Rutgers Football: What questions were answered after week 8 vs UCLA

To read last week’s answers to the quiz article, use the link below:

https://www.onthebanks.com/2024/10/15/24269787/rutgers-football-what-questions-were-answered-after-week-7-vs-wisconsin

This is not going to be a 3400+ word post like last week. As much as we may need it, for my madness I DON’T. I talked a lot about coaching and culture last week and that I think that’s all important after the UCLA loss. There seems to be something wrong with the football program right now. We’re all determined to make another bowl game, but my goal for the rest of the season is to figure out what’s wrong with this team. I hope that more information will shed light on the problems facing the group so that they can be identified and hopefully resolved. With all that said, let’s try to answer some questions (deep, deep sigh).

What happened on Saturday?

Rutgers lost to a 1-win UCLA football team that picked up its first Big Ten victory. We should have seen the writing on the wall. OF COURSE Rutgers would be the first conference win for the Bruins. It could also be their best performance of the season. They entered this game without scoring more than 17 points in any game this season. They had 21 in the first half! 35 points total. More than double their previous season! What the F***!!!

Well, the Rutgers offense certainly did its job on Saturday. They scored 32 points (most against a Power 4 team all-time) with 422 total yards. Not a bad performance by any measure. There was a trend at the end of the games where some fans pointed out why we lost (which is just ridiculous). I am innocent. Whose fault is it?

PROTECTION! A real monster, right? Last year the defense was top 40 in the nation in total defense. With so many returning from last years defense, the performance on the field on Saturday was not only unacceptable, it was embarrassing. The defense was without Aaron Lewis and Wesley Bailey (and Mo Toure for a while), but I don’t believe their absence was the reason Rutgers was completely dominated defensively against UCLA.

It was clear from the first series of the defense that Joe Harasymiak wanted to generate pressure on the QB. He brought blitzes almost every play to start the game. What did UCLA do? It got down the field, the QB was untouched, and it got some points on the kickoff. All right, all right. That happens. I never judge a team by their opening drive. They are heavily scripted and the offense completely controls the tempo. The bad thing is that we never had any turnovers and UCLA kept beating us the same way over and over again.

Remember the Virginia Tech game? Rutgers managed to run the same 2-3 game the entire game. Why? VT did not make any changes. On Saturday, UCLA was able to get the ball freely to their tight ends in the middle of the field from their first drive to their last. If that didn’t work, no problem! Their running backs went unmarked for more than the ENTIRE game! They were open with swing passes or flat throws EVERY TIME. It was mind boggling. Eric Bieniemy (UCLA OC and Chiefs/former OC) ran CIRCLES around Coach Harasymiak on Saturday. This is a UCLA offense that has STUNK all season, but against Rutgers, Bieniemy’s offense looked reminiscent of his time at KC with Patrick Mahomes.

Losing Mo Toure to injury and Deion Jennings to the NFL revealed Harasymiak as the Linebackers coach. The weakest defensive unit right now has been the linebackers. It’s Harasymiak. Moses Walker, on a week-to-week basis, remains out of the relegation zone, has little clearance and is not playing at the level you would expect from our top-ranked recruit in the league. of 2022. Dariel Djabome has been a bright spot on defense, but not on defense. Abram Wright had a sack, which is encouraging, but other than that he hasn’t flashed much this season. I don’t have much criticism for Powell because he is coming back from two injuries and I still believe he is playing at a high level. Either way, Coach Harasymiak hasn’t prepared the players enough to cause major problems on defense. It is inexcusable, shameful, and unacceptable.

Ethan Garbers 49 touchdown run was a microcosm of how this season is going for Rutgers defensively. After hitting Desmond Igbinosun with a gas that sent him into the deep end (he’s a great friend of Desmond, but the man was brutal and missed the tackle), QB Ethan Garbers ran 49 yards to put UCLA up 14-7. Poor tuning and horrible chase angles led to that drop, among many others throughout the game. In previous seasons under Harasymiak, security was more aggressive in fighting gangs. The first defender would never fight, but there was always 1 or 2 players chasing to help finish the game. The idea of ​​fighting this group is gone.

After an embarrassing TD run by Garbers, Rutgers finally answered with a FG with 1:08 left in the first. UCLA would go on to score a TD on their running back who flew in front of Djabome’s lap with 22 seconds left in the first quarter. 21-10. BLUE LINE.

The second half begins and Rutgers responds with 9 unanswered points (failed to convert a two-pointer). The power seems to be reversed. It’s a two-point game! WRONG! Ethan Garbers connects with a different running back WIDE OPEN on a swing pass for a 67 yard TD. Moses Walker was nowhere near him and was very focused covering the tight end. Terrible defense. There is absolutely no secondary character there to help the chase. It’s just crazy. It was at this time that the game was OVE R.

So why do we play this way?

Several reasons.

Most importantly, this team does not come into these games ready. Offensively, teams can do whatever they want against us. UCLA is not a good football team, especially on offense. However, they went into this game with a plan and it worked without too many hiccups. Coach Harasymiak’s plan, without Lewis and Bailey, was to call for pressure everywhere. It didn’t work. There was no backup plan. The game plan has failed. Against a team like UCLA, that won’t happen.

Secondly, there are too many defensive players who are not playing well. These are the former recruits that Greg Schiano identified as impact players who fit the team’s needs. Are we identifying the wrong talent? Bad talent? I’m not sure, but if you look at past recruiting classes the players in the lower ranks play three and four star players (of which there are few) far too often. That’s good and bad at the same time. When junior recruits end up as starters (Gus Zilinskas, Dariel Djabome, Hollin Pierce), that’s proof that Rutgers is a “developmental program”. However, when those players perform very well and far surpass the players at the top of the recruiting class (Moses Walker, Jacob Allen). [Medically retired]), I can’t help but scratch my head. Rutgers can’t rely on “diamond in the rough” guys to fill out their starting lineup. We do a poor job of evaluating high school talent and need to do a better job. Fortunately, that seems to be the case for the class of 2025 (we hope!).

Additionally, we attract top talent through a referral portal. I’m sure the lack of transfer capital is contributing to the problem, but we still need to find a way to bring in players who are ready to play as soon as they arrive. I also don’t believe fans have to pick up the tab to fix this. It’s unfair and unreasonable to expect fans to open their wallets when shootings like Saturday’s aren’t a regular occurrence, but they are a regular occurrence here at Rutgers. This is definitely an important point in college football and we will hear a lot about the contributions later this season. Do I expect that? No. Is it college athletics in 2024? Yes. We will need to adapt to the new era of college football immediately or we will have another one this past Saturday. Not trying to scare anyone, it’s just the truth.

And finally, the injuries had a big impact. We entered this season returning almost all of our players. Throughout Week 8, nearly all of the starters have missed time (or all of the season) due to injuries. You’d be a fool not to blame accidents as a reason for poor performance. But my problem is…

Losing the TE, who previously only played defensive end, shouldn’t have a huge impact on the team. I think, as the season goes on and RU plays better defense than UCLA, we’ll see sooner or later how big of an impact Kenny Fletcher has had on offense. For me it is a problem. Plus, what would have happened if last season’s starters hadn’t returned for one more season? We are beginning to know. Everyone is blocking and no one, apart from a hand full of players, is stepping up to fill the gaps.

We can have a lot of NIL funds in the community, but if the players don’t work on the field it doesn’t matter. Money won’t win you football games. Hard work, thorough preparation, focus, and self-respect will get you to the edge of the soccer field. We’ve seen all of this from Rutgers in the past and even this season. 3 weeks ago I couldn’t say that.

Did Greg Schiano’s post game comments bother you?

Yes, they did. Below is my response to Greg Schiano saying “We’ll get there…this show is going to be good”. He wants people who have their doubts and who CAN actually point out the problems with this program to “call their guns”. Well, last week I guess I called my shot. I pointed out the problems. I blamed “training and culture” for what we saw on Saturday. Schiano is the loser. He said he “needs to do his job well”. However, his last comment is the one that stuck with me because it seems to me that we are being sold on the IDEA of Rutgers to be a competitive football team in the Big Ten. Why aren’t we there yet? What’s in the way? I find it very confusing because Greg Schiano EXPLICITY said he wanted his team to be there. He doesn’t want the past or the future to steal the present. To me, his comments completely contradict that. The video shown below is from my season view: