It was a historic 2023 for Rutgers' offensive line as it allowed the fewest sacks per game (1.08) in the Big Ten and ranked fifth in the league in rushing (168.7). Senior Gus Zilinskas prepares for the upcoming season though with no thoughts about last year's accomplishments and is only focused on what lies ahead.
"Last year doesn't mean anything," Zilinskas said. "We're coming in hungry every day for camp and just trying to get better every day in practice and focus on techniques so we can be better."
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The Scarlet Knights enter the season with as much hype as they have received in quite some time, but Zilinskas explained how they are not letting the outside noise get to them and focusing on what they can control.
"We don't really feel much pressure at all, we're just focusing on the day by day," he said. "Whether that's in a meeting, during a lift, or practice, we're just trying to get better day by day. We're not too worried about all the awards because we know that'll come eventually, we just want to focus on chopping the day and chopping the moment."
Kirk Ciarrocca enters his second season back as Rutgers' offensive coordinator coming off a season where the Scarlet Knights were the most improved team in the Big Ten by total offense (+24.1). They also ranked fifth in the conference in rushing yards per game (168.7).
Zilinskas explained the message Ciarrocca gave him heading into year two and the importance he plays at center.
"We talk about how the offensive line is the heartbeat of the offense and the center is very important because he makes all the calls and guides the offensive line," Zilinskas said. "When you're the center you can't have an off day because if you do everybody else can be affected by it."
Zilinskas also discussed what he has seen from transfer quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis and the similarities he and previous signal caller Gavin Wimsatt share
"Athan's a great dude and looking really good, I'm interested to see how well he's able to run this offense and I'm really excited to be on the field with him," he said. "I wouldn't say there's too much of a difference, coach Ciarrocca tries to keep the quarterbacks pretty much the same and I feel like they're very similar players."
Rutgers' offensive line paved the way for Kyle Monangai last season to a league-leading 1,262 rushing yards, becoming the program's first 1,000-yard rusher since 2012.
"Kyle's doing well, I mean it's Kyle he's amazing, it's going to be fun this year seeing how he and the entire team do," Zilinskas said. "The entire room is stacked from head to toe. They're all great players, doing the extra work and grinding. It's going to be a fun year with the running backs."
The Englewood, Colorado native described how training camp has gone for him so far and the lessons he has learned over his four years.
"It's going pretty good, I'm just taking it day by day," he said. "It's my fourth training camp so I got a little bit of experience and know what it takes to continually put in work every single day, so I feel like I'm having a good camp."
He also discussed the lessons he learned from former fellow center, now NFL hopeful, Ireland Brown and how he looks to pass those qualities down to the next generation of Scarlet Knights.
"He's a great dude and we learned a lot from each other last year and previous years," Zilinskas said. "He just talked about the leadership aspect because he was an older guy and had more experience, so he tried to pass that along to us so we could be great leaders just like him."
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