I can assure you the Rutgers football weight rooms are not crowded.
Making arguments about human nature and how the sport has changed are missing a key point.
Our coach has resources and has to make decisions about how to use them. Some have worked out in near term but others require longer view or to evaluate in context of what’s going on in the “system” you describe.
It’s called strategy.
Every position group matters and has to perform. Needs depth.
Schiano knows what it looks like to be part of a championship culture. He experienced it at PSU, Miami and OSU and played key roles in each place.
If you look back at our recruiting over the last several years, you can see clearly where our LB woes come from.
Just count how many HS LBs we’ve recruited since Toure’s class of 2019.
Fans placed about as big expectations on Anthony Johnson and Moses Walker being studs in college as we did on Gavin Wimsatt.
It’s only natural, given these recruiting services and hype.
But it’s not fair to those players or the team to go “all-in” at those positions or forget that elite B1G LBs are future NFL stars, so by definition rare and difficult to produce.
On the defensive side of the ball, we heavily invested in defensive secondary, WRs, OL, DEs and ATH trusting (hoping) in our program’s ability to identify young men with the mindset and combination of talent, effort, determination and luck (in staying healthy) to get to the next level.
Naturally, our program doesn’t have the resources to pay for facilities or players on the level that USC does.
Or the brand as a football powerhouse for much of any period of time other than Schiano 1.0.
At schools like that, they don’t rely on romantic notions from players, coaches or fans about loyalty over the shared values of excellence and winning. They just bring in 5* and promise opportunity.
Schiano understands these trade offs, as well as the lines RU is not willing or able to cross as well as anyone.
The scarcity mindset and spirit of complaint that plagues RU’s culture is because this is NJs culture.
The belief that players choose where to go to school based solely on money is not entirely true - they want both opportunity and to win. To be surrounded by others in pursuit of excellence.
If you look at the recruiting classes and our most successful players, they are often not from NJ.
Just as 50% (or more) of the participants of this site are not alums.
The beauty and challenge for Rutgers is we now have real traditions and an identity as a football program based on values that are both unique to NJ and also have a more broad appeal of what the “State of Rutgers” represents.
We have the 3 very strong LBs redshirting this year and the 2025 class- our best ever- has 3 more LBs, including 2 more 4*. The experience Walker (for example) is getting this year is invaluable, but the depth of talent is what will produce excellence, not simply the return of our best player- who may well not be the same player given his injuries.
We have four games left and I consider them all winnable games against teams that run offenses that are better matches for our scheme than UCLA and USC. If we split or win 3 of 4, most will consider that a very successful season and the program is in great shape.
