Your posts always inspire various reactions; my usual reaction is "where to start?"
I know! I'll start with one of everybody's favorites, the myth of the drastically improving players.
Here's a fact-every team in the Big Ten has a lot of returning players. Every other Big Ten team's returning players are returning from teams that had better records than Rutgers. We're counting on Rutgers players to all improve drastically while the other schools barely improve at all?
I hate to do it, but I have to cannibalize a quote from another thread because it's such a good Al antidote:
A long time ago ( so I'm not quoting exactly ) I was watching an NCAA game between a ranked team and a heavy underdog. Trying to drum up interest in a dog of a game, Dick Enberg said " The underdog is really excited this year-they have 9 returning players!" To which Al McGuire instantly answered, "Yeah, returning from an 8-16 season. Believe me, the other team is excited too!"
And Al, you did a little cherry picking with the recruiting ratings. Rutgers was ranked 63 by 247/Scout and 66 by ESPN. And if you look at the recruits offer sheets ( which nobody ever seems to want to do ), it's not an greatly impressive class, even with your generational WR Stanley King.
I'm pretty certain that Rutgers will improve upon last year, but it won't be because the players have been here a year longer or because of flood of impact freshmen.
Im pretty certain that between returning players and incoming freshman, Rutgers will be much better this year.
Rutgers returns a significant amount of players that:
- played competitively against West Division Champion Northwestern, falling 18-15
- played competitively against Wisconsin, falling 31-17
- played competitively against Penn State, falling 20-7
- played competitively against MSU, falling 14-10
Michigan was one team we did not play competitively against, but they’re Michigan, and their talent base is much better than ours. But it’s important to note that Michigan didn’t blow us out because they simply ran over us, they blew us out because Shea Patterson made terrific plays in the passing game as the line could not get adequate pressure.
Teams could not run as effectively as they did in previous years, in the second half of the season, with nose guard Julius Turner demonstrating an ability to hold his ground. This allowed our linebackers to be more effective. Michigan’s power play, where they pull the backside guard, was particularly effective against Rutgers in 2017. It wasn’t as effective in 2018.
Another important point is that our running game improved drastically once Zach Venesky was inserted into the starting lineup. We ran for 186 yards vs Michigan and 193 yards vs Penn State, and 121 yards against Michigan State in wet conditions.
That we played much better in the 2nd half of the season, against better competition, shows that we are much improved in the strength and conditioning department.
So based on our returning players that played competitively in the second half last season, we have a good base of Big Ten competitive players.
Add to that, a tremendous class of freshman, and you have an improved Rutgers team that has drastically improved relative to its competition.
Don’t care about offers. I care about that our incoming freshman can flat out play:
- UnderArmour All American Stanley King is a once in a generation receiver that NJ produces, and had 79 catches for 1,413 yards from a school that has produced players that have had successful NFL careers. He will instantly bolster a passing game which has struggled in recent years
- Aaron Young is a soon to be superstar who is going to flourish in our offense
- Mohamed Toure is the best LB Rutgers has recruited since Khaseem Greene
- Donald Williams has the ball skills to play right away, and as long as he gets better every year, he’ll be in the NFL someday. This kid reminds me of Devin McCourty
Like I said, Michigan and Ohio State are on another level. But schools like Penn State, Iowa, Boston College, and Maryland are our opportunity.