Rutgers Football is entering spring ball this year with a lot of youth among the defensive line group as multi year starters Julius Turner and Mike Tverdov have now moved on and graduated.
However there are still a few elder statesmen in the group, including defensive tackle Ifeanyi Maijeh, who is hoping to become a leader among the group this season.
“Feels fun and it seems like guys are flying around a lot faster,” Maijeh said of spring ball. “We are picking up more on defense and when you have old guys flying around, it just feels so good to get back into it.”
The defensive line group not only saw a change in leadership among the players, but also among the coaching staff as Marquise Watson came in as the program’s new defensive line coach.
“It’s been pretty good actually,” said Maijeh. “Coach Watson came in showing us so many different schemes, skills and techniques that we have just added to our repertoire. You know I feel like the energy is just so juiced up there in the DLine room. He’s a fun guy, smart and personable, he relates to all the players. That’s something that we needed.”
As mentioned before, the Scarlet Knight defensive line group is a little bit on the younger side this year, but Maijeh is confident in this group's abilities.
“The DLine has a lot of young guys, but we have Mayan and I as the seniors,” he said. “For some reason we feel like a solid family, we are all connected and I feel like we are going to be very good this year. A bunch of youth, energy and these young guys can pass rush. I’m excited to see what’s going to happen.”
This upcoming season will be Maijeh’s sixth year of college football, as he spent four seasons with the Temple Owls before transferring to Rutgers prior to the 2021 season.
“Part of me felt like there was more to be done, the job wasn’t finished,”Maijeh said. “It was my first year in the Big Ten and I got my feet wet, but now this is my second year in the Big Ten and I’m going to dominate this year. It was a tough decision because I didn’t do as good as I wanted to do, but now I’m coming back with a positive mindset and that I have to attack this year.”
After only putting up 1.5 sacks and one blocked kick in 2021, Maijeh is aiming to double, even triple some of those numbers in 2022.
“I told coach Bruno that I need more blocked kicks,” said Maijeh. “I’m thinking about three blocked kicks and I need more sacks. I just want to be able to disrupt the whole passing game more, I didn’t get in the backfield enough. I got a couple quarterbacks hit, but I need to get some sacks.”
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