Rutgers football spring game stats, quotes, and recap
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Did you have something better to do on Friday than head out to Piscataway and check out the Rutgers football team in its annual Scarlet-White Game at SHI Stadium?
Don't worry, TKR has you covered.
Read up on the action below. Scarlet beat White, 16-14.
Sixth-year senior quarterback Noah Vedral engineered a touchdown drive for Scarlet on the opening possession of the game that started on the 25-yard line. He capped it by throwing a touchdown pass to wide receiver Taj Harris. Vedral, who saw playing time for both Scarlet and White, was a total 9-for-16 for 119 yards and the score. He found receiver Shameen Jones for a long gain of 49 yards.
Gavin Wimsatt, the early enrollee who came to Rutgers after playing in two high school games last fall, scored on his first opportunity as well. He connected with receiver Sean Ryan for a 26-yard pass, and then finished his opening drive with a short 1-yard pass to running back Kyle Monangai.
Evan Simon got a lot of work behind center as well and went 12-for-19 for 109 yards and an interception. Austin Albericci and Gavin Rupp saw some playing time also.
"I think it was very similar to what I thought all spring. I thought it was really good at times and then inconsistent at times," head coach Greg Schiano said of the quarterback play. "We need to have a great summer. And you know, the hard thing about spring is you're on, you're off, you're on, you're off. These guys in the summertime, they throw with each other every day on their own, and that's really where the formulation of the chemistry I think occurs. No coaches, just them, running the show. We'll take a little jump here into recruiting and some other things. But I really am excited about this group going into the training camp part of our preparation, because they are young and they are hungry and they have got a lot to learn but they are really trying to learn it. That's exciting for a coach."
Harris and Ryan, the two transfer wide outs that the Scarlet Knights brought in during the offseason, made an immediate impact.
Ryan had four catches for 48 yards while Harris had five catches for 49 yards and the touchdown. Christian Dremel also had two catches for 43 yards, Isaiah Washington made a grab for 15, Jones tallied 67 yards on three catches, and Joshua Youngblood had two catches for 29 yards. Ahmirr Robinson chipped in with a catch for 19 yards as well.
"I think they are really going to help us," Schiano said of Harris and Ryan. "You know, they come in, they join Shameen, and then a host of other guys. We lose a really fine player in Bo as he leaves for the NFL. And I think it's really important that what we did through the portal, supplementing what we already have here. We have some young receivers that are going to be really good but they make take a little while to get there. To have some experienced guys on the squad now that, helps a lot."
Before Vedral's touchdown pass to Harris, running back Al-Shadee Salaam made his presence known with a 37-yard run on the third play of the game. Salaam ran through the hole, got behind his blockers, and almost got into the open field for good.
Salaam had five rushes for 71 yards. With Aaron Young out this spring, Salaam got a chance to really step up and he did alongside Monangai and Jamier Wright-Collins.
"Haven't seen a lot of him because he was redshirting and had some injuries at the end of the year, but he's very talented guy. Really talented," Schiano said. "Fast, explosive, and we just have to make sure we find ways to get him involved. And he's going to earn those touches. I think between he and Kyle; Kyle I thought had a really good night as well running the football. You know, we'll get Aaron back and you have some depth there. That's Ja; if he can stay healthy, Ja has a chance to really compete there, too. So I like our running back room. It's just going to be fine tuning it and really learning the little details of playing the position."
The offensive line will remain a work in progress and there will be tight competition through the summer and in training camp, but one guy that has stuck out is Ireland Brown. Brown, who switched over from defense last season and ended up starting at guard, moved to center during the spring. He won the Mark Mills Award as the most improved offensive player.
"Ireland started the spring at guard. After four practices, we made the move to center. We just thought that he had that kind of fast twitch, and he does," Schiano said. "I mean, I think he can be as good as he wants to be. He really improved quite a bit. He did a good job the first four practices but from practice five on, he really picked it up. You know, centers, people kind of take it for granted, especially in a shotgun offense. They just take that snap for granted. Well, that's not the easiest thing in the world. If that's all you had to do, it's easy. But you have to snap it, and then you have to block somebody, and that other guy doesn't have to snap it. He just has to get off on ball. It's really a lot harder than people think. So you've really got to be a pretty good athlete to do it, and with he and Gus, I think we have some good depth at the position now."
Tight ends Victor Konopka (four catches, 31 yards), Matt Alaimo (three catches, 23 yards), and Johnny Langan (three catches, 16 yards), got in on the action, too.
The game featured 14 points on the two first drives of the night, but the offense had more of a hard time the rest of the way putting points up on the scoreboard. Schiano said obviously the roster was divided, some guys didn't play, some were on snap counts, and mixing and matching, and changes occurred throughout the night.
"I am going to look at it this weekend and see what changed," Schiano said. "My hunch would be as we started the game, then we started rotating people. So we already divided the teams and then after two series, I want to make sure everybody gets enough reps. My thing, the spring game, is, yes, the lights are on, and we get to evaluate people that are playing in a game atmosphere. But spring is hard. It's 14 practices and it covers a long period of time because we are on and we're off, we're on and we're off. So I wanted to make sure that everybody got the reward. Everyone that was healthy got the reward of playing in the spring game. So all five of the quarterbacks got plenty of reps, every receiver, every position got reps. Every lineman, every kid that was able to play in the game; every player that was able to play, played. So when you start really mixing and matching, I think the product dips a little bit. But there's other reasons, too, I'm sure that I'll see on the video."
Defensively, linebacker is a position got took a hit this spring with Moses Walker and Mohamed Toure potentially being out for a while. Tyreem Powell also didn't play in the scrimmage.
In their place, players such as Austin Dean, Anthony Johnson, Deion Jennings, and Andrew Vince made plays.
Dean was credited with four assisted tackles and two solo to go along with 2.0 sacks, Johnson had four assisted tackles and one solo one, Vince had three assisted stops and a solo tackle, and Jennings had two tackles.
"They have done a good job all spring. They are on-the-job training, right. Especially Anthony, I mean, really, he graduates high school in a couple weeks," Schiano said. "They are both natural linebackers. They are instinctual. They have got a lot to learn but I think that's definitely a thin part on our roster right now. I don't know yet with Mo. It's going to be probably a few weeks now before we know. So it's either going to be he's going to be able to play, or he's going to get surgery and that will be it for the season. But the doctors just informed us today that we are going to have to wait a few weeks to know that, which is fine because once you do the surgery it doesn't matter. He's done for the season. So say our prayers."
Along with Brown, Alaimo and Jennings won spring awards. Alaimo took home the Frank R. Burns Award while Jennings received the Douglas A. Smith Award.
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisNalwasky.
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