Despite Gavin Wimsatt getting his first-ever extended bit of action at quarterback, Rutgers fell to Minnesota 31-0 at Huntington Bank Stadium.
Here are three thoughts after the game….
Gavin Wimsatt gets the nod
Although this is one Wimsatt and the Scarlet Knights (4-4, 1-4) will look to forget, it marked a new era for the program as it handed the reins over to the former four-star recruit. From a game perspective, he did not offer much as he finished 6-for-17 for 68 yards with a fumble and an interception before getting knocked out of the game early in the fourth quarter with what appeared to be a head injury.
“He’s being examined by the doctors, we’ll kind of see how that goes. He’s feeling a little bit better at the end but it’s something you got to watch,” Schiano said. “I thought he started out well, I thought he looked comfortable. It wasn’t too big for him, there were a couple of things that happened in the game that maybe threw him off a little bit.”
Wimsatt, who appeared to be alright following the hit, showed some qualities that explain why the Scarlet Knights are so high on his future but also others that show why they felt he was not ready to be QB1 at the start of the season. At the end of the day, it will take more than one game to know what the freshman’s ceiling is but for Rutgers fans who have waited to see the prized recruit take over, the time is now.
An offensive struggle
As a whole, Rutgers’ offense could not get anything going as it finished with 134 total yards with 86 coming through the air and 48 on the ground. On the flip side, Minnesota (5-3, 2-3) did whatever it wanted all day as it more than doubled Rutgers’ time of possession and was led by Mohamed Ibrahim who finished with 36 carries for 159 yards and three touchdowns.
The Scarlet Knights were also victims of several costly drops, including back-to-back ones from Matt Alaimo and Chris Long in the third quarter, that could have jump-started the offense and put them in a better position to make it a one-score game entering the fourth.
“Drops are inexcusable at this level,” Schiano continued. “Do they happen once in a while? Yeah. Not five of them. That’s all what goes into my evaluation, one of the things is he throws the ball hard so you better get your hands ready to catch it. It’s something we all have to get accustomed to.”
A nightmarish day for Rutgers
If the final score was not enough to make a Scarlet Knights fan shudder, before the game it was announced freshman running back Samuel Brown V would miss the rest of the season with a lower-body injury.
“We thought he was going to be okay and then each day, one test led to another, these tests are kind of the way that it happens in order to get to the conclusion that we have,” Schiano said. “It’s sad for him. He had a great climb this year and a really good game last week but that’s football. Sam will get well, get surgery, and get back to being a player it’s just going to be a little bit.”
While Brown likely would not have made much of a difference in this one, his talent gave Rutgers a bit of a different wrinkle so to lose him is a big blow for an offense that has struggled so far to begin with. The Scarlet Knights will have to wait until 2023 to see Wimsatt and Brown take significant snaps together so, while the wait might be long, today’s final score should not be indicative of what the future holds for the program.
Rutgers will return to action next Saturday when it takes on Michigan at SHI Stadium at 7:30 p.m. (ET) on BTN.
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