Tuesday Notebook: Lots of news in Piscataway
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Tuesday's Top Headline:
Ruhann Peele changes positions
Redshirt freshman wide
receiver Ruhann Peele has moved to cornerback in an effort
to help bolster a depleted secondary. Peele is third on the
team with 18 receptions and the move generated much of the
buzz at Tuesday's practice.
The Scarlet Knights are without three of the top four
corners who were on the season's first two-deep-Lew Toler
(broken arm), Ian Thomas (left program), and Nadir Barnwell
(suspension for DWI arrest).
Head coach Kyle Flood said the plan is for the move to be
temporary for just this week's game, but acknowledged there
is a chance it could be long-term.
"We'll decide after this week what the long-term
implications of that will be but I spoke to Ruhann yesterday
and we felt from a skill set and an athletic standpoint that
he would be the best option for us to do that," Flood said.
Flood anticipates Peele definitely seeing the field on
Saturday but his role in Rutgers' sub packages is yet to be
determined.
"He played more safety in high school he told me. I asked
him that when I was speaking to him," Flood said. "A little
bit of corner. There are so many 7-on-7s at that level now.
I think any skill player probably has some experience doing
that. If we didn't think he would have some natural ability
to do it - certainly he is not going to learn all the finer
points of being a corner in one week - we felt like from an
athletic standpoint he might have some natural ability to do
it. I thought he looked pretty good out there for the first
day."
Peele has been through two days of meetings as a cornerback and
today was his first time on the practice field at his new position.
Coming into the week, Delon Stephenson and Jevon Tyree were listed
as the backup corners behind starters Anthony Cioffi and Gareef
Glashen.
More Practice News
The chase for the starting quarterback
position resumed today with Gary Nova, Chas Dodd and
third-stringer Mike Bimonte all seeing action with the first
team.
"We actually repped three quarterbacks today and one of the
benefits of practicing the way we did was it allowed us to
take a few more team reps," Flood said. "Gary (Nova) and
Chas (Dodd) both got reps with the ones. Mike got reps with
the 1 and 1/2's - there really is no two's at this point.
Everybody is getting reps with everybody who is playing in
the games--who is a next man-in type of player on the
offensive line and running backs. All three got reps; Gary
probably got the most, Chas got the next most and Mike got a
few as well."
While Bimonte, a redshirt sophomore who has not taken a snap
in a game in his career, remains behind Nova and Dodd on the
depth chart, today marked was the most meaningful reps he
has seen in practice since the season has started.
"Mike and Chas have two of the tougher jobs in football.
Mike even tougher than Chas because there are a lot of
practices where Mike won't get reps outside of individual
7-on-7," Flood said. "He won't get team reps. The most
impressive thing to me is when I see Mike go into the team
period today, he knows where to go with the ball. He knows
where his eyes should be. He knows what the reads should be.
You say you've got to take mental reps. You've got to take
reps on film. You've got to watch the other guys practice.
You have to do all those things as you are trying to earn
your opportunities but he has really done it well which is
pleasing to me. It was good to see him out there today."
Quotables
Gary Nova on Ruhann Peele
moving to cornerback:
Chris Muller on how the team is handling this two-game
losing streak:
Kyle Flood on starting Andre Civil over Taj Alexander
at right tackle:
They said it...
After
practice today, Flood addressed the issue that
arose at Monday's media availability session
when he and Nova appeared to give contradicting
statements on the state of the quarterback depth
chart. Nova's quotes appeared to indicate that
he did not feel there was a quarterback
competition and also went against Flood's
assertion that he and Dodd split reps equally
during Sunday night's practice
"My understanding was that somebody asked a
question about a quarterback competition, which
is an expression that I've never used," Flood
said. "Every player in the program should come
to practice every day with the intention of
winning their job. That is a program-wide
philosophy. That is not a quarterback position
philosophy. We did a 2-minute drill with the
ones against the defense. We did not run a
second 2-minute drill. I think Gary took most of
the reps that he would normally take aside from
the 2-minute drill. I think maybe that was the
misunderstanding."
Nova declined to clarify his comments when asked
about them today.
"I'm not worried about that," he said. "I'm just
worried about trying to be prepared for this
game and I think today was a good start."
Inside the Numbers
Rutgers has six players with 10 or
more receptions this season
Chris Coyer, who started at quarterback for Temple
against Rutgers last year, has 15 receptions for 130 yards
and a touchdown as an H-back this season
Two of Rutgers' top three substitutes at
cornerback (Ruhann Peele and Delon Stephenson) are converts
from another position
Former Rutgers defensive back Abdul Smith is
Temple's second-leading tackler with 58 stops
Frosh faces at wide receiver
Even with Peele
moving to the defensive side of the ball this week,
Rutgers will have three of its most experienced wide
receivers ready for action in Brandon Coleman, Leonte
Carroo and Quron Pratt. Pratt and Carroo were limited in
practice last week due to injury and saw decreased reps
in the Houston game but were not on this week's injury
report and practiced fully this morning.
Behind that trio, redshirt freshman Carlton Agudosi will
look to build on his first career catches, but three
true freshmen-Andre Patton, John Tsimis and Janarion
Grant-could all see plenty of time as well.
Patton made his first career start in place of Pratt
last week, while Tsimis and Grant each recorded their
first two career catches against UH. Flood said he has
confidence in all three players.
"I think they can run every route in our offense and I
have complete confidence in them that when the ball is
thrown to them that they will make the plays," he said.
"Those guys are talented football players. We recruited
them for a reason. They've worked very hard to put
themselves in that position to earn the right to go in
on gameday because that's not something we take very
lightly and I'm excited to see them take advantage of
it."