The first scrimmage is in the books.
The Rutgers football team held its first of three total scrimmages of spring practice this past Saturday inside SHI Stadium. The second one is slated to take place next weekend and the final one, the Scarlet-White game, is slated for April 29.
Head coach Greg Schiano said the scrimmage was long and that mistakes were made, but there’s still time.
“Hopefully when we watch the tape, we’re going to see guys that maybe a week ago were kind of holding back and let it go. I saw a couple young guys just do what I asked them to do, ‘Don’t worry about it, just go. We’ll correct it. If you play hard, we’ll get it corrected.’ That part I was pleased with.
“As I said to them over and over, there are plenty of mistakes out there, we just have to stop making the same ones twice. Because if you make and you make it, that counts as making it twice because we covered that. That’s what we need to speed up and really decrease the time we make the same mistake twice. There were some good things, we did a lot of things in the kicking game, which I was glad we picked up. They are things we can teach from. Overall, I think it was really productive.”
Gavin Wimsatt and Evan Simon, the quarterbacks, didn’t fire on all cylinders, but that is to be expected in the first live scrimmage with a new offense. Schiano said they made progress and didn’t turn the ball over, which is important. Those two are locked in a battle on who will start week one against Northwestern.
“I thought Gavin and Evan both managed the offense well,” Schiano said. “They left some plays out there for sure, but we took care of the football, and when we do that, we win. Now the key is to learn from those opportunities that maybe we missed and still take care of the football. That’s the hope. I’m pleased, they’re making progress. It’s never fast enough. Time is our No. 1 enemy. I really believe that if you just keep going in the right direction, we’re going to get there.”
From the quarterbacks to special teams, Rutgers has to replace all-world punter Adam Korsak. Kicker Jude McAtamney is back, but he is being pushed by Jai Patel. Flynn Appleby is taking over Korsak, who has been seen at practice over the last couple of weeks.
“Overall, I thought, favorable,” Schiano said. “Flynn has done a nice job, he continues to do a nice job. Jude had a couple today that got away from him but during the competition, he really kicked well. Jai has been kicking well all camp. I like it. We have competition at placekicker and in the punting game, we got a big name to replace there. I think he’s doing a great job of trying.”
It can be hard to get a grasp of how well (or not well) the offensive line played from the naked eye without looking at the group on film. It’s been said numerous times before, but in order for the offense as a whole to make strides, the guys in the trenches need to improve big time.
They’re getting there slowly but surely.
“It’s small steps, but we’re definitely getting better,” Schiano said. “(Offensive line) Coach (Pat) Flaherty, coach (Scott) Vallone, Coach (Alex) Officer are all doing a great job. It’s a cumulative build. We just have to keep building. Some guys are stepping up that we haven’t heard a lot from, doing things that catch your eye. Once that happens, then that happens more and more. That’s what I’m hoping for these next two weeks.”
Fans don’t like to hear it, but Rutgers as it stands is a developmental program. It is going to take players a couple years to really flourish from practice time and time spent in the weight room in the offseason. One of Schiano’s goals over the years is to build a bigger, faster, stronger team, and the Scarlet Knight are making progress.
“A guy like Tyreem Powell was playing the season at 220-225 (pounds) and now he’s practicing at 230. That’s an extra 10 pounds of muscle that when he hits, you feel it. A guy like Mayan Ahanotu that’s worked hard to get in shape and is a good 295 right now. Those are critical improvements, and when you get stronger, and your body fat stays the same or even goes down, that means you have more lean muscle mass that should help in the trenches. I tell the guys, as a developmental program, when a guy misses an offseason due to injury or surgery, it really sets him behind.
“That happened to Deion (Jennings). That shoulder surgery totally put him behind. It took a whole year before he was able to get those gains, and then you saw the season he had last year. He’s just picked it up and is moving forward from where he was. So as a developmental program, every offseason is crucial. And that’s what we are - we’re a developmental program.”
Off the field, a new coach Rutgers brought in is Darius Hamilton. Hamilton is a familiar face who played for the Scarlet Knights from 2012-2016. Schiano recruited the former five-star defensive lineman out of Don Bosco Prep, but never coached him as he left for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. A decade later, Hamilton is now with Schiano.
“Darius had been coaching in high school and he let it be known that he had an interest to get back in here,” Schiano said. “He was a star player. He was a three-time captain. The way we do it is you start at the bottom and work your way up. He said ‘absolutely, that’s what I want to do and I wouldn’t have it any other way.’ I love that attitude, and he’s been awesome.”
Hamilton coached at Bayonne and DePaul after his playing days were over. Hamilton dealt with knee injury issues while at Rutgers, but he played in 38 games and tallied 168 total tackles including 27.0 for a loss with 11 sacks, two forced fumbles, and a fumble recovery.
Schiano has added several former Scarlet Knights to his staff since he’s come back.
“Darius had been coaching in high school and he let it be known that he had an interest to get back in here,” Schiano said. “He was a star player. He was a three-time captain. The way we do it is you start at the bottom and work your way up. He said ‘absolutely, that’s what I want to do and I wouldn’t have it any other way.’ I love that attitude, and he’s been awesome.
“He just busts his hump so there’s no doubt he’ll be a good football coach,” Schiano said. “So I’m just glad he’s back and he’s here. I laughed when I first hired him because, as you know, I recruited him but never got to coach him. So now we’re going to work together.”
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisNalwasky.
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