The Rutgers football team opens up the latest season on Saturday, Sept. 3 at Boston College. Ball hits foot at 12:00 p.m.
The 1-0 Rutgers football team will play its first home game on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. inside SHI Stadium Piscataway against Wagner.
Wagner is 0-1 after falling to Fordham.
To get you prepared for the Scarlet Knights and Seahawks matchup, here is a notebook of he hot topics surrounding Rutgers on the gridiron this week.
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Classes started up today, Tuesday, and the Scarlet Knights will have to now balance academics and football -- which of course can be a challenging task. Everybody is good standing coming out of the summer which is a good sign.
"Big week here," head coach Greg Schiano said on Monday. "We're starting academics tomorrow. School starts tomorrow. There's a lot going on in our building right now. Everyone getting ready. I think that's something that's lost often on people. They watch the games on TV, and they see these big, fast guys running around making great plays.
"Being a student-athlete at Rutgers is a huge challenge. Academically it's such a competitive school, so not only do we compete in the Big Ten Conference, but academically these guys are competing every day in the classroom and every evening in the classroom. We had a great summer. Everybody is eligible for the season. I thought we really did well in the classroom this summer, so now we have to pick it up again here starting tomorrow."
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A ton of players on both offense, defense, and special teams in the first game at Boston College either for the first time, or it was the first time they saw significant snaps. This is a young team overall with much of the roster and depth chart being underclassmen.
Schiano singled out DE Wesley Bailey and S Desmond Igbinosun in particular, but there are many more examples including even quarterbacks Evan Simon and Gavin Wimsatt, RB Al-Shadee Salaam, and the linebackers on defense. And while some of the offensive linemen have playing time under their belt, Curtis Dunlap Jr. Willie Tyler III, or J.D. DiRenzo, and Mike Ciaffoni hadn't played at RU until this past weekend.
Getting good work in during the week and continuing to learn about this team is critical.
"It's a good point in that it's not only the young guys that haven't played. Like a guy like Wesley Bailey who hasn't played football for us, all of a sudden he goes out and really has a good game, a very productive game. Okay, that's good. Then there are some other guys, like Desmond Igbinosun. Got a little time in the bowl game, and now he goes out and plays -- I don't know what he played -- 70, 80 plays. He did a good job.
"Those things you have to now assess and say, Okay, so now what? What's the next step for them? How do we redistribute some of the repetitions, offensive line? There's a lot of different areas that we have to address, and I mentioned it in the open with improvement. As I said to our coaches, we had a great workout last night. We just have so much to do. It's almost overwhelming, but we just have to keep chopping. That's what chopping is. Just chop the moment, whatever we're working on right now.
"We'll run out of time, there's no doubt, but how much can we get done before the kickoff at 4:00? That's our goal."
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Cornerback Christian Braswell was supposed to play a key role last season as a veteran from Temple. However, he missed the season with a torn ACL, and that thrusted players such as Robert Longerbeam and Chris Long (who has since moved to his natural WR position) to have to play more along with Max Melton, Tre Avery, and Kessawn Abraham.
Braswell made his presence known in the opener with an interception in the first half off of Phil Jurkovec.
"I was glad. Certainly happy for our team, but I was really glad for him individually because he has been up against it, right? He decides to transfer here, and then in the summer hurts his knee, misses the entire season. Then has some health issues this spring.
"I know the way he felt. He felt, like, snake pit. Well, when is it going to end? To make a big play like that was so good for him and so good for us. I'm hoping this is kind of, as I said to him, a launching pad for you right now."
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Jurkovec was picked off twice in the game as Longerbeam jumped a route and made a diving interception too.
"Robert had a tremendous camp and great summer," Schiano said Saturday. "That exact play or pick he missed it at Northwestern, but he caught it today. That's development. Three-step hitch to the field. That's how you build a program little by little. Guys get better and you add it all up."
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When Taj Harris came on board from Syracuse, he was expected to come in right away and be the No. 1 wide receiver. He could still be that guy, but he played just 11 snaps and made a catch on his lone target. Aron Cruickshank, Joshua Youngblood, and Sean Ryan were starters, and those three along with Shameen Jones and Chris Long saw more action than Harris.
Schiano indicated that Harris was not suspended or injured.
"No, nothing other than just playing a lot of people," the coach said. "I think it's just competition. We have a lot of guys that are playing. You saw we played a lot of guys at a lot of positions, and that was on purpose. I'm hopeful that his reps will grow as we get more and more comfortable.
"He is a newcomer that has worked hard to get himself in a position to compete. I'm hopeful that that grows."
EDIT: Monday night, Harris took to Twitter that he is stepping away from the team for the time being. It is unclear if and when Harris will be back with the Scarlet Knights.
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Rutgers is on milestone and record watch this weekend as Schiano is one victory away of tying Frank Burns for the most wins in program history.
Schiano is 77-81 while Burns finished his Scarlet Knights tenure at 78-43-1.
"I got the opportunity my first go-around to meet coach Burns. Unfortunately, his health had failed later on, but I really enjoyed it. He was such a, I don't know what the word is, stately. When I got to know him, he had that white hair, and he was just such a gentleman. I was so impressed being around him.
"We would talk football. He was a tough guy. I mean, he was a legitimate old-school, do it right, work hard and good things happen. We didn't really ever talk Xs and Os as much as we talked philosophy, head coaching things. I always enjoyed my time with Coach. I've been blessed. I've had some great people I've had a chance to be around."
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisNalwasky.
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