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Longa quietly had a phenomenal year

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RU23

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Finished 1st in the B1G and 4th in the country in solo tackles per game, and 2nd in the B1G and 8th in the country in total tackles per game. Can see why he declared for the draft but it leaves me absolutely petrified of what our LB unit will look like next year...Three new starters spells nothing but trouble, and bad LB's means a bad defense, period. Ash certainly has his work cut out for him.

Back to Longa I hope he goes high, of course, and I hope he adjusts better to the league than Khas did. Found this video on some of his highlights from this year. Not the best highlight video but it's something.
 
I hope he doesn't hire an agent and he decides to come back . Could care less what anyone does in the NFL, we need them to win games for Rutgers
 
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The RU defense is designed to funnel the LB position played by Longa and Greene to the ball carrier or vice versa. They still had to make the play, and Longa and Greene are good tacklers. Greene just got picked up again I think. Good luck to Steve Longa, who along w Darius Hamilton , committed to RU on MSG Varsity tv/online show 5 years ago. Great night.
 
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Imo Longa didn't have a great year. He is not great at shedding blocks, he gets faked out too often on misdirection and play action, he is a bad pass defender, and most of his tackles were downfield. He was the best tackler for us over the past few years by far though.
 
Longa was great, but take a look at Greene stats his junior and senior year. Double digit tackles for losses at a lot of forced turnovers. Greene did play in the Big East as opposed to Longa in the B1G. I think Gause is more NFL ready. I wish him the best and hope he gets drafted
 
Plum Street said:
He would have been good in an ash Defense
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I agree and that is why he is making a huge mistake going to NFL. Kaseem Greene was a much better collegiate player. I cannot remember Longa ever stripping a ball carrier like Greene did daily or can't remember if he ever had an interception at RU
 
mugrat86 said:
I agree and that is why he is making a huge mistake going to NFL. Kaseem Greene was a much better collegiate player. I cannot remember Longa ever stripping a ball carrier like Greene did daily or can't remember if he ever had an interception at RU
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who are we to judge whether he is making a mistake. the kids wants to leave. you can't make him want to stay. he was productive for three consecutive years, so a guy like him is going to get a shot one way or another. Its up to him to make himself stick. Good Luck Longa.
 
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rutgersal said:
who are we to judge whether he is making a mistake. the kids wants to leave. you can't make him want to stay. he was productive for three consecutive years, so a guy like him is going to get a shot one way or another. Its up to him to make himself stick. Good Luck Longa.
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Of course I wish him all the best as I would any favorite son, however the board is for conjecture Al, and it is my opinion that he has some learning to do as Rossi was a friend to nobody on that defense. I feel like Ash could teach him a lot
 
Abro1975 said:
The RU defense is designed to funnel the LB position played by Longa and Greene to the ball carrier or vice versa. They still had to make the play, and Longa and Greene are good tacklers. Greene just got picked up again I think. Good luck to Steve Longa, who along w Darius Hamilton , committed to RU on MSG Varsity tv/online show 5 years ago. Great night.
Click to expand...
I don't recall Hamilton and Longa committing on the same night on MSG. My recollection is Longa was on the earlier side of our commits that year and Hamilton was the crown jewel at the end (plus Flood added that corner at the very end who showed promise but ultimately ended up bailing).

In any event Longa absolutely terrorized that league for Saddle Brook. Man against boys for the most part. Best of luck to him and hope he comes back to visit often.
 
we use the word phenomenal very differently...

I like Steve...maybe on coaching, maybe on him...nothing
special this year....spent far too much time watching him
get beat in passing game or not being totally sound against
the run..far too much...

he's a good kid...met his dad and he said some very damning things
about the kids who got booted/arrested and how they were poisoning the guys
who wanted to go to class and do it right...may have impacted his play some

hope he finds a fit in NFL but certainly not a given...
 
Longa is the best pure tackler I have seen in years at RU. Greene was a great playmaker. The schemes were different and we played a much tougher schedule. I think he's built for the NFL. I wish him all the best.
 
I was at the Vitamin Shoppe in E Brunswick two years ago, Longa walks in, a real gentleman, was fun to chat with. I wish him success.
 
Zombo NJ said:
we use the word phenomenal very differently...

I like Steve...maybe on coaching, maybe on him...nothing
special this year....spent far too much time watching him
get beat in passing game or not being totally sound against
the run..far too much...

he's a good kid...met his dad and he said some very damning things
about the kids who got booted/arrested and how they were poisoning the guys
who wanted to go to class and do it right...may have impacted his play some

hope he finds a fit in NFL but certainly not a given...
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Nothing special? Your concerns about his pass defense I hear, but "not being totally sound against the run far too much"??? I find that hard to believe about the leading solo tackler in the Big Ten.
 
RU23 said:
Nothing special? Your concerns about his pass defense I hear, but "not being totally sound against the run far too much"??? I find that hard to believe about the leading solo tackler in the Big Ten.
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you are welcome to your own opinion...watching the RU run D get gashed over and over
and many times seeing SL not making the play or getting sealed was very frustrating since
early in his career I saw a budding star...coaching certainly didn't help and the poor D
line didn't either...

I don't live strictly by numbers...we rooted hard for Steve but I didn't see anything phenomenal..
he had some good games and some not as good...but I will strongly hope for him to make some $
from this very tough sport...
 
RUckusbuck said:
Does that really matter here? They were both really good tacklers. Longa is more of a pure LB, Greene was a converted Safety.
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Greene was a much better all around player then Longa. They both are short and on the smaller weight side, and Greene is having trouble keeping a job.
 
Greene was so much better than Longa. No player was more frustrating to watch for me. He was most effective blitzing but the staff very seldom blitzed him in games. Many times i would key on him from the stands only to see him wait for the play down field.He to me is the easiest to replace.
 
I thought Longa made all of the plays but didn't make a lot of difference-maker plays. Good tackler - reliable. Maybe like a poor man's David Harris on Jets.
 
I can remember many times when Longa blitzed and had a free go at the qb he was juked outor bounced off the qb
 
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