Ten things to know about Rutgers

From Chris Ash's firing, to players voluntarily redshirting, to legitimate cornerbacks and an above average pass-blocking offensive line – these are ten things to know about Rutgers before Indiana's week seven matchup against the Scarlet Knights.

Rutgers fired head coach Chris Ash before last week’s game against Maryland and also released offensive coordinator John McNulty. Former tight ends coach Nunzio Campanile, who grew Bergen Catholic High school into a powerhouse in New Jersey, will fill in for both coaches throughout the rest of the season.

In four seasons, Ash won eight games and went 1-11 in 2018 before beginning the 2019 season 1-3.

In Campanile’s first game as head coach, Rutgers was crushed by Maryland, 48-7.

Because of the firings and the instability of the program, players are voluntarily redshirting to sit out the rest of the season with rumors of the intention to transfer after 2019. Three of those players are starting quarterback Artur Sitkowski, leading receiver and backup running back Raheem Blackshear and Wisconsin transfer tight end Kyle Penniston, and more are expected to redshirt as well.

Sitkowski hasn’t exactly been stellar as the quarterback, but he is the most capable in the room and did show signs of improvement from 2018. He completed just 49 percent of his passses as a freshman last year and threw four touchdowns and 18 interceptions. In three games this season, he completed 65 percent of his passes and limited his interception total to two.

Blackshear is potentially the biggest loss of the redshirts. He was perhaps the most dynamic player in the offense, and even though he was the backup running back, he led the team in receptions by a wide margin, with 29. He also averaged 10.7 yards per reception, which is comparable to Whop Philyor’s 12 yards per reception mark. Without Blackshear, the offense becomes very limited since it can’t stretch a defense horizontally like Rutgers liked to do with him.

Penniston has an ankle issue that predates his transfer and might need surgery. He will likely request a sixth year for medical hardship, but whether he will spend it at Rutgers is unknown. In his career at Wisconsin, he was a redzone threat, catching 16 passes for four touchdowns.

With Sitkowski now off the 2019 roster, Boston College transfer and redshirt freshman quarterback Johnny Langan is expected to start. Langan played for Campanile at Bergen Catholic, where they won a state championship in 2017.

Langan would go on to redshirt at Boston College, and Campanile took a running back coaching job at Rutgers. When he transferred to Rutgers, he was expected to be the No. 3 quarterback behind Sitkowski and Texas Tech transfer McClane Carter. Now he’s the starting quarterback for his former high school coach.

Langan passed for 163 yards and two interceptions on 13-for-25 passing in his first start against Maryland last week. He also ran 19 times for 59 yards and a touchdown.

Running back Isaih Pacheco is the best offensive player on the team, and it isn’t very close. The sophomore is a bit of a bruising back, and his favorite places to run along the line are either side of the center, where he averages just under five yards per carry, and to the far right side of the line.

As a freshman, Pacheco carried the ball 111 times and averaged 5.0 yards per carry. This season, he’s being called upon more often, as he’s carried the ball 76 times for 346 yards and four touchdowns – half of Rutgers’ touchdowns from scrimmage.

With Langan’s running ability, another rusher will be added into the mix, which will take away from Pacheco, but without Blackshear and Sitkowski, teams will be able to load the box against the sophomore. He ran for 78 yards on 19 carries against Maryland with Langan.

Indiana defensive coordinator Kane Wommack said with a new head coach, offensive coordinator, quarterback and without a key playmaker, it can be tough to develop a gameplan against the offense, but planning for the starting running back is where the staff will begin.

Rutgers isn’t the best run-blocking team in the conference – shocker – but it isn’t that bad in pass blocking. It ranks third in the conference in sacks allowed, allowing just 1.4 sacks per game – a total of seven allowed in five games. It has one of the lower numbers in pass attempts (142) but not by much.

Pro Football Focus grades Rutgers’ left tackle, left guard and center higher than Indiana’s in pass blocking.

With Blackshear redshirting, Rutgers is down to only one receiver who has caught more than 10 passes this season. Junior wideout Bo Melton is having a career year for the Scarlet Knights, even though he averages just three catches per game. On his 15 catches, he averages 17.1 yards per catch and has one touchdown.

Against Maryland, with his new quarterback, he caught four balls for 50 yards.

While Rutgers is near the bottom of the Big Ten in both total offense and defense, it does have a solid duo at cornerback, in redshirt junior Tre Avery and sophomore Avery Young. They combine to allow a reception percentage of just 43 percent, which is one of the best numbers in the Big Ten.

In terms of Pro Football Focus grades, Avery and Young are one of four Big Ten cornerback duos (100 snaps) to each be in the top-15 in coverage grades. In comparison, Indiana freshman Tiawan Mullen is No. 8, two spots behind Avery, and the next-best for the Hoosiers is Andre Brown, at 29.

There have been multiple opportunities for the Indiana defense to begin the “bunches” of turnovers the defensive staff is hoping for, and Rutgers is the last prime candidate. Rutgers has turned the ball over 11 times – eight to interceptions, three to fumbles – and only forced three, all via interceptions.

While Indiana has taken care of the ball fairly well – two fumbles, four interceptions – it hasn’t forced turnovers like it did in 2018, when it averaged more than two takeaways per game. Against Ball State, Eastern Illinois and Connecticut, it missed opportunities to stack takeaways, and it didn’t force any takeaways against Eastern Illinois.

Former Indiana safeties coach Noah Joseph is currently in his second year at Rutgers after leaving Indiana at the end of the 2017 season, when Kasey Teegardin assumed the position. He ended up in Piscataway because of a relationship he’d built with Chris Ash during their time at Iowa State in the early-2000s.

Joseph was at Indiana to add safeties like Jonathan Crawford, Chase Dutra, Tony Fields and Marcelino Ball.

It’s been tough sledding for Joseph this season, as none of his safeties are graded in the Big Ten’s top-20 via Pro Football Focus defensive grades. Neither are Indiana’s.

Indiana has won three of the five matchups against Rutgers, and no game stands out more than the 2015 debacle.

With five minutes remaining in the third quarter, Devine Redding cruised 66 yards for a score to put Indiana up 52-27. It was Indiana’s fourth touchdown of the quarter, as Nate Sudfeld was having a massive day with the Jordan Howard-less Hoosiers.

Then Rutgers came storming back. Rutgers answered the Redding run with a score on a 43-yard pass to Leonte Carroo, and then the Scarlet Knights forced their first turnover of the day, a fumble that they returned for a score. On Indiana’s next two drives, Sudfeld threw interceptions that led to scoring drives for Rutgers, a three-yard touchdown run after a 40-yard pass and then a 40-yard run for a touchdown.

On the second score, Indiana blocked the point-after attempt to keep the game tied at 52-52 and a chance to drive for the game-winning score. But the Hoosiers went three-and-out, which gave the ball to Rutgers for a 13-play drive capped by the game-winning field goal.

It was the largest blown lead in Indiana history.

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