The collapse has started earlier this season vs. last year

[RU#1fan]

The injuries to our Starters and key players has unfortunately magnified much earlier this year vs. last season.
The 4 game losing streak last season was forgotten after great Bowl victory.
The last 2 games the Team looks totally unorganized and the play calling is mind boggling. Kirk seriously? AK is not the answer. Greg has no clue and his game day Coaching continues to be laughable. Add to this to the loss of many starters and a winning season looks doubtful after today. Getting to 6 wins and a Motor City Bowl even looks like a stretch right now.

 

[RUfromNJ]

Last year’s “collapse” came against a murderer’s row of defenses in succession. These last 2 games should have been competitive (last week technically was). While I’m disgusted with every single aspect of today, I’m not ready to mail this season in yet. More than anything, I’m interested in the injury status of all these guys. I fear we’ve seen Brown for the last time this year. Everyone in this program needs a good long look in the mirror. Are they the tough, physical, resilient bunch we expected? Or the bumbling, soft chickenshit operation we saw today? UCLA coming in next week. We’ll know.

 

[RU#1fan]

Yes .. coming into Game 6 with 3 Starters out on Defense ( Mo, Powell, and Longerbeam) and losing Dixon during the game is a huge blow…even we are not playing murder’s row. Now with Felter out for the year and possibly Brown the Offense is in trouble. AK looks nothing like a B1G ready QB as well ( he has been staring down on One WR since the Howard game… Defenses know this. }

 

[rucoe89]

This year's collapse started the second half against VT. Many responded with the Baghdad Bob narrative of "Nothing to worry about. There is nothing to see here. All is well. Just a few minor tweaks."

The excuse now will be "injuries." Clearly an impact. More telling, unfortunately, is our development side is not quick enough so we have zero depth. Worse, our key players continue to go down. Don't think 6 wins won't be a stretch. It absolutely will be.

 

[Knight Shift]

 

[RUGuitarMan]

Part of the issue is elevated expectations based on some national pundits and overly optimistic fans suggesting RU could be a 9 or 10 win team and dark horse playoff contender. Last year this was a mediocre team of 6-6 which played some very good teams tough and faded down the stretch (for whatever reasons, injuries, etc). They beat a “name” bowl opponent … which had a lot of players opting out. A good win but not program changing. Yes, many returning players, but again, from a mediocre team. There is a reason the Vegas O/U on wins was 6.5 coming into the season. I thought 8-4 would be a great year.

 

[rutgersal]

Part of the issue is elevated expectations based on some national pundits and overly optimistic fans suggesting RU could be a 9 or 10 win team and dark horse playoff contender. Last year this was a mediocre team of 6-6 which played some very good teams tough and faded down the stretch (for whatever reasons, injuries, etc). They beat a “name” bowl opponent … which had a lot of players opting out. A good win but not program changing. Yes, many returning players, but again, from a mediocre team. There is a reason the Vegas O/U on wins was 6.5 coming into the season. I thought 8-4 would be a great year.

yes, last year was mediocre, but this year we really had a chance to do something special, as long as we stayed healthy. We beat Miami in the bowl game. Miami went out and got a $2M QB, and now they're undefeated. We got the best transfers we could. The number of injuries we've suffered is catostrophic.

 

[Knight Shift]

Part of the issue is elevated expectations based on some national pundits and overly optimistic fans suggesting RU could be a 9 or 10 win team and dark horse playoff contender. Last year this was a mediocre team of 6-6 which played some very good teams tough and faded down the stretch (for whatever reasons, injuries, etc). They beat a “name” bowl opponent … which had a lot of players opting out. A good win but not program changing. Yes, many returning players, but again, from a mediocre team. There is a reason the Vegas O/U on wins was 6.5 coming into the season. I thought 8-4 would be a great year.

As usual, you nail it down very succinctly.
8-4 looking very tough now, but would still be great.
7-5 would be a decent accomplishment in view of the current situation.

 

[NewJerseyGuy]

Look, it’s often difficult to be a Rutgers Football fan.

This year is no different.

 

[beaced]

The injuries to our Starters and key players has unfortunately magnified much earlier this year vs. last season.
The 4 game losing streak last season was forgotten after great Bowl victory.
The last 2 games the Team looks totally unorganized and the play calling is mind boggling. Kirk seriously? AK is not the answer. Greg has no clue and his game day Coaching continues to be laughable. Add to this to the loss of many starters and a winning season looks doubtful after today. Getting to 6 wins and a Motor City Bowl even looks like a stretch right now.

With all of the injuries to first stringers and little quality depth, RU is in trouble .I can't afford losing seasons as I am running out of Time.The younger pi members of this site will need to take over the misery for me

 

[ashokan]

Part of the issue is elevated expectations based on some national pundits and overly optimistic fans suggesting RU could be a 9 or 10 win team and dark horse playoff contender. Last year this was a mediocre team of 6-6 which played some very good teams tough and faded down the stretch (for whatever reasons, injuries, etc). They beat a “name” bowl opponent … which had a lot of players opting out. A good win but not program changing. Yes, many returning players, but again, from a mediocre team. There is a reason the Vegas O/U on wins was 6.5 coming into the season. I thought 8-4 would be a great year.

All the fragrant bouquets being thrown at RU during the summer were a warning to me.
RU usually goes slack when a lot of back-slapping starts happening.
Schiano seemed to be trying to dial the praise back a bit at one point.

 

[RU#1fan]

This year's collapse started the second half against VT. Many responded with the Baghdad Bob narrative of "Nothing to worry about. There is nothing to see here. All is well. Just a few minor tweaks."

The excuse now will be "injuries." Clearly an impact. More telling, unfortunately, is our development side is not quick enough so we have zero depth. Worse, our key players continue to go down. Don't think 6 wins won't be a stretch. It absolutely will be.

The total lack of depth is astounding. The drop off from the 1st team to 2nd string is like comparing B1G level to a mid level FCS program. Where the he## is the player development???? The highly touted Greg Schiano recruiting classes from ‘22, ‘23, ‘24 ????????

 

[RUforester72]

The total lack of depth is astounding. The drop off from the 1st team to 2nd string is like comparing B1G level to a mid level FCS program. Where the he## is the player development???? The highly touted Greg Schiano recruiting classes from ‘22, ‘23, ‘24 ????????

We shall see on Saturday.

 

[RU#1fan]

We shall see on Saturday.

Are you still unsure ?
We just made the worst QB in the B1G look like Tom Brady. 84 % completion rate.
Coming into the game the UCLA QB had 9 interceptions and 4 TD’s.
Our defense sucks. We are done for 2024.
Our depth is atrocious. Next season will be worst.

 

[beaced]

All the fragrant bouquets being thrown at RU during the summer were a warning to me.
RU usually goes slack when a lot of back-slapping starts happening.
Schiano seemed to be trying to dial the praise back a bit at one point.

It is sad to realize that RU cannot sustain winning habits. We would all like things to be better. But as in life itself there are leaders and there are followers. RU was destined to be the back end of a FB program.

 

[newwavedave1]

Welcome to Rutgers Football. Same old thing year after year.

 

[rufeelinit]

I thought with the benefit of hindsight, the Washington game took a lot of this team. While the Nebraska game was not alarming and could have been a W, I thought Washington was extremely physical and really mauled RU. Had they not shot themselves in the foot over and over that would have been an L and no one could have complained about it. Not sure they ever really recovered despite winning the game.

The lack of depth is alarming for a developmental program and the HC needs to take the hit for that in Year 5. It won't matter much, since given the financial commitment, he is here for a minimum of 2-3 more years, unless he doesn't want to be. It's not just the blue bloods with big donors who make poor decisons on premature coach extensions. He will can an assistant or two and struggle to find someone who wants to work for him. Look how long it took him to replace Gleason with Kirk C. Another overpay. Kirk was going to make sure his bag was full before coming here again. This board could be ghost town in another couple of weeks.

 

[beaced]

The injuries to our Starters and key players has unfortunately magnified much earlier this year vs. last season.
The 4 game losing streak last season was forgotten after great Bowl victory.
The last 2 games the Team looks totally unorganized and the play calling is mind boggling. Kirk seriously? AK is not the answer. Greg has no clue and his game day Coaching continues to be laughable. Add to this to the loss of many starters and a winning season looks doubtful after today. Getting to 6 wins and a Motor City Bowl even looks like a stretch right now.

Sad but very true.Hard to see us winning many if any more games hard to fathom why RU can't. Won't doesn't produce decent teams on an ongoing basis. We are the in the highest Division of any other team in NJ and still can't attract the talent to have good teams each season. It has always been that way with just a few exceptions.Our. BOG needs to have a consultation sit down with a group of nationally well known FB experts to,once And for all get a plan of action going that will change the never ending pattern of producing a poor FB program. In a school of this stature.

 

[beaced]

Sad but very true.Hard to see us winning many if any more games hard to fathom why RU can't. Won't doesn't produce decent teams on an ongoing basis. We are the in the highest Division of any other team in NJ and still can't attract the talent to have good teams each season. It has always been that way with just a few exceptions.Our. BOG needs to have a consultation sit down with a group of nationally well known FB experts to,once And for all get a plan of action going that will change the never ending pattern of producing a poor FB program. In a school of this stature.

I would like to add. GO. RU make. Gopher Stew