Head coach Greg Schiano addressed the injury status of several players for Rutgers following the 36-7 win over Temple.
The game marked the return of running back Sam Brown, who missed the last five games of last season with a foot injury. He was listed as questionable on the availability report for the Northwestern game but ultimately sat out. After one early carry for Brown on Saturday night, he marked his return with 27 yard reception along with a one yard touchdown run soon after.
Even so, Schiano cautioned in expecting Brown to be back to his top form immediately that saw him become so valuable as a true freshman.
“It was great to have Sam back,” Schiano said. “He’s got to work himself back into shape, into game shape and I don’t mean cardiovascular I mean carrying the football, getting hit, all those things. I’m anxious to watch that happen because he’s a fine player.”
As for backfield mate Aaron Young, he was listed as questionable on Saturday but never played.
“I think will be good to go this coming week” Schiano explained. “He may have been able to go today but you know, not going to risk it with when we have healthy guys.”
That reasoning paid off as Kyle Monangai was beast in rushing for 165 yards on 5.9 yards per carry and a touchdown. Preserving Young, who has battled injuries most of his career, makes perfect sense this early in the season.
In the second quarter, there was a play in which both tackles, Hollin Pierce and Tyler Needham, were on the ground in obvious pain. The good news was that Pierce got up and returned to play the rest of the game. The bad news is that Needham was carted off into the locker room.
“We’ll know more, I’ll probably be able to tell you more on Monday but yeah, we are concerned about Ty,” said Schiano..
One surprise was wide receiver Chris Long being unavailable for the Temple game. He did get dinged up against Northwestern, but he returned to the game. While Schiano didn’t explain what was wrong with Long, he was honest with his timetable to return.
“Chris Long, unfortunately, could not play. He was out with an injury,” Schiano specified. “I don’t know how long he’s going to be out. That’s still up in the air.”
Rutgers will host Virginia Tech in a pivotal non-conference matchup on Saturday, September 16 at 3:30. Hopefully the Scarlet Knights are able to get as healthy as possible for that game and beyond as Big Ten play will resume at Michigan in two weeks.
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Henry Rutgers
September 10, 2023 at 2:54 pm
Three (I think it was three) really good articles, Aaron. The injury to the Needham is concerning as is Chris Long. I think credit is due to the new OC as well. His play selections put the team in a position to be successful and where he found vulnerabilities, he exploited them.
How about that student section. I don’t know how they got the kids to show up but whatever they did they need to keep on doing. If we keep winning, the fans will do the rest including staying to the end of the game.
I really would like to see our staff alter their half time routine. I’ve heard Coach Schiano talk about what they do at half time. It needs to change. We seem to always come out flat after the half (under Schiano) while our opponents have obviously made adjustments. It’s a nit. Believe me, I’m thrilled with where we are and the year over year improvement. I’ve already rented the van for the VT game and my wife is busy putting together her tailgate menu. It’s exciting for the third game to matter. We’ve had some very memorable games with VT. I’d like for this next one to be memorable as a win. We’re close, so close to righting the ship.