New coach, same old Rutgers in loss to Maryland
PISCATAWAY >> New coach, same Rutgers disappointment.
After hanging with the Maryland for the first quarter and a half, the Scarlet Knights collapsed when the going got tough and got blown out by the Terrapins, 48-7, in front of an announced crowd of 30,185 at the newly-renamed SHI Stadium.
In his first game since replacing Chris Ash, interim head coach Nunzio Campanile was dealt a short week to not only revamp the team on both sides of the ball, but also the blows of onagain, off-again starting quarterback Art Sitkowski and star running back Raheem Blackshear electing to redshirt, albeit under varying circumstances.
“Obviously not the result we were looking for, but I think our kids had a really tough week; a couple of events popped up as the week went on that were pretty difficult to deal with, and I think our kids did a really good job of staying focused and doing the best they could under, you know, really tough circumstances,” Campanile said.
“So, I’m really proud of the way they played. I thought they competed really hard. We did some good things. You know, obviously not enough, not even close to enough, but I think we have a lot to build on. The biggest thing is we kind of tried to rebuild an offense in four days. That’s not really going to get all the results you want but there were some good plays out there.”
The Scarlet Knights, who have now dropped their first three Big 10 conference games by a combined score of 130-7, actually showed promise early in the game with Johnny Langan under center for his first start.
Langan, a former star at Bergen Catholic, where Campanile was the head coach, led Rutgers down the field on a 13-play, 56yard opening drive that ultimately ended without getting any points on the scoreboard after kicker Justin Davidovicz’s 37-yard field goal attempt was partially blocked and bounced off the crossbar.
On the very next play, Terps quarterback Josh Jackson found Dontay Demus in man coverage on Rutgers defensive back Jarrett Paul between the hashmarks, and Demus simply outran Paul all the way to the end zone for an 80yard scoring strike.
The rout seemed to be perhaps on at that time, but both defenses held — the teams combined for eight consecutive punts between them after that — until a trick play resulted in a 49yard Langan completion to Bo Melton, followed by a three-yard touchdown run by Langan that knotted the game up at 7-7 with 9:37 remaining in the second quarter.
That, however, is when the wheels ultimately did come off. Quickly, too. Maryland needed just 66 seconds for a threeplay, 74-yard drive that culminated with a Tayon Fleet-Davis touchdown reception that made it a 14-7 game, and really capitalized on the momentum that came from shutting down Rutgers on a fourth and one from the Scarlet Knights’ own 42-yard line.
Javon Leake ran it into the end zone on the very next play, and following a Langan interception on the next possession, Anthony McFarland’s twoyard touchdown run gave Maryland a 28-7 lead heading into halftime.
Ultimately, the Terrapins would score 41 unanswered points to account for their final margin of victory; Leake returned the opening kickoff of the second half 100 yards to break the game wide open, and both he and McFarland would find the end zone one additional time in the third quarter.
Langan finished with 59 yards on the ground on 19 carries, and completed 13 of his 25 pass attempts for 163 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. Both his late transfer and taking over an offense that had been completely revamped just days ago proved to be too much.
“I just feel like we weren’t ready this week,” Langan said. “We’ll take what we can from this game and move on, and I’m going to just focus on (next week’s opponent) Indiana at this point.”
While it seems unlikely that either Sitkowski or Blackshear could have combined to at the very least shorten up Rutgers margin of defeat, there was plenty of discussion about their absences after the game regardless.
Initially, Campanile offered little, saying, “I’m going to worry about the guys that are on our team that play really hard out there for our team and that’s what we’re going to focus on.”
When pressed, however, specifically on Blackshear — Campanile described he and Sitkowski as having “separate issues” — he chose to elaborate in memorable fashion.
“Am I disappointed by it? Incredibly. Do I understand it? I guess so. I guess that’s the way the world is now,” he said.
“I think that this is a game about your team, you know and it’s about sacrificing personal accomplishment for the success of the team. But that’s the world they live in and they have got a lot of people telling them, you know, worry about you, worry about you. I get it. But I’m raising two boys. I’m trying to raise them about being willing to sacrifice some of the things they want for what’s good for the people around them. I get it. That’s the world that we are living in, and he’s a great kid and we’ll see what happens in the coming weeks.”