Rutgers Football Keeps Chopping, But the Free Fall continues
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With starting quarterback Dylan Lonergan sidelined indefinitely on concussion protocol after suffering an injury early in the October 24th loss to Northwestern, star receiver and projected first-round NFL Draft pick KJ Duff was also sidelined with an injury, and the odds were stacked against a Scarlet Knights squad desperately looking to turn their season around.
Rutgers competed and stayed close for a half, fighting on defense and doing enough on offense to trail by only three points at halftime. But as has been the case all season, the talent gap proved too much to overcome as the Badgers outscored the Knights 18-0 in the second half to put the game away, cruising to a 31-10 victory. Wisconsin improved to 6-3 (4-2), while Rutgers fell to 2-7 (1-5) in yet another lost season for the Scarlet Knights.
What likely stung most for Rutgers fans was watching Wisconsin make a change at quarterback, benching senior Colton Joseph after the Badgers were blanked by a stifling Iowa Hawkeyes defense the prior week. Badgers head coach Luke Fickell started freshman Ryan Hopkins, who excelled in his debut, completing 18 of 24 passes for 241 yards and three touchdowns to clinch bowl eligibility. For his efforts, Hopkins earned Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors.
Rutgers fans have seen this story play out all too often. Backup quarterback AJ Surace, in his third year with the program, struggled to find any rhythm in offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca’s offense. In contrast, the opposing team’s freshman quarterback, Hopkins, lit up the Scarlet Knights defense. Head Coach Greg Schiano has sold the fanbase on Rutgers as a developmental program. Still, when fans watch a quarterback, who has been in the program three years, hyped up in the offseason by the coaching staff struggle so mightily, they naturally question his development.
This isn’t to say Rutgers hasn’t developed players. One only needs to look at the running back room: two NFL stars, Isiash Pachecho and Kyle Monangai, with current first-string running back Antwan Raymond joining them next spring. The problem with being a developmental program and hyping a quarterback who has been in the program three years, only to discover he isn’t Big Ten caliber, is that you not only have little chance of competing, but you also lose your fanbase's trust.
At a dismal 2-7 with three games remaining, and with no improvement shown from last season’s 5-7 performance in the NIL era where players leave at will, who exactly will be left to develop next season? Following the loss, Schiano was asked about not being bowl-eligible once again.
“Look, it’s very disappointing. In my wildest expectations, I didn’t think we would find ourselves here. But maybe that wasn’t realistic on my part. I don’t know. But we’re not going to be bowl-eligible; that’s for sure. Mathematics tells you that. So there’ll be a time when we can do the autopsy on everything that occurred because there’s a lot that occurred.”
Schiano won’t have to dig deep during his autopsy. Following the 42-35 loss to USC this past September, when asked about the portal transfers added to the defense, he stated: "Did I do a good enough job? Probably not. We had a lot going on with the coordinator search at the same time.”
It’s understandable why the frustration is so high with a long-suffering fanbase. Why take months to hire a quality defensive coordinator in Travis Johansen, only to not have him involved in evaluating and recruiting the proper players in the transfer portal? After last season’s historically bad defense, Schiano knew the team needed a roster overhaul. Instead of letting a qualified General Manager handle such duties, or making the defensive coordinator hire early, he decided to take on those roles himself. And he failed. That's why Rutgers trots out a defense every week that gives it all it has, but doesn’t have the talent to compete in a conference like the Big Ten.
Compound that with no capable quarterback to take advantage of a strong receiver and running backs room, and you end up with a 2-7 record and a fanbase wondering when this nightmare will end. Nobody knows yet how Athletic Director Keli Zinn will try to clean up this mess after the season. If the program isn’t run fundamentally differently, the results will be the same, and SHI Stadium will be empty next fall.
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John Catapano graduated from Rutgers in 1990 with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism, covering the women’s field hockey and soccer teams for the campus paper, The Daily Targum. After college, he moved to Los Angeles, got a job at Walt Disney Television, and has worked in media ever since. John currently works with the Wasserman Media Group in their Brooklyn, NY office, collaborating with brands, influencers, and athletes across the globe. When the pandemic struck in 2020 and Catapano began working remotely, he resumed writing by contributing to a Rutgers fan blog. He covered various sports, highlighted human interest stories, and focused on topics that Scarlet Nation wanted to discuss. It’s never easy being a Rutgers fan, but with over 500,000 alumni living worldwide and a passionate fanbase, covering the Scarlet Knights is always engaging.