The Monday Morning Kickoff
The Monday Morning Kickoff returns to get you ready for another brand new week in the scarlet nation.
A view from the gridiron (Rutgers Football)
Rutgers added a new coach last week as former Bergen Catholic head coach Nunzio Campanile took over as the RU running backs coach. That means that Lester Erb has moved out to coach the wide receivers.
“My No.1 responsibility is getting these guys ready to perform, ready to execute, make sure they know their job,” Campanile said last week. “This is obviously a very different role for me, but I am excited about it. I think that’s what makes it fun. Things are different and you try to work on being an expert at one things and that is what I owe my players.”
Later that week, defensive backs coach Bill Busch left for a job at LSU and now head coach Chris Ash will have to scramble to find yet another assistant coach replacement.
Last week also marked the annual signing day, although just one prospect signed his letter of intent to Rutgers. Swedish defensive end Robin Jutwreten inked his letter of intent to become the 22nd and final member of the RU class of 2018.
“All the Rutgers fans can expect me to give everything I have on the field, always,” Jutwreten said. “Coming from Sweden with college being free, I am going to Rutgers with my goal set on football and to accomplish great things with the team.”
Rutgers received a preferred walk-on commit on the eve of signing day from Absegami kicker Zach Sterr. Two days later, Sterr received a congratulatory phone call from New Jersey governor Phil Murphy.
“He said after reading some articles about me and what people have said about me in the news and how I do in school, he thought he would give me a call,” Sterr said of Murphy. “He said I was doing good for the state of New Jersey and that he was proud of me for staying home.”
On the mat (Rutgers Wrestling)
It was a tough Friday night home match as Rutgers fell to No.21 Minnesota by a final of 20-12. Rutgers wrestled without 125-pounder Nick Suriano, who is undefeated and carries a No.1 national ranking. Suriano was out because of the flu.
“We’ve been wrestling well. I thought tonight we wrestled really well in spots,” head coach Scott Goodale said. “But, you know, we struggled in others. It’s hard to win dual meets when you don’t win those toss-ups.”
The loss dropped Rutgers to 6-7 on the season and marked the first time the team has been under .500 since 2008.
The Scarlet Knights will get the chance to pull to even next Friday at Wisconsin and that is followed by a Sunday with a road dual at Princeton.
The take from center court (Rutgers Basketball)
The tough times continued for Rutgers hoops as the team came off a dismal loss to Indiana last week to fall again on the road to Nebraska on Saturday by a final of 67-55.
“We've certainly played better than that on the road,” Rutgers head coach Steve Pikiell said. "They've been great at home. A tip of the hat to them for that. Coach Miles is doing a great job. They have a lot of guys, a lot of answers. They present a lot of matchup problems. We didn't play well enough today. We didn't make enough layups today to hang around.”
Rutgers is now 12-15 on the season, but the good news is that Eugene Omoruyi and Mike Williams returned to action. Williams missed the past eight games and Omoruyi missed the past two. Williams finished with two points in 16 minutes while Omoruyi dropped 11 in 19 minutes of action.
Rutgers will return to action Tuesday night with a home matchup against Northwestern, with tip-off set for 9 p.m.