Update on Wimsatt's arrival, upcoming game at Syracuse, and more
The Rutgers football team began its 2021 campaign with a strong victory against Temple this past weekend. Now, the Scarlet Knights turn their attention to Syracuse, which defeated Ohio in its opening matchup of the year.
Monday, head Rutgers coach Greg Schiano met with the media to talk about the previous game with the Owls, the upcoming contest with the Orange, newcomer Gavin Wimsatt, and other topics.
GET TKR PREMIUM FREE FOR 30 DAYS — CLICK HERE FOR MORE
News broke on Friday night that Wimsatt, a four-star quarterback from Owensboro, KY, joined the team almost a year early. Wimsatt just finished his third game of his high school senior season that day. Wimsatt arrived to Rutgers on Sunday and is starting classes on Tuesday.
Wimsatt will have to go through an acclimation period, but he will practice.
"He and his family got into town last night," Schiano said. "He's going through all the onboarding right now, as far as physical and he's done all this stuff for school so he'll start classes tomorrow.
"He can practice this week, did not practice last night. Yeah, and just in general like this is a young man who played in a high school game three nights ago, so, taking it really slow, get him going. You know, people forget, just because they're a great player, they are still a young person that's going away from home for the first time. And he's getting moved into a dorm and doing all that good stuff so we'll give him a chance to get his feet on the ground here before I worry too much about any of the practice or that kind of stuff. I'm sure he'll want to. That's what football players like to do, get out there and play football, so we'll get to that as soon as we can."
It isn't clear just yet if Wimsatt will travel with the team to the Carrier Dome, but everyone -- including the coaches -- are learning how to deal with this brand new situation.
"Well, it definitely is a new situation, right. He's the second player in I think the history of college football to do it," Schiano said. "College sports is changing so you need to adapt, and we're doing our best to do that. He wanted to do this, he and his family, and there's an avenue to do it. So we helped them navigate that avenue, but it was his hard work. He got it done and now we just, you know, now he's a member of the team, like every other member of the team."
The talk of the offseason for Rutgers was about how the offensive line would perform. From left to right, Raiqwon O'Neal, Cedrice Paillant, Nick Krimin, Reggie Sutton, and Brendan Bordner earned starts against Temple. Other linemen got into the game too including Bryan Felter, David Nwaogwugwu, Hollin Pierce, Matt Rosso, and Troy Rainey.
Schiano talked about the unit's performance.
"Inconsistent. I think we did some things well and then there was other times I didn't like the way we played, and you know it's not even a technical, it’s an overall," Schiano said. "We need to play more aggressively. And we will. Coach (Andrew) Aurich is a great o-line coach. He’ll get those guys doing it. We were a guy or two away from having some big runs, but, you know, you can stand up here and say that all you want when they made the tackle."
While the run game was able to find the end zone multiple times against Temple whether it was Johnny Langan, Isaih Pacheco, or Kyle Monangai, starting quarterback Noah Vedral was the leading rusher in terms of yardage.
"Without a doubt," Schiano said on if it brings an added element to the offense. "One of the things Noah brings to the table, like (Tommy) Devito, [Syracuse's quarterback], is he can beat you with his feet. And what does that mean? Well, you convert a third down. Those are back-breakers. You got everything covered. You got pressure on him and somehow, some way, he gets out of there and finds his way to the stick. That's what can really as a defense get you. So we rely on that. Not only can he do it, but that's part of what we do."
Schiano has said on multiple occasions that Pacheco is the starting tailback, but he is encouraged by how the way the likes of Aaron Young, Monangai, and even Jamier Wright-Collins played.
"I think every game takes on a personality of its own," Schiano said on a running back by committee approach. "I'm really pleased as I said Saturday that we have a really good running back room. And not only from a talent standpoint, but togetherness. Their main thing is they want to win games. And I'm not sure how this game will go compared to last game. Kyle Monangai did play well, so did Aaron [Young] and I thought Pop played well. Isaih is our starting tailback. That's the way it is and he is the guy that I want to see carry the ball. I think he gets stronger and stronger. There were some things they were doing defensively Saturday that weren't revolutionary, but they gave us a little bit of a problem. So, I hope that we can get Pop going. But these guys are the same, I mean they have an unusual scheme. They run that 3-3-5 type deal, but it's unusual. They get into it and out of it different ways. So we have a lot of work to do and, as I told the team, there is one Tuesday, there's one Wednesday, there’s one Thursday. That’s it, then we get on a plane and got to go play. So there's not as you do that first game have an extra day to get ready, you know an extra Tuesday, an extra Wednesday and an extra Thursday. So, in an unusual defense, we have three days to get ready for it, and that'll be a challenge."
Langan scored twice on the ground near the end zone as he lined up in the quarterback position. He also played H-back and tight end, moving all over the field. He even caught a nice pass over the middle from Vedral for a near-touchdown.
"I think what we saw with Johnny is he played more traditional offense as a tight end or an H back, and you know that's something that we had talked about. And the more he can do that, he's a really good athlete as well as being a good football player so there's so much that he can do. You know the one pass he catches going down towards the goal line. So we're gonna keep working him in there, along with our other tight ends and it gives us the opportunity to go more multiple tight ends sets which we like to do. And then, the nice thing is he's in there and you're running a regular offense and, all of a sudden, he's behind the center and we're running the Johnny package.
"So I like that. I think that's going to be something that grows each week. And as Johnny gets more and more comfortable, I think he'll be just a better positional player as well as that -- whatever you want to call that ‘Johnny package’ quarterback. So I'm looking forward to that growing, and he's a tough guy to bring down. I mean he is close to 240 pounds and he's an athlete. He’s not a lumbering guy, so looking forward to seeing his role grow."
While Rutgers played well on special teams and on defense, the offense left some things on the table. Nonetheless, with no preseason games like the NFL, this was the first true game action against another opponent, and improvements are usually made in the first two weeks of the season.
"In college football, you don't have preseason games. So you line up and you play for 20 whatever days, 30 days, but you never go other than scrimmages yourself. So now after a game, you get to see the things that didn't come up in training camp because you weren't in a game. Responding to the crowd, responding to the celebrations. Celebrations are great but if it gets you off your chop, then they're not so great right. So all those things I think we're gonna improve on just how you run a game as a player. I tell people all the time, coaching or playing a game is a very, very intense three and a half to four hours.
"If you're doing it the right way, you're constantly focused. I mean, very rarely do I ever after a game, win or lose, plop into a chair and say, ‘Man, I feel great.’ I mean you’re shot. And, you know, I think the players physically as well. So that’s probably the biggest thing - the operation of the game. Sure we get to throw and catch better, we got to tackle better, we got to run better, block better. All those things. But I think just now that we got one under our belt, how are we going to become a more efficient, smoother operating machine on gameday."
Moving on, Rutgers went 3-6 in 2020 with all three of its wins coming on the road. Saturday's road trip will be this season's first. Rutgers and Syracuse last played in 2012 with the No. 20-ranked Scarlet Knights coming out on top. Rutgers won the last game up in New York the year prior as well.
"It's not only a real road environment, but it's probably one of the loudest road environments you can have because it's, I believe, it's the only dome in division one. O's gonna be loud," Schiano said. "I remember, you know, we obviously played there several years, those keys jingling and jangling, I mean it's gonna be loud. So we got to get ready for that noise. We practice with crowd noise all the time, but I think you know the crowd noise you pipe in over some speakers and the crowd noise that you're going to face in the dome are two different things. And we’ll be prepared for it. But till you go through it, you don't know how your team's going to respond."
Against Ohio, Syracuse ran for 283 yards and seven players saw carries. Sean Tucker recorded 181 yards and a touchdown on 25 carries. DeVito and Cooper Lutz scored as well.
"They have a very complex run game and it's triple-option football by another name. They're reading it. They're throwing it. Devito can beat you with his arm and his feet and he extends the plays. They'll run the zone read and then carry it all the way out and then throw it to the receiver so you have to account for everybody. It's not the traditional wishbone triple option but it's got all the elements of it. They're running RPOs. They're doing everything that challenges you defensively, not only in the math of the quarterback running the ball, but spreading you, making making you cover 53 and a third, and that's college football. A lot of the guys that are my friends in the NFL ask what’s the biggest difference. You have to defend three plays every play. That's hard."
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisNalwasky.
--------------------------------------------------------------
• Subscribe to our YouTube Channel