Phall
Master
Since 2005, Rutgers has started 6, 5, 8, 9, 11, 8, 4, 5, 4, 8, 6, 6, 3, 5, 5, 4, and 5 white athletes. In 2022, they project to start 4 (although with a couple of position flips could quickly drop to 2).
Coach Greg Schiano begins the third season of his second stint with Rutgers. He has raised them out of the Big Ten basement but still has a long way to go before catching any of the big fish in the division. Despite not qualifying for a bowl game since 2014, Rutgers snuck into last season’s Gator Bowl with a 5-7 record thanks to a covid cancellation. They booked a respectable season opener on the road against Boston College, which may set the tone for the whole season. With five “unwinnable” games built into their schedule (home against Iowa, Michigan, and Penn State, and away at Ohio State and Michigan State), the Scarlet Knights will have to hold serve throughout the year just to make it back to a bowl game.
Quarterback Noah Vedral has led a pretty charmed life so far, having seen game action for UCF and Nebraska as an underclassman. This will be his third year as the Rutgers starter. Vedral has averaged shy of 180 total yards per game in his 20 starts with the Scarlet Knights, placing him in the bottom tier of conference quarterbacks. Backup Evan Simon has been bumped on the depth chart by a younger black quarterback (Wimsatt). If Rutgers’ season goes south early, expect the black quarterback era in New Brunswick to begin in earnest.
"Tight end" Johnny Langan is the most interesting player on the field and will be the primary reason to check the box score. A starting quarterback in 2019, he’s been too good to keep on the bench after losing his place. Last year, Langan had 34 rushing attempts (3 td’s), 18 receptions, and threw nine passes out of special packages. Backup sophomore Victor Konopka is a big red zone target at 6’7 with in-game experience.
Rutgers projects to start two white lineman but has a fair number of backups that should reclaim this position group over the next few years. True freshman Jacob Allen was the top high school prospect in New Jersey in the 2022 class and a consensus four-star recruit.
Senior running back Parker Day is merely a special teams demon. Christian Dremel is the third-string slot receiver with just nine career catches in three seasons.
Safety Joe Lusardi is an intriguing third-year sophomore who has ascended past purely special teams duties into the late backfield rotation. He’ll hopefully continue to see his role grow and could be a starter by 2023/24. Lusardi is the only non-black DB on the roster. At linebacker, Austin Dean and Andrew Vince will both see rotational snaps. However, playing time will be scarce in their base 4-2-5 formation.
Despite its historical futility, Rutgers is in a fine spot for recruiting. They are the biggest program in the greater NYC area, and their recruiting footprint extends to Long Island and southeastern Pennsylvania. These areas are full of white high school talent, but Schiano seems to funnel that talent into his walk-on pool. The roster composition suggests a small uptick in white players in the coming years, but the looming black quarterback could also turn the team into just another Miami-style thug party with colder weather. Schiano isn’t doing anything in particular to shed his forum nicknames.
Starters:
QB: Noah Vedral
TE: Johnny Langan
OL: J.D. DiRenzo, Gus Zilinskas
Backups to watch:
QB: Evan Simon
RB: Parker Day
TE: Victor Konopka, Matt Alaimo, Connor Hebbeler
WR: Christian Dremel
OL: Mike Ciaffoni, Tyler Needham, Bryan Felter, Jacob Allen, Matt Rosso, Joe De Croce, Brad Harris Jr., Nick Ciaffoni
LB: Andrew Vince, Austin Dean
S: Joe Lusardi
Coach Greg Schiano begins the third season of his second stint with Rutgers. He has raised them out of the Big Ten basement but still has a long way to go before catching any of the big fish in the division. Despite not qualifying for a bowl game since 2014, Rutgers snuck into last season’s Gator Bowl with a 5-7 record thanks to a covid cancellation. They booked a respectable season opener on the road against Boston College, which may set the tone for the whole season. With five “unwinnable” games built into their schedule (home against Iowa, Michigan, and Penn State, and away at Ohio State and Michigan State), the Scarlet Knights will have to hold serve throughout the year just to make it back to a bowl game.
Quarterback Noah Vedral has led a pretty charmed life so far, having seen game action for UCF and Nebraska as an underclassman. This will be his third year as the Rutgers starter. Vedral has averaged shy of 180 total yards per game in his 20 starts with the Scarlet Knights, placing him in the bottom tier of conference quarterbacks. Backup Evan Simon has been bumped on the depth chart by a younger black quarterback (Wimsatt). If Rutgers’ season goes south early, expect the black quarterback era in New Brunswick to begin in earnest.
"Tight end" Johnny Langan is the most interesting player on the field and will be the primary reason to check the box score. A starting quarterback in 2019, he’s been too good to keep on the bench after losing his place. Last year, Langan had 34 rushing attempts (3 td’s), 18 receptions, and threw nine passes out of special packages. Backup sophomore Victor Konopka is a big red zone target at 6’7 with in-game experience.
Rutgers projects to start two white lineman but has a fair number of backups that should reclaim this position group over the next few years. True freshman Jacob Allen was the top high school prospect in New Jersey in the 2022 class and a consensus four-star recruit.
Senior running back Parker Day is merely a special teams demon. Christian Dremel is the third-string slot receiver with just nine career catches in three seasons.
Safety Joe Lusardi is an intriguing third-year sophomore who has ascended past purely special teams duties into the late backfield rotation. He’ll hopefully continue to see his role grow and could be a starter by 2023/24. Lusardi is the only non-black DB on the roster. At linebacker, Austin Dean and Andrew Vince will both see rotational snaps. However, playing time will be scarce in their base 4-2-5 formation.
Despite its historical futility, Rutgers is in a fine spot for recruiting. They are the biggest program in the greater NYC area, and their recruiting footprint extends to Long Island and southeastern Pennsylvania. These areas are full of white high school talent, but Schiano seems to funnel that talent into his walk-on pool. The roster composition suggests a small uptick in white players in the coming years, but the looming black quarterback could also turn the team into just another Miami-style thug party with colder weather. Schiano isn’t doing anything in particular to shed his forum nicknames.
Starters:
QB: Noah Vedral
TE: Johnny Langan
OL: J.D. DiRenzo, Gus Zilinskas
Backups to watch:
QB: Evan Simon
RB: Parker Day
TE: Victor Konopka, Matt Alaimo, Connor Hebbeler
WR: Christian Dremel
OL: Mike Ciaffoni, Tyler Needham, Bryan Felter, Jacob Allen, Matt Rosso, Joe De Croce, Brad Harris Jr., Nick Ciaffoni
LB: Andrew Vince, Austin Dean
S: Joe Lusardi