No. 19 Men’s Lacrosse Hosts No. 14/16 Penn State Friday - Rutgers University Athletics
Rutgers University Athletics
No. 19 Men’s Lacrosse Hosted No. 14/16 Penn State Friday
- Thread starter Tango Two
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Preview | No. 14 Penn State men’s lacrosse set to close regular season against Rutgers at SHI Stadium
No. 14 Penn State has had an up-and-down season, failing to meet the high expectations placed on the team from its previous Final Four berth at Gillette Stadium last year.
My assessment from last few games I watched = RU has way too many athletes and not enough skilled/pure lax players. Top teams have a mix which is what wins titles.
Last place … is it wrong to root to lose by 10 today, and by 10 in the B1G tourney so we can have a fresh start with a new coach?
3-9 at the half. Second half of the second quarter was a bloodbath. Ugly performance on senior night.
Kids battled. Just not enough to combat what PSU brought to the contest. There were guys forced into action that haven’t played all year. And we lost even more tonight.
Keli announced some very nice investments in the program. Better days ahead.
Keli announced some very nice investments in the program. Better days ahead.
Hard to see how Brecht is the answer here. Just awful for several years now
Keli has the hardest job of any AD in the country.
Our Men’s teams have been an absolute disaster this season. Embarrassing to say the least.
I caught a portion of the later part of the game. Pretty embarrassing and not even competitive. The goalie trying to bring the ball up by himself and leaving it on the carpet for an easy empty-netter was just indicative of the performance as a whole.
Stollar is about the only bright spot on the team although that play was not his best.
The D left him hanging all not tons of point blank shots.
I love your enthusiasm and I know you are deeply invested in the program but that mantra is just getting old!!
Of 18 May Madness teams probably 15-16 would love to have Stoller as their goalie. His value should not be determined by one mistake.
Fair enough. That play was just the icing on top. Team just looked flustered out there.
There are no excuses, and this program has clearly backslid since making the FF in 2022.
But…
The injuries this year have really derailed any hope of being a top team.
M/A J.J. Aiello - out for most of the first half of the season, and pretty limited over the second half.
M/A Haydn Sommer - was really rounding into form as the X guy, and then injury struck and he’s been out over the past few games. His absence has greatly impacted our attack.
A Shane Murphy - he was dishing from X in the first half of the season and hasn’t been seen much since.
So BOTH of our X guys have been out, which really hampers things behind the cage.
M/A Bennett Raphalian - he emerged earlier this season as a contributor on the first and second midfield lines, but has been out the past couple games.
D Dylan Groff - became a reliable starter on close defense but was out last night.
FOGO John Scarelli - has been out for several games, in the heart of the conference season. Huge reason why we lost to Michigan.
M/A Justin Lawler - he had become a reliable member of the first team midfield, but was lost to injury early in the conference season.
D Cam Hitchcock - portal transfer probably would’ve started at close defense, was apparently lost for the year.
Again, there’s no excuses, but there can be explanations. Losing five key members of our attack throughout the year — Aiello, Murphy, Lawler, Sommer, and Raphalian — has resulted in what we’ve been seeing, which is an offense stuck in neutral that is relying mostly on the 2-man pick game and iso ball. It certainly doesn’t help that our possessions have been limited by the FO issues.
Anyway, I’m just as disappointed as all of you with what we’ve seen this year, but two things can be true — we can question what this coaching staff is doing while also realizing that some of the issues are injury related.
But…
The injuries this year have really derailed any hope of being a top team.
M/A J.J. Aiello - out for most of the first half of the season, and pretty limited over the second half.
M/A Haydn Sommer - was really rounding into form as the X guy, and then injury struck and he’s been out over the past few games. His absence has greatly impacted our attack.
A Shane Murphy - he was dishing from X in the first half of the season and hasn’t been seen much since.
So BOTH of our X guys have been out, which really hampers things behind the cage.
M/A Bennett Raphalian - he emerged earlier this season as a contributor on the first and second midfield lines, but has been out the past couple games.
D Dylan Groff - became a reliable starter on close defense but was out last night.
FOGO John Scarelli - has been out for several games, in the heart of the conference season. Huge reason why we lost to Michigan.
M/A Justin Lawler - he had become a reliable member of the first team midfield, but was lost to injury early in the conference season.
D Cam Hitchcock - portal transfer probably would’ve started at close defense, was apparently lost for the year.
Again, there’s no excuses, but there can be explanations. Losing five key members of our attack throughout the year — Aiello, Murphy, Lawler, Sommer, and Raphalian — has resulted in what we’ve been seeing, which is an offense stuck in neutral that is relying mostly on the 2-man pick game and iso ball. It certainly doesn’t help that our possessions have been limited by the FO issues.
Anyway, I’m just as disappointed as all of you with what we’ve seen this year, but two things can be true — we can question what this coaching staff is doing while also realizing that some of the issues are injury related.
He was the answer before college sports changed. NIL and Scholarship limits. That’s being addressed. PSU was fielding a team with 2x the scholarships and far more NIL last night. We were fielding a hospital unit. Brecht has more ammo to fight with moving forward which is all he needs.
The truth is hard to hear. I know you guys want results and no one does more than me. Crying to change the coach isn’t the solution. When college lacrosse was near an even playing field he brought the program to the highest level. The final four pinnacle. Quite literally it changed then when NIL entered the equation. Our last AD has zero interest in playing that game. Keli has a high interest playing that game. Scholarship limits are now 45. I’ll repeat, that team PSU fielded last night had 2x the number of scholarship players. If you don’t see how that directly impacts the on field game, even forgetting injuries, I’m not sure you understand college sports.
Keli is a big fan of Brian’s. They are working together to fix the challenge the program has. There were over 200 alums there last night and a huge donation was announced. Like I said, better days ahead.
I really wonder what goes through Kelli’s mind now after being on station for several months. It’s basically a complete rebuild on all levels. Curious if she really knew how bad things were. Thankfully Tate is all in.
It’s the lack of depth with the injuries that is most concerning. There are no major impact freshman especially with the talent in the area. Don’t think the Rutgers tax would be as high for lax.
Hoping with schollies and some NIL they can build out the program. Hate to see it fall behind…but it feels like it’s approaching a Pikel type low.
Not even close. We have some high potential recruits coming. With more money more will come. When Brian had a bunch of pro players we saw what he could do.
Any top high school coach in New Jersey could win with the talent on those 21 and 22 teams. I don’t know what makes Brecht so special that he’s irreplaceable in your eyes. When has he ever done more with less? This is four straight years as a basement dweller.
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Because it wasn’t just 21 and 22. In the years before 21 and 22, It was making the conference championship game, it was achieving #1 ranking, it was having multiple top players, beating top teams. You could go to a game at Rutgers and know you had a good chance at winning the game. Was there when we beat Syracuse, or that win against #3 OSU in overtime.
But then the game changed and we had an athletic department that decided to not do its job. We all know why. Look at a lot of the RU teams, from making championship games, being competitive, to now just trying not to have a losing record.
Brecht is like a lot of coaches, deserves a chance with a competent athletic department. Let’s see what happens in a year or two.
This is not what I’ve heard although I don’t know the exact numbers. PSU lax NIL is a joke courtesy of their football team. And it’s still pretty much a joke across D1 except for UNC and even they aren’t giving out much. Plenty of 5* and 4* players not getting full schollies anywhere. Biggest issue is RU once owned the transfer portal - not any more . Next issue is their recruiting classes have not been great considering they play in the B1G. 2027 has some gems at the top but there is a big drop off.
But they didn’t do it. Brecht did. Who do you think recruited them? More with less lol. You really think we have more than PSU right now? You can’t be this dumb. And as predicted, you couldn’t even last two days without responding to me. No self control.
We know the exact numbers. It’s no secret to the administration. It’s all shared with the conference. Like I said the staff loves the next two classes. Apparently other peer programs do because many are trying to get flipped.
Good, then they know it’s not much $$$. Hope 2027 class pans out. I like the top 3 (Kehl, Hayes, Egan) but beyond that lots of ??? which I admit is not unusual. But I don’t see any true snipers as most of the ATT are bigger bodies. You look at UNC, ND, Cornell, and other top programs and they have a surprising number of undersized players that zip around making D look like they’re wearing cement boots. Brecht needs to focus less on size and incorporate more speed.
That's good to hear. He seems like a good guy. Obviously you are definitely out in front in terms of your support for him. I have nothing against the guy and genuinely hope that the additional support you are saying he's going to get will make the difference.
All excuses and reasons aside I think we can all agree that the results the last several seasons have just been really bad. And like you I just want them to be better
Looking forward to hearing about the announcement that you mentioned in your other posts
Funding 12 more scholarships and $300k plus a year in NIL isn’t a lot in the grand scheme of football and basketball, but it’s easier said then done at Rutgers and many other schools.
We haven’t even touched even touched on the stadium yet. We will play some games at Yurcak at some point while that gets worked out.
There aren’t any question marks in that class. Bunch of ballers.