10/26/2021 football Edit

After the bye week, Noah Vedral is recharged and hoping to rally the team

Chris Nalwasky • TheKnightReport

Beat Writer

The Rutgers football team is now rested coming off of the bye week. This Saturday, the Scarlet Knights (3-4) go out to Illinois (3-5) for a 12:00 ET matchup (BTN).

The bye week provided the team to get back to the basics in practice and for extra time to rest says starting quarterback Noah Vedral.

"Really good bye week. We had a lot of guys feeling a lot better, a lot more juice and energy of practice today which was good," Vedral said on Tuesday. "It's what you hope to see after a bye week. So I thought the good thing for us is we got to get back to the basics last week. You start out with the basics, the fundamentals and you get games one, two, and three all the way through game seven, and then you're like we slipped off the block here, we missed the throw here, or we maybe took the wrong split there. Just basic stuff we were able to completely iron out.

"Guys seem really excited. Like coach said, we got the pen in our hand, we got chance to write the rest of the story."

During the bye week, Vedral also got a chance to heal up and spend time with his girlfriend who came to New Jersey from Nebraska.

"A lot of treatment to get my body feeling right. We had practice, some meetings looking back, but also looking forward -- a lot of like internal looking stuff," Vedral said. "Last weekend we had off and my girlfriend came up to town from Omaha, and we went into New York City for a couple of nights. It was fun. Did a little shopping. I hadn't been to Central Park so we got to explore Central Park a little bit and the Upper East Side, which was cool. Then was back here Sunday ready to go for the week."

The time away was beneficial for Vedral, who spends a lot of time studying and watching film. Vedral is always the last to leave the practice field as well.

"Yeah, absolutely. I really enjoyed that part of it. As a quarterback, you just get so in depth like everything you do," Vedral said. "Like from here (after the interview), I'm going to go eat and then I'm getting started on third downs. You're always just the next day. To have a week where you're on Tuesday, I don't have to go look at third downs. I'm gonna go home and take a nap. Maybe watch a little tape from last week or get ahead on Illinois. You get really into it and it wears you down. A weekend off and your batteries charge. I'm excited. The plan, the puzzle, the strategy is fun again."

This season, Rutgers is ninth in the Big Ten overall in terms of scoring at 24.1 points per game and 11th out of 14 in total yards on average at 335.6 yards per game.

In strictly Big Ten play, Rutgers is second to last at 11.5 points per game and 11th in yards as well at 324.3. The Scarlet Knights are converting just 33.8% of their third down attempts and are dead last on making third downs (21.4%) in league action.

Despite the struggles, offensive coordinator Sean Gleeson got a vote of confidence from head coach Greg Schiano on Monday when asked about the play-calling by TKR.

"I think Sean's doing a very good job," Schiano said. "I think we have to coach it better, and we have to execute it better. That's for sure. But, you know, Sean's an excellent coach and he has good plans, and I think his feel on game day is very good. I have the utmost confidence."

A big emphasis at practice on Tuesday Vedral revealed -- and to surprise -- was rallying, putting the bad plays behind you, and you guessed it, chopping.

"Coach Gleeson was talking to us about in practice today, when something bad happens that we don't go away like don't kind of scatter. Rally the horses, circle the wagons, and you respond," Vedral said. "Because in the game of football there's always ebbs and flows ups and downs. So that's what a big emphasis that coach challenges with today. After a bad play, we rallied up and we had a good six, seven plays after that. I need to be better, but it's a good sign to see us put that into practice, those words of rally, and not kind of something bad happens it's the end of the world. We'll just continue to fight through everything and chop through everything."

Illinois will enter the game on a high after topping Penn State in nine overtimes.

"They've been playing better. Really tough defense, they got some good players," Vedral said. "Got a little bit of a unique scheme. They pose some challenges there. But Coach Gleeson's got a great handle on them, and we got a good game plan."

Brandon Peters is slated to start at quarterback for the Fighting Illini. Last week's starting signal caller, former Rutgers quarterback and New Jersey native, Artur Sitkowski, broke his arm in one of the overtime periods and is out for the rest of the season.

Vedral said he hopes to connect with him after the game or before.

"Absolutely. I mean, Art's a great friend. He's a New Jersey guy born and raised. So I know a lot of guys, including myself have a great relationship with him," Vedral said. "I do hope look forward to get a chance to catch up with him after the game. Hope he's doing okay. I know he's suffered an injury and I hope he's doing okay, and everything's going well and he gets healthy soon. We're excited to see him and we'll talk to him afterwards."

Sitkowski was likely looking forward to playing against his home state school and former team, but he won't be able to, something Vedral had to endure last season. A week before Rutgers was to play Nebraska in the extra ninth game of the year, Vedral, who transferred from the Cornhuskers, got his ankle twisted at Maryland.

"Maybe me as much as anybody can feel from getting hurt before getting to play your old school. I know that's tough," Vedral said. "I'm sure it's kind of going through it. The injury is tough enough but you missed the opportunity to play your old school or play against some of your old buddies is a tough thing to swallow.

"But he's a tough, resilient kid. I'm sure he's got a good support staff, good family around him taking care of him and he's doing well."