Rutgers football held its second scrimmage of training camp on Saturday and head coach Greg Schiano was more positive than he was after the first one.
“I thought it was great. We did a lot of different situational football,” Schiano explained. “We got a lot of reps. The guys were focused, intentional for close to four hours. They did a really good job. We hit on a bunch of different stuff. We’ll watch the tape and we’ll have a lot of things we’re not happy with but I was happy with their focus and concentration.”
There are plenty of questions still to be answered on offense. Of course, the development of quarterback Gavin Wimsatt is crucial to making progress as a team this fall. After saying Wimsatt was less accurate during the first scrimmage than he had been in practice, Schiano spoke on his improvement on Saturday.
“Better. One of the things we were emphasizing today was red zone offense,” Schiano said. “Everything happens more quickly down there, space is lessened and you get more pressure and those types of things and he did a really good job of going through his progressions and getting rid of the ball quickly. So that was good.”
As for the offense as a whole, Schiano said it was a better performance but also stressed how well the defense played.
“Improved. We went in and tried to do a couple of different things,” stated Schiano. I thought defensively we played better today than we did the first scrimmage. I thought it was a pretty stout defensive effort, and I thought our offense slugged it out pretty well with them. It wasn’t going to be an explosive day, they’re playing pretty well right now.”
Here is Schiano’s full press conference:
The big question is this: Is the defense looking very strong in part because the offense isn’t great, or could the offense actually be improving but the defense is so good that it won’t show until game day against opponents?
Listen and watch to my take on the current state of the team and my thoughts on Schiano’s comments below.
Audio
Video
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Having watched Coach Schiano over the years it was good to hear him directly answer questions versus the old coach speak and’ “we’ll know more when we look at the tape”. It sounded like Wimsatt is improved but still needs experience. It seems to me coach has avoided talking about the running backs all preseason. He answered the question about Young but no mention of any other RB.
It was interesting to hear him talk about the offensive line. In years past he’s talked about depth or lack of and now the conversation seems to be on which five among the many will emerge as starters. Maybe it’s my constant search for positive news but my interpretation is we’re significantly better on the offensive side of the ball and line. NU will tell.
I haven’t heard any mentions of Rashad Rochelle yet. He showed some speed and flash out of the backfield late in the year. I see from the roster he is listed as a WR this year so I wonder if he has a steep learning curve.
He is competing at slot receiver. After spring practice, he was behind Christian Dremel on the depth chart. He could emerge this season as a receiver but I think he could on special teams too.
Henry Rutgers
August 20, 2023 at 7:29 am
Having watched Coach Schiano over the years it was good to hear him directly answer questions versus the old coach speak and’ “we’ll know more when we look at the tape”. It sounded like Wimsatt is improved but still needs experience. It seems to me coach has avoided talking about the running backs all preseason. He answered the question about Young but no mention of any other RB.
It was interesting to hear him talk about the offensive line. In years past he’s talked about depth or lack of and now the conversation seems to be on which five among the many will emerge as starters. Maybe it’s my constant search for positive news but my interpretation is we’re significantly better on the offensive side of the ball and line. NU will tell.
thevinman
August 20, 2023 at 2:41 pm
I haven’t heard any mentions of Rashad Rochelle yet. He showed some speed and flash out of the backfield late in the year. I see from the roster he is listed as a WR this year so I wonder if he has a steep learning curve.
Aaron Breitman
August 20, 2023 at 10:14 pm
He is competing at slot receiver. After spring practice, he was behind Christian Dremel on the depth chart. He could emerge this season as a receiver but I think he could on special teams too.