The Rutgers football team's 2022 season came to an end this past weekend as the Scarlet Knights took a crushing 37-0 defeat at Maryland.
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The season didn't exactly go as planned for Rutgers and that started in training camp with QB Noah Vedral's injury. The defense played well but the offense struggled a ton. Special teams was hit or miss at times.
With that said, here is a 3-2-1 feature about three must-do's this offseason, two questions that need to be answered, and one positive.
THREE MUST-DO'S
Find the right offensive coordinator
Rutgers was bad on offense under both Sean Gleeson and Nunzio Campanile. It didn't matter who was calling the plays. Under Gleeson, not counting the Wagner game, Rutgers averaged 14 points, 284 yards, 156 passing yards, and converted just 25% of its third downs. It scored just six offensive touchdowns in the five games. With Campanile leading the offense, Rutgers scored 9.7 points per game in six contests and 1.2 touchdowns on average. It was shut out twice against Minnesota and Maryland and the Scarlet Knights averaged 134 passing yards and 2.9 yards per carry in the run game. In order for Rutgers to take the next step, it needs to play much better on offense. Head coach Greg Schiano has always been a defense guy first. He can still be that, but the Scarlet Knights need to be able to score in this day and age of college football. Even Nick Saban changed his ways and evolved. It's possible the whole offensive staff gets shaken up.
Develop Gavin Wimsatt
Wimsatt showed flashes this year like the Michigan State game where he threw for 236 yards on 20-of-34 passing with two touchdowns. But there was also a lot of accuracy issues (he completed just 38.5% or lower of passes in four games) and turnover issues (seven interceptions) plus a couple of fumbles. Wimsatt was pegged as the quarterback of the future. Well now whoever becomes the offensive coordinator needs to be able to make Wimsatt a lot better if Rutgers wants to make strides next season. He's still young (just turned 19), but he has a long way to go. Getting healthy and using his legs more is a start.
Add immediate talent through the transfer portal
Let's start on offense. Wimsatt can't do it alone. The offensive line struggled this year other than maybe J.D. DiRenzo and Hollin Pierce. The good news is that Pierce, a, former walk-on, returns, but DiRenzo wrapped up his one and only year with the Scarlet Knights. Rutgers brought in a slew of transfers and freshmen offensive linemen prior to this season. All the transfers played, but really only DiRenzo was effective. It takes a couple of years for younger linemen to develop, so Rutgers needs to bolster the position from the portal.
Wide receiver is another major area of need with Aron Cruickshank, Sean Ryan, and Shemeen Jones all leaving. Chris Long appears on track to play a ton next year and we're not sure where Rashad Rochelle will play more in 2023. He came in as an athlete and actually did very well at running back. He also spent some time at receiver. Joshua Youngblood is an intriguing guy, but he became injured. His main impression this year was a fumble against Iowa.
Tight end was Johnny Langan or bust, and Langan didn't live up to preseason expectations. Victor Konopka was lost for the majority of the season. Schiano said he expects him back. Mike Higgins got his feet wet a lot as a freshman as a necessity, and Cam'Ron Stewart saw brief action at the position after moving over from defense. He could switch back though. Either way Rutgers need help at tight end. The Scarlet Knights can't improve on offense without OL, WR, and TE help next year. That's almost every position. QB play has to be better, too, of course.
Defensively, you are losing Avery Young at safety and Christian Izien (more on him below) at nickelback. Safety is a position where depth is needed for sure. Adding quality players on the interior of the defensive line can't hurt either as Ifeanyi Maijeh and possibly Mayan Ahanotu are gone as well.
TWO QUESTIONS
Who will enter the portal/declare for the draft?
Rutgers already had long snapper Zack Taylor enter the transfer portal. Defensive back Christian Izien announced he will be entering the NFL Draft. Taylor lost his spot this year to a graduate transfer, so he might have been the long snapper in 2023. Izien had one more year left due to COVID, but he opted to make the 2022 season his final one at Rutgers. Izien was great this season. But now the question is who else will be leaving? Rutgers better hope its young standouts on defense like Wesley Bailey, Aaron Lewis, Max Melton, Robert Longerbeam or Tyreem Powell don't jump ship. There's been no indications that was going to happen, but you never know. Samuel Brown on offense was the one good thing Rutgers had a for a short while before he got hurt. Then there's Gavin Wimsatt at quarterback. He loves Rutgers so it's doubtful he leaves, but even Schiano knows things are different now as he said after the Maryland game.
Will the mistakes and penalties be fixed in time?
Rutgers had little room for errors, but it shot itself in the foot multiple times. A couple games against Iowa, Nebraska, Michigan, Michigan State, and Penn State come to mind. Turnovers turned into easy points for the opposition and penalties just made Rutgers take two steps back. Rutgers finished 125th in the country out of 131 teams with eight penalties per game and 115th with 64.2 penalty yards per game. Rutgers also ended up with a negative turnover margin. Schiano's teams are normally disciplined, but this year's squad was anything but.
ONE POSITIVE
It is still a young team
There were a slew of players who saw the field this year who are sophomores or younger. Mistakes come with younger players. Now it is time for them to learn from them and grow. Kenny Fletcher was a pass rusher who flashed, Rochelle looks to have a bright future ahead of him. The same goes for Brown as two offensive pieces to maybe build around along with Wimsatt. Kwabene Asamoah saw time on the offensive line too to round out the main freshman contributors. On defense, Desmond Igbinosun was just a sophomore, and so was Longerbeam, who had as good of a start as anybody on the team. Jamier Wright-Collins looked to get more comfortable at linebaker, Shawn Collins played more as the year went on, Jordan Thompson played a lot at DE, and Melton, for as much as he's played, was still technically a third-year sophomore. Powell, Bailey, Kyle Monangai, Shaquan Loyal, Al-Shadee Salaam, Kyonte Hamilton, Troy Rainey, Gus Zilinskas, Bryan Felter, Lewis, Pierce, Rene Konga, and others all still have multiple years of eligibility remaining.
Highly regarded standouts at linebacker like Moses Walker and Khayri Banton didn't play (injured) but them being able to go next year should bode well. Anthony Johnson is another linebacker who could play more too.
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisNalwasky.
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