Football INSTANT REACTION: Rutgers defeats Miami 31-24 in Pinstripe Bowl
- Thread starter Richie O
- Start date
YesRU,
Question: I know your son was a great player at RU and then played pro, any thoughts on why the 2007 team didn’t outdo the accomplishments of the 2006 team?
Really felt like the 2007 team should have won the conference and played New Years Day bowl game. RU was loaded and experienced. Always felt if RU in 2007 won the conference, the BIG invite would have come shortly thereafter.
GO RU
Just piggybacking off a point you made…. Not enough mention of the special teams this year. It made TREMENDOUS improvement since last year (outside of us actually returning kicks).
Field Goals - Better
Punting - Not as good (but on par with average in B1G IMO)
Blocking Kicks - Better
Punt/Kick Coverage - Better
If I recall… Outside of punting we really weren’t great with the special teams play and the year prior terrible in many ways.
I'm not @yesrutgers01 but there were key graduation losses from the '06 defense at DT (Meekins) and LB, along with general depth/2-deep guys, that really affected us in '07 (especially the Maryland, Cincy and UL losses).
Joe P.
I agree. Depth and size on defensive front were an issue but even with the offensive numbers RU put up we underachieved. There was great offensive talent on that team which was good enough to win the conference that year.
GO RU
A number of things. And if 2006 didn’t happen, it may have been more of the normal trajectory of the program. 06- everything was the positive storm. Very few injuries- an insane OL that just jelled- and the defense was undersized but overwhelming.
07- we did lose some key players and the offense kept churning- my personal feel about the RZ offense is that it was Britt/Rice and nothing else. We became easy to defend when it was just the 2 of them but…their 30ish TD’s still say it was pretty damn good.
07- injury and depth just killed the defense. And if correct, that was the Ito punting year- we just put the D in a bad place all year.
Anyone can stand there and hand it off to KM and SB. Hell you could do it for us. The question is when every team stacks the box w 9/10 ppl. Which in itself is a huge indictment of GW play, can he actually help the team at all?
Sadly being last in completion percentage 2 years in a row says he is not. It’s ok, we can love him and support him and still see him for what he is . GW ty but time to move on.
You were correct about one thing in the post… even I could hand off at QB l. I actually could toss a football 55 yards ( no wobblers😜) . I played DE and LBer…also a few games at center . Dislocated my right shoulder junior year … no surgery but back then it was over. Still was able to play baseball my first love.
All I ever wanted to do was play for Rutgers baseball . Sometime life throws you a hard slider. Turned out well in life. Taught me how to attack adversity.
The Paul Mulcahy situation teaches us that the portal needs to be navigated with care. But no matter what you think of Gavin - I don’t see how anyone can disagree that adding a QB with prior FBS or high FCS experience to the roster must be a priority. We’re losing 2 of those (Evan and Johnny). We cannot go into next season without a second option who has taken a meaningful snap. The question isn’t even about should we add another scholarship QB, it’s about how much we spend and will that guy compete with Gavin to be the starter? We will not have only a frosh backing him up. Schiano is risk averse. There’s no way.
Happy New Year.
Eleven Bad Boy takes:
My brother in law and sister took us to the game and we had a great time. OK seats on the goal line on the Miami side for half the plays. Weather was fine and ducked into the Toyota club to warm up with a $23 vodka.
Good game and great season when Vegas has us at 4 wins.
Eleven Bad Boy takes:
- Freshmen matter---Fuse jacks up the receiver on the first Rutgers kickoff;
- A. Wright interception;
- Strong and Toure with key catches
- Fifth year seniors matter---Curtis Dunlap with the 2Q fumble recovery
- DJ with a great game on D
- Special teams matter---Yeboah-Kodie to Timmy Ward TD
- Jude Mac buried all the kickoffs
- Don Bosco Prep matters---Monangai and Dremel
- Vets matter: Flip Dixon hit Fletcher in the backfield, and Wes Bailey cleaned up the short gain
- Mo Toure had a TFL setting up the Wright INT on the next play and a tone setter sack on the first Miami drive
- O line did a great job all game and GW didn't make any B1G mistakes
My brother in law and sister took us to the game and we had a great time. OK seats on the goal line on the Miami side for half the plays. Weather was fine and ducked into the Toyota club to warm up with a $23 vodka.
Good game and great season when Vegas has us at 4 wins.
