9/22/2021 football Edit

Shorthanded secondary will look to veterans to step up versus Michigan

Richie O'Leary • TheKnightReport

Publisher

Early Tuesday morning, Rutgers Football head coach Greg Schiano released a statement to the press that defensive backs Malachi “Max” Melton and Chris Long were suspended immediately following the two being taken into police custody for a paintball gun incident.

At the moment there is no timeline for the suspension, but there is a good chance that neither will be with the Scarlet Knights this Saturday when they take on No. 19 ranked Michigan and that means someone has to step up.

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The good news is that Chris Long hasn’t seen too many snaps so far this year and is considered a backup at this time, however the bad news is that Malachi Melton is a starting cornerback and currently sits at second on the team in total snaps with 183.

The only person who has more snap counts than Melton is Rutgers other starting cornerback Tre Avery who is ready to step up wherever he can, as he considers himself one of the leaders on the team.

“Coach (Greg) Schiano always says that once you’re a leader, you can’t take any days off,” Avery told TKR. “Like you can never have a bad day, so I’m just keeping that in mind and trying to have a good practice everyday. I’m always putting my best foot forward.”

On top of being a leader, Avery is also one of a few guys on the team who have played in the Big House when it was full of fans.

“It was different two years ago, we were a whole different team,” said Avery “I feel like I’m pretty experienced now, already playing in that place."

Another leader within the secondary is starting safety Avery Young who has also played in the Big House and is eager to make a few more plays this time around.

“You know it’s the Big House, you have to be excited for that,” Young said. “I remember just seeing a million eyes all looking at me. I also remember my excitement from just making some plays and making everybody in the crowd a little quieter.”

Over the past few years, this game has been lopsided in favor of Michigan as they’ve been able to beat Rutgers by scores of 78-0,42-7, 52-0 and so on. However, last year under Schiano, the Scarlet Knights took Michigan to triple overtime and Avery Young is excited about the progress that they’ve made since then.

“It’s exciting because this is what we’ve been working for since coach’s return,” he said. “We’ve just been putting in the hours, doing a lot both on and off the field, putting in the time in the classroom needed to learn our defenses and offenses better. So we just put in the work and we are glad to see the results that are showing right now.”

Rutgers Football is set to take on the Michigan Wolverines this Saturday afternoon at 3:30pm EST and the game will be televised on ABC.