The Monday Morning Kickoff

The 2017 season kicked off Friday night for Rutgers and the Scarlet Knight showed a lot of improvement in their 30-14 loss to Washington. Grad transfer Kyle Bolin started at quarterback and finished 24-of-34 for 178 yards to go along with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

“I’m very pleased with how the offense played. Washington is a great team,” Bolin said. “They have a great defense, but we were able to move the ball the majority of the night. We just have to watch film and correct the mental errors and mistakes that we make. I’m really excited to see where this team can go in the upcoming weeks.”

Defensively, Rutgers was stout for the first half, but had some issues at the linebacker position. On yesterday’s conference call, defensive coordinator Jay Niemann talked about the possibility of playing some freshmen at the position.

That would mean Tyshon Fogg, Olakunle Fatukasi and Syhiem Simmons may all see more playing time in the future.

“Some of those freshmen have come along, some of them had what I would call training camp injuries that prevented them from probably getting enough reps to be able to go into the game and feel like they could function with the whole defensive package,” Niemann said. “And so hopefully, as we get further into the season and get them more practice reps, they will have those opportunities. We will have to evaluate that as it goes.”

One position that was not of concern was defensive end where senior Kemoko Turay was all over the field on his way to five tackles, which was good for second on the team.

“They came in here thinking they were going to do the same thing as last year and just push us around,” Turay said of Washington. “We sent them a message that we are not the team from last year.”

There was also a contingent of recruits in attendance and the response was favorable among that group.

"I saw overall improvement from the team, especially the offense,” said Rutgers cornerback commit Jarrett Paul of Paramus Catholic. “That's definitely a positive. They were in the game early, but a few mistakes caused Washington to pull away. However, I am impressed with the improvement.”

There was some basketball commits on hand as RU commit Ron Harper Jr. of Don Bosco checked out the game with Montez Mathis of John Carroll (Bel air, Md.).

“It was a real fun visit. It was nice hanging out with some of the other recruits and the coaches,” Harper said. “Two of the recruits I feel like I really connected with are Warren Washington and Montez Mathis.”