First, let's table set a bit. Here's a list of starters who should be returning and our schedule for next year...
So here's a couple obvious changes going into next year:
1) Rutgers loses a lot of the foundational players of the Schiano 2.0 era:
Kyle Monangai
Hollin Pierce
Aaron Lewis
Kyonte Hamilton
Tyreem Powell
Robert Longerbeam
Eric Rogers
Flip Dixon
Shaquon Loyal
Each one of these guys will be hard to replace
2) Rutgers schedule in 2025 is tougher than in 2024:
Rutgers will be facing 3 CFP teams from the previous year, so the top end will be a lot harder. Rutgers faced just two Big Ten teams that ended the season with a winning record in 2024 (Minnesota and Illinois).
So here's why I think we'll be a better team in 2024:
1) Injury luck will swing back in our favor next year:
We had a bit of a rogue wave this year in terms of injuries, and that will regress back to the mean next year. In fairness, we had about as much luck for us injury wise in 2023 that we had against us in 2024.
2) We've finally figured out how to run a modern offense:
We saw this in shades over parts of the season, but after that second bye of the season we really saw some serious development from our offense. Over our first 5 B1G games this year, we scored 87 points (17.4 ppg) and after our November bye we scored 129 pts (32.3 ppg) over the final 4 B1G games.
Athan looked significantly more comfortable, our receivers (primarily Duff and Strong) made huge strides and our OL was able to overcome some early season struggles to protect the QB and open holes up in the running game. With Athan returning, 4/5ths of our OL returning and Strong/Duff/Fletcher returning in the passing game, I think this offense will take another step forward in 2025. Offense is the name of the game in today's football and we finally have one that can stand amongst the crowd that it couldn't from 2020-2023.
3) We will be a more attractive destination for portal than ever before:
Rutgers is now an established, middle of the pack Big Ten team. Our coaching staff is well paid, stable and filled with veteran coaches. So Rutgers has an established brand and will be attractive for prospective players who want to win. But the biggest positive in Rutgers' favor this offseason: Revenue Sharing.
This will be the great equalizer for programs on the middle to lower end of P2. The B1G and SEC make significantly more in rev sharing than any other conference, so this gives Rutgers a leg up. NIL will still be a factor, but rev sharing will provide predictability for roster management and Rutgers will no longer have something like 10x less money to spend than an Ohio State. With rev sharing that will only be 2-3x. While rev sharing won't act like a salary cap does in the NFL, it will make it so that all the top players in the portal don't go to the same 10-15 teams anymore. Rutgers will be able to legitimately compete for the guys they really want in the portal.
This is all combined with the fact that the majority of our needs in the portal are defensive players, which Schiano can sell a much deeper history of development and NFL placement than offensive guys.
4) Rutgers will have better depth in 2025 than any time in Schiano's 2.0 era:
I think this will be for 3 primary reasons...
1) Schiano has recruited two very good classes back to back in 2024 and 2025 and many of those who redshirted in 2024 will make waves in the spring/summer (Samarian Robinson, Kevin Levy, DK GIlley, Antonio White), while several players in the 2025 class will see the field in 2025.
2) Schiano will not go into a season as top heavy a roster as he did in 2024 again. I think this season taught him some hard lessons, that you need to have useful depth in the two deep.
3) The aforementioned rev sharing will allow Rutgers to build more depth than it ever has before. Rutgers will be able to compete for players in the portal they previously never could.
Rutgers is in good hands with this staff and very few programs in the country can offer the stability Rutgers can right now. It'll be exciting to see how many players they target in the portal and to see how this team evolves next year.
| Offensive Returning Starters | Defensive Returning Starters | Schedule |
| QB: Athan Kaliakmanis | DE: Wesley Bailey | Home: |
| RB: --- | DT: --- | Ohio |
| WR: Ian Strong | DT --- | Miami (OH) |
| WR: KJ Duff | DE: --- | FCS |
| WR: --- | LB: Mohamed Toure | Iowa |
| TE: Kenny Fletcher | LB: Dariel Djabome | Maryland |
| LT: --- | CB: Bo Mascoe | PSU |
| LG: Bryan Felter | CB: --- | Oregon |
| C: Gus Zilinskas | CB: --- | |
| RG: Kobe Asamoah | FS: Kaj Sanders | Away: |
| RT: Tyler Needham | SS: --- | Illinois |
| K: Jai Patel | P: Jakob Anderson | Minnesota |
| Washington | ||
| Ohio State | ||
| Purdue |
So here's a couple obvious changes going into next year:
1) Rutgers loses a lot of the foundational players of the Schiano 2.0 era:
Kyle Monangai
Hollin Pierce
Aaron Lewis
Kyonte Hamilton
Tyreem Powell
Robert Longerbeam
Eric Rogers
Flip Dixon
Shaquon Loyal
Each one of these guys will be hard to replace
2) Rutgers schedule in 2025 is tougher than in 2024:
Rutgers will be facing 3 CFP teams from the previous year, so the top end will be a lot harder. Rutgers faced just two Big Ten teams that ended the season with a winning record in 2024 (Minnesota and Illinois).
So here's why I think we'll be a better team in 2024:
1) Injury luck will swing back in our favor next year:
We had a bit of a rogue wave this year in terms of injuries, and that will regress back to the mean next year. In fairness, we had about as much luck for us injury wise in 2023 that we had against us in 2024.
2) We've finally figured out how to run a modern offense:
We saw this in shades over parts of the season, but after that second bye of the season we really saw some serious development from our offense. Over our first 5 B1G games this year, we scored 87 points (17.4 ppg) and after our November bye we scored 129 pts (32.3 ppg) over the final 4 B1G games.
Athan looked significantly more comfortable, our receivers (primarily Duff and Strong) made huge strides and our OL was able to overcome some early season struggles to protect the QB and open holes up in the running game. With Athan returning, 4/5ths of our OL returning and Strong/Duff/Fletcher returning in the passing game, I think this offense will take another step forward in 2025. Offense is the name of the game in today's football and we finally have one that can stand amongst the crowd that it couldn't from 2020-2023.
3) We will be a more attractive destination for portal than ever before:
Rutgers is now an established, middle of the pack Big Ten team. Our coaching staff is well paid, stable and filled with veteran coaches. So Rutgers has an established brand and will be attractive for prospective players who want to win. But the biggest positive in Rutgers' favor this offseason: Revenue Sharing.
This will be the great equalizer for programs on the middle to lower end of P2. The B1G and SEC make significantly more in rev sharing than any other conference, so this gives Rutgers a leg up. NIL will still be a factor, but rev sharing will provide predictability for roster management and Rutgers will no longer have something like 10x less money to spend than an Ohio State. With rev sharing that will only be 2-3x. While rev sharing won't act like a salary cap does in the NFL, it will make it so that all the top players in the portal don't go to the same 10-15 teams anymore. Rutgers will be able to legitimately compete for the guys they really want in the portal.
This is all combined with the fact that the majority of our needs in the portal are defensive players, which Schiano can sell a much deeper history of development and NFL placement than offensive guys.
4) Rutgers will have better depth in 2025 than any time in Schiano's 2.0 era:
I think this will be for 3 primary reasons...
1) Schiano has recruited two very good classes back to back in 2024 and 2025 and many of those who redshirted in 2024 will make waves in the spring/summer (Samarian Robinson, Kevin Levy, DK GIlley, Antonio White), while several players in the 2025 class will see the field in 2025.
2) Schiano will not go into a season as top heavy a roster as he did in 2024 again. I think this season taught him some hard lessons, that you need to have useful depth in the two deep.
3) The aforementioned rev sharing will allow Rutgers to build more depth than it ever has before. Rutgers will be able to compete for players in the portal they previously never could.
Rutgers is in good hands with this staff and very few programs in the country can offer the stability Rutgers can right now. It'll be exciting to see how many players they target in the portal and to see how this team evolves next year.
