The Monday Morning Kickoff
Spring practice is now past the halfway point and in the early going, Chris Laviano had emerged as the slight leader in the race for the starting quarterback job. However, Hayden Rettig went out and had the better day of the two top quarterbacks in Saturday’s scrimmage. How that will affect the race remains to be seen as head coach Chris Ash will not make any public comments on the race until this Thursday.
In the meantime, five new players were knighted on Saturday as defensive end Julian Pinnix-Odrick, running back Trey Sneed, center Derrick Nelson, wide receiver Andre Patton and defensive tackle Darius Hamilton as they all removed the black stripe from their helmets signifying they are game ready.
Hamilton talked about that honor before it happened.
“I feel like I have to get that stripe taken off my helmet pretty soon,” he said last week. “I am going to continue to come out here and do everything I can to help this team get better in any way. I am going to continue to get healthy to help this team win.”
Hamilton is still limited and joining him in that group was starting right tackle J.J. Denman, who wore a similar green jersey on Saturday which means their practice capabilities are limited.
One player who has not been limited is starting defensive end Quanzell Lambert, who continued to string together a very solid spring that continued in Saturday’s scrimmage.
Lambert talked to Scarlet Nation about his role at weakside defensive end in the new Rutgers defense.
“I can say it is a lot more aggressive of a role. You could play faster and get off the ball a lot more. There are less reads. It is more instinct, more of a football player type of position instead of just being out there reading things. It’s putting your head on somebody’s chin and just playing football.”
The prospects continued to show up on campus through last week and this Saturday’s group of visitors featured linebacker and RU target Olakunle Fatukasi of Grand Street Campus in Brooklyn.
“It was great. I got to watch practice again and talk to some of the coaches,” Fatukasi told Scarlet Nation after the visit. “This visit was the first time my parents saw Rutgers.”
Also visiting on Saturday was freshman sensation Josh McKenzie of Bergen Catholic.
“[Head] Coach [Chris] Ash said they were trying to change the program around and in-state talent like me would help and be the start,” McKenzie said. “He told me he loves my high school program and the toughness we play with and how we carry ourselves. He said he needed hard-nosed guys like that. [Running Backs] Coach [Zak] Kuhr sort of relayed a similar message, but told me to keep coming back to visit and become familiar with the program and culture. He told me he wanted me to feel like home.”
The visitors will continue through this week as Passaic Tech offensive tackle Carter Warren is scheduled to visit on Thursday while Cedar Creek standout Bo Melton and Bridgeton four-star Markquese Bell highlight the group of Saturday visitors on April 16th.
As always, stay logged onto Scarlet Nation’s The Round Table for the best Rutgers football inside scoops along with the latest recruiting updates as they unfold.