he is who he is. You don't change as a coach in your mid-50's.
Football INSTANT REACTION: Rutgers falls to Maryland 42-24 in regular-season finale
- Thread starter Richie O
- Start date
As bad as the Gavin played, he is NOT the reason we lost this game. This defense was horrific outside of two turnovers. How about a 50 yard TD by them with nobody in the same zip code.
Schiano has a LOT of work in the offseason portal
OL, especially RT
QB
TE
WR
we probably have the least amount of offensive talent in the conference.
Schiano has a LOT of work in the offseason portal
OL, especially RT
QB
TE
WR
we probably have the least amount of offensive talent in the conference.
We are actually worse than two years ago when we backed into the Covid bowl. Let’s replay our schedule now, and it’s probably around 4-8. Not even remotely competitive in the last 4, and two of them should have been very competitive.
You guys really have to put the Schiano ball stuff on hold. That may well be true and your welcome to return in full force at a different point in time if ever we don’t have the least accurate passing QB in FBS. Right now our best offensive player by far is Kyle. We run on 3rd and 7 because unfortunately that gives us the best chance possible to get the first down yardage. With the ball in Gavin’s hands, every OC in the world would look to run the ball. Our QB completed 38% of 34 throws today and he was lucky it was that high. A lot of things went wrong today but uncalled for conservative play is not on the list. The less throw attempts GW has the better.
I think when the game is over with a few minutes left to play you might as well throw the ball.
Our offense and specifically, the QB play, over the last month has made things feel worse than they actually were. OSU was fairly competitive. That was not a 19-point game. And as disgusting as that Iowa game was, it was 6-0 to start the 4th. Today was just a shitshow from the jump. But we are NOT worse than we were two years ago. Like it or not, a true bowl berth is good for this program. Dozens of teams across the country could play that same “replay the schedule” game in late November and wouldn’t like what they see, but nobody is giving back wins. I’d hope that the fans who now discount the Northwestern and VT wins as fortunate at least acknowledge that we were unfortunate to play Wisconsin when we did.
Look - before considering this, it should be accknowledged that the version of the 2021 team that had Sutton and a healthy O’Neal lost 20-13 at Michigan and was on track to have a solid season. That 2021 team was horrendous in their last 4 games too by the way - injuries took a toll just as they did this year. That said, it’s impossible to know what Pacheco would’ve looked like that season with a competent OL like the one we had this season. Could’ve had a special year like Kyle.
We certainly have more OL depth overall this season than we did in 2021. Honestly though, this speaks more to how bad Gavin’s been than anything else. Healthy Noah was a much better option than Gavin. He threw a 60% completion rate on a team that gave him awful protection most of that season. But so what? Most of Ash’s QBs would’ve been more reliable than Gavin too with our OL. Don’t forget how bad our OLs were for kids like Art. This factor is being overlooked by our fans who defend Gavin. He’s mostly had plenty of time to make throws and still isn’t completing 50%. And not only that - the ones he’s missing are simple passes and some of the completions in the backfield should’ve gone for big yardage but didn’t because of how poorly the ball was thrown. Just dreadful.
Outside of today, we were also much better on D this season than 2 years ago. Consistently so even against the elite teams. It seemed like the injuries really took a toll today. Loyal and some others looked to be playing through a lot of pain.
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We threw plenty - 34 times. It wasn’t about playing Schiano ball it was about sticking with a QB that can’t throw. Gavin was lucky to have 13 completions. At least 3-4 acrobatic catches by the wide outs and Kyle. It’s one thing if you wanted to see a change at QB. I for one did, but understand that at this point the staff is riding out the year with Gavin. It is what it is but our plan better not be to stick with him next year.
The thing is, Schiano would do the safe thing under different circumstances. I've seen it. It's how he operates. He's just not a great coach. I'm not sure why we have fans so utterly attached to him.
I mean - you may not like Schiano but there’s no debating how much better we are now than when Ash was fired. Some fans appreciate that. Others seem to think pretty much anyone besides Ash Could come in and get us to 500 or better pretty easily. You obviously fall in the latter bracket, but there’s nothing to be unsure about in terms of why some fans support Schiano. It’s clearly the first view.
In terms of play calling, past history in Schiano 1.0 really has no bearing on this discussion. For today’s game, the concept of Schiano ball doesn’t exist because our QB can’t throw. Putting the ball in Kyle’s hand wasn’t a conservative decision, it was our only option. Gavin couldn’t complete a pass. We tried 34 times. Every time he threw an incompletion, the loss of downs put us one step closer to giving Maryland another chance to score.
I'm watching the other team I follow, Cal, and they too have a pretty bad O, but at least their freshman QB and players have been showing progress as the season has gone on. And yes, they played their version of Ohio / Michigan in Washington / Oregon. They got wiped by those team, but after both games regrouped, showed fight, and made improvements.
Actually I'm amazed that some don't seem to appreciate the impact GS has had on the Rutgers football program.
It’s a different situation entirely. Greg doubled down on Gavin. We were always going to ride him out for better or worse this season. For the most part, our other position groups have shown progress. The big question mark is next year’s QB room. Do we bring someone in or does Gavin get another year to prove himself? At this point I feel like I’ve seen enough and would welcome a change.
That is fair. Almost the opposite of Greg 1.0 when he would flip flop QBs. Hopefully he learned you can't just hand the keys to the Offense to a player and lock in. Has to be competition.
No way. If that’s truly the plan, Greg really should be on the hot seat next year even with going 6-6 this season. Sticking with only Gavin, Evan and a bunch of frosh seems like a bad decision based on this year.
When Al said this season was a “free” year, many of you attacked him. But the context of that view was that Gavin would have to be the QB for better or worse and so this year would be about whether or not he could be at least a reliable game manager. Not everyone agrees with this take, but there would’ve been consequences on the recruiting end of Gavin was tossed aside without lots of hand holding after we convinced him to give up his senior year. That was Greg’s decision so he owns it - but sticking with Gavin this season does make sense from this perspective.
Not next year though. The kid has had a season and a half to develop as “the guy” and hasn’t. This year he’s had a pretty good OL to work with. I know we’re 6-6 but that’s mostly because of Kyle and the OL. Not him. It’d be pretty easy to get an upgrade even with NIL concerns because now that we have an OL we’d be much better off even with a guy with more limited distance arm power but a reliable short game (like Laviano, Rescigno, Sit, etc.). I hate to say it - but pretty much anyone. Gavin ranks dead last.
Noone’s transferring here or anywhere for a QB competition, even if it’s real (which this year’s was not).
Correct to an extent. If we bring someone in from the portal they’d have to come in as the front runner. Like when we brought Vedral in. Gavin would have a decision to make. Stick around, work hard to compete to earn the starting job back with a stellar performance in camp, or move on. I don’t think there’s anywhere at the FBS level he could transfer to though and reasonably expect to come in as the starter. Would probably have to move down a level.
And let's review Cal's QB. Third string scout team QB. 2 Star. His only 2 offers besides Cal were Ivies. 63% completion, 11 TD 5 INT over 6 starts.
Cal is a developmental program like Rutgers. They smacked a Chip Kelly coached team 33-7 because they had a functional passing game. It's year 4 and RU does not have a remote semblance of a functional passing game. We could not get a P5 receiver to transfer in, and we had to go down to D2.
And while I'm ranting, our special teams is horrific. Maybe our head coach should put a coach on that unit. It's OK to return a punt of a kick once in a while. And our punter needs a lot of work.
I don’t know that it’s fair to blame the receiver room. There have been too many throws that would’ve gone for big plays if executed properly. I’m not talking about the need for dazzling throws into traffic. Simple laterals where there was nothing but grass in front of the receiver. Or Gavin flat out not seeing someone wide open in space. These missed opportunities did not require stand out arm talent. The QB’s we had under Ash could’ve executed them with our current OL.
I’m just saying I don’t think another P5 receiver transfer would’ve made a difference. The staff gets a B grade or better in development of pretty much all position groups outside of QB except maybe tight end - but even there, I’m not sure it was Langhan’s fault as much as Gavin not being able to make those types of throws and he was used successfully this season for blocking.
Usually QBs are unfairly blamed for lack of success but in this case, the writing is clear as day.
I'd give the special teams coaching a D. An F for returner and the punter gets a C minus at best.
I wasn’t really thinking of special teams. If we want to prioritize that it’s an area that can be revamped year over year. I’m saying we’ve made substantial progress in the areas that are very difficult (especially in the NIl era) to improve on quickly - most notably depth in the trenches.
But that was offset by having the worst QB in FBS.
i thought GW played his best game against PSU but this was his worst game. He was rushing his throws. The OL did enough to give him time to go through his progressions. Also, his inaccurate short passes really showed today. Will not pinned the loss on him as the D just fell apart. Need a big step up next year. On a positive note, tailgate was great.
Counterpoints; 1. said front runner would need guaranteed big NIL bucks which surely is committed to GW, and 2. with 4 contract years left at a school that can’t afford to fire him, an AD who essentially just said GS will never be fired (an exaggeration, but still), does the HC have any reason to change QBs ?
This again was not a Jimmy and joes loss. This was an x and o’s loss. I know we had injuries to critical players. Even with our injured players the rosters are very similar. This was a preparation and scheme loss.
We had to know this was going to be a pass heavy offense especially early. And we still sat in a base d until we were down 3 scores. We allowed their wideouts to cross our face and run free across the middle.
Kirk has done an awful job mixing up the offense. When you run 3 plays out of 2-3 sets. It’s pretty easy to decipher where the play is going to go. He needs to be more creative. I am not advocating for throwing more or less I am advocating for being less predictable. This was the 12th game of the season and there was no growth in play calling or expansion of play book.
We had to know this was going to be a pass heavy offense especially early. And we still sat in a base d until we were down 3 scores. We allowed their wideouts to cross our face and run free across the middle.
Kirk has done an awful job mixing up the offense. When you run 3 plays out of 2-3 sets. It’s pretty easy to decipher where the play is going to go. He needs to be more creative. I am not advocating for throwing more or less I am advocating for being less predictable. This was the 12th game of the season and there was no growth in play calling or expansion of play book.
Not debating he is a special talent but if you can get to him early he is easily rattled.
Their overall roster is very similar to ours and played below their talent level most of the season.
And what does that have to do about this year? Did you read the second sentence of my post. They played below their talent level most of the season. Vegas did not think there was a 2-3 touchdown discrepancy in talent. They had it as a pick’em.
We hit the perfect storm. We came out flat on d and our scheme was pathetic. We were predictable as usual on o. And Maryland came out and tried to win the off season recruiting war. And they did. Maryland players and coaches took this game personally. Rutgers did not.
Come on. So Northwestern a team we blew out had better talent than Maryland? No they underperformed in spots throughout the season.
I’d give the defense an F minus for letting UM get 4 TDS in their first 4 drives.
We couldn’t stop a pillow fight first 4 drives
And I'm amazed that people can't see that he's probably already at his ceiling.
