Rutgers Football Season Preview

Following a tumultuous 4-8 season that ended on a six game losing skid—consequently snapping a five-year bowl streak—Rutgers is looking for a bounce back year.

After nearly three weeks of training camp, head coach Greg Schiano is confident his team is ready to rebound.

“I’m excited about this team. We certainly aren’t near where we’re going to be, but they’ve worked hard,” Schiano said. “That’s going to give you a chance—when you work hard and you work smart—and this team does and they’ve done that.”

Schiano’s enthusiasm also comes from a change of philosophy on both sides of the ball. Offensively, Rutgers will go back to a pro-style offense with new offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti. Defensively, the Knights have moved players down a level at each position group to make for a speedier defense.

Offense

The offense is bringing back all of its talent at the skill positions, but the focus will be on the offense line. After giving up an NCAA record 61 sacks and ranking 110th nationally in rushing, the unit returns all but one starter.

“We’re pretty confident because all that scrutiny doesn’t really affect us. We try to remember it to keep a chip on our shoulder kind of thing,” center David Osei said.

As the unit’s only new starter, Osei feels the unit has gelled.

“We’re starting to flow more naturally as a unit,” the redshirt sophomore said.

The offensive line should be helped by a strong run game. True freshman Savon Huggins—the top recruit in New Jersey according to Rivals.com—is expected to have an immediate impact. Junior De’Antwan Williams and sophomore Jeremy Deering should help the highly touted recruit carry the load.

Along with a strong running game, sophomore quarterback Chas Dodd has one of the most prolific wide receiving units in the Big East.

The top four wide outs are at least 6’2” in , Mark Harrison, Tim Wright and the 6’6” Brandon Coleman. 5’10” freshman Myles Shuler is a speedster that could make a contribution as a slot receiver.

The tight end and fullback will also be relied on heavily both as blockers and pass catchers. DC. Jefferson and Paul Carrezzola battled throughout camp for the starting position, but both should get significant playing time in the two tight end sets.

The fullback is an intricate part of the offense in Cignetti’s system and would like to find a player a la Brian Leonard. Senior Joe Martinek has been called upon to try just that after three years at tailback.

“We’ve got a lot of weapons we can get the ball out too and that’s going to be my main focus,” Dodd said. “Just getting the ball to them and watching them go.”

Defense

Defensively, the Knights are going back to a speedier defense like it was when Schiano put Rutgers football on map in 2006.

The result is a revamped defense. There’s six new starters with four returning starters in new positions.

Manny Abreu has moved from weak side linebacker to the defensive line and Khaseem Greene has moved from safety to weak side linebacker.

On the defensive line Scott Vallone is the only returning starter and has moved from the three technique to nose tackle. Along with Abreu, Michael Larrow, Marcus Thompson and Jonathan Francis are in the mix to start.

Alongside Greene, Steve Beauharnais (middle linebacker) and Jamal Merrell (strongside linebacker) will make up the linebacking core.

Having speedier front seven is something Greene's aware of.

“It’s definitely noticed,” Greene said. “It’s just something that you feel. I know that for myself and the other guys in the linebacker core, we just got the ball a lot faster and a lot of our lineman made a lot of plays in the backfield this camp. It just feels like everything happened that much faster for us.”

The secondary is a talented group, but is also experiencing changes. After three years at cornerback, David Rowe has moved to safety. Duron Harmon is the other safety, while Logan Ryan, Brandon Jones, Marcus Cooper and Mason Robison should all see snaps at cornerback.

With all the changes leading to optimism, Schiano knows the work to rebuild has just begun. In the end, the team's judged by their play on the field.

“I just got done telling the team—what we’ve done is we’ve given ourselves a chance,” Schiano said. “Now we’ll go see what we can do.”