?

So the big question heading into this season: Is the offensive line finally where it needs to be? Can it do a better job to protect quarterback Gavin Wimsatt? Will it create space more consistently for a deep running back room?

The answer will only become clear once the games begin – starting immediately with the opener against Northwestern on Sunday at SHI Stadium – but Schiano believes the unit has made progress.

That’s crucial in a conference filled with massive defensive fronts.

Having a veteran offensive line

coach in Pat Flaherty, who won two Super Bowls as the New York Giants’ offensive line coach, overseeing the unit has also helped.

“He’s done a great job. He’s got a few guys that help him out there, Scott Vallone being the most senior of those guys, Alex Officer, PJ Barr, there’s four guys that are in all different stages of their coaching career but I don’t think there’s a better guy to learn from than Pat Flaherty for both the players and the coaches,” Schiano said. “The end result is the line is playing as a more cohesive unit. Doesn’t matter who’s in there. They’re identifying, making calls, staying on their blocks, straining more. They’re getting better.”

Rutgers returns three starters from last season in Ireland Brown, who started 11 games at center last season, Curtis Dunlap, who started all 12 games at right guard, and Hollin Pierce, who made all 12 starts at right tackle.

JD DiRenzo, a Sacred Heart transfer who became the team’s most consistent lineman last season and made nine starts at left guard and three at left tackle, graduated and is now battling for a roster spot with the Carolina Panthers.

Willie Tyler, who played in 11 games with nine starts at left tackle in his only season at Rutgers, transferred to Louisville.

So the Scarlet Knights have holes to fill, and Schiano said Thursday battles were still taking place. The goal has been to identify the five Rutgers would go with, “but if it’s too close to call we’ll play more than that.”

Schiano had previously said that Mike Ciaffoni and Kobe Asamoah, who started the last three games last season at left guard as a true freshman, were competing at right guard, while Tyler Needham and Kamar Missouri were battling for the right tackle spot.

Rutgers also has younger linemen like Gus Zilinskas, who played in four games with one start at center last season, as well as Taj White and Emir Strinette,

two players Schiano in the spring said were “coming along.”

Kobe Asamoah a young, rising offensive lineman

The 6-foot-2, 325-pound Asamoah said he learned plenty in the chances he received last season.

“Definitely the speed of the game,” Asamoah said. “You definitely have to think faster, move faster, see everything a little bit faster. And then the strength of the guy in front of you. In high school, I was one of the strongest guys on the field. It’s not like that in the Big Ten, everybody’s strong.”

And for Asamoah, the chance to learn from Flaherty has been invaluable.

“It’s been great,” Asamoah said. “Coach Flats, having coached in the NFL, won a couple Super Bowls, everything he says is like a gold nugget, like a little diamond. I just try to take everything he says and think it through, write it down, go over my notes, things of that nature.”

Whether Asamoah earns a starting spot remains to be seen, but the fact the Scarlet Knights could even still be having competition for roles so deep into camp is meaningful.

That’s a luxury Rutgers hasn’t enjoyed in a while.

“We’ve literally every year have dedicated resources to the position, and now we’re starting to have some depth that you need to have in a Big Ten program,” Schiano said. “Forget to win, you need it just to practice. So finally we’re at the point where the scout-team linemen we’re going against now are college football players, they’re not just bodies that are there to take up a spot.”

Asamoah echoed Schiano’s belief that the unit is playing more cohesively. He’s also confident in the progress the O-line has made.

Maybe, just maybe, this is the season where Rutgers can assert itself in the trenches more consistently.

“I feel like we’re growing every day,” Asamoah said. “Every day we’re getting better. One thing for sure, we’re definitely building that camaraderie I think you need as an O-line.”