Poll: Starting QB--Lonergan or Surace?

[Caliknight]

Agreed. Has gone totally political. Carson wasn't like that at all. Made fun of all sides.

Those network guys are getting destroyed by a guy on cable lol. Gutfield ratings off the charts

 

[Caliknight]

this is the year that Greg needs to let Kirk open the offense as much as possible. ball security isn't going to win us games to the degree that Greg needs. We need to fix the perception of the program badly

He’s not capable of doing that. He coaches like it’s 1983

 

[MADHAT1]

He’s not capable of doing that. He coaches like it’s 1983

A keep from making mistakes offense, keep the score close with the D, that isn't keeping up with the times is my opinion of what to expect in 2026.
With AK at quarterback and Antwan Raymond's plays last season , Rutgers was better then it's record ,but because of the coaching and expecting the D to do it's job, Rutgers record was worse then it should have been.

 

[Caliknight]

A keep from making mistakes offense, keep the score close with the D, that isn't keeping up with the times is my opinion of what to expect in 2026.
With AK at quarterback and Antwan Raymond's plays last season , Rutgers was better then it's record ,but because of the coaching and expecting the D to do it's job, Rutgers record was worse then it should have been.

It's all he knows. He's a rotary phone in a digital world. His entire philosphy is to keep the defense rested as much as possible. Run the ball, run the clock, mitigate risk all over the field. Punting is good, fair catching even better. Risk mitigation. It sometimes allows you to play closer to teams that are more talented than you, but never beat them. It always always teams as talented or even slightly less to stay in games.

But that's all he knows. He didn't learn anything under Urban Meyer or any of the other coaches he was around. His entire philosophy is based on the beliefs of Joe Paterno. He's a defensive minded coach in an offensive world.

 

[DJ Spanky]

It's all he knows. He's a rotary phone in a digital world.

I think you're wrong. But we will see 4 weeks from this Thursday.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

It's all he knows. He's a rotary phone in a digital world. His entire philosphy is to keep the defense rested as much as possible. Run the ball, run the clock, mitigate risk all over the field. Punting is good, fair catching even better. Risk mitigation. It sometimes allows you to play closer to teams that are more talented than you, but never beat them. It always always teams as talented or even slightly less to stay in games.

But that's all he knows. He didn't learn anything under Urban Meyer or any of the other coaches he was around. His entire philosophy is based on the beliefs of Joe Paterno. He's a defensive minded coach in an offensive world.

We didn’t play that way last year. I thought AK was given the green light to air out the ball. The problem was our best defense was keeping the ball on offense so there were times where that had to be factored in since the clock stops with drops.

Quite honestly - Im not sure I recall a Rutgers defense being as depressing as last year’s was to watch in my lifetime. I’m not counting on a miracle turnaround, because the talent wasn’t upgraded, but we have to improve a little there don’t we? I mean - we ranked bottom 10 in all of FBS in several defense metrics. That’s hard to do with power conference status…

 

[thegock]

agree, sorry if that didn't come across as they are right there which is my issue.
I do not see a successful season playing it the Greg way is my view. Even though we've finished ahead of numerous programs past several years, people still think MD is light years ahead of Rutgers. Perception needs to change drastically and the 3yrds and cloud of dust for a field goal isn't gonna cut it

With all due respect, "light years ahead of RUTGERS?"

1. Last couple of years it didn't look like that on Saturday.

2 The Under Armour has dried up with the founder's equity diminished.

3. Have you ever been to a game there? One of the kids was there four years. We saw a few games. The place is the worst stadium in the B1G. If half the seats are full for a B1G game, then that is a normal crowd.

4. Locksley will be gone by December.

Every problem we have, they have worse.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

agree, sorry if that didn't come across as they are right there which is my issue.
I do not see a successful season playing it the Greg way is my view. Even though we've finished ahead of numerous programs past several years, people still think MD is light years ahead of Rutgers. Perception needs to change drastically and the 3yrds and cloud of dust for a field goal isn't gonna cut it

I don’t think we really played it the old school “Greg way” on offense last year though. Do you? We went for it on 4th down a ton, and Greg/Kirk had no problem airing out the ball. The red zone play calling def sucked, but not because we were afraid to throw the ball. If anything, some of the worst decisions were times when a pass play was called and we took a sack that pushed us out of FG range. We also didn’t play with good discipline in the red zone and took a few gut wrenching penalties there. These things are on the coaches - but it wasn’t like we were running 4 straight rushes up the middle to “not lose” the way we did in previous years. At least it didn’t seem that way to me. Arguably - there were times I felt we should’ve thrown less simply to avoid giving the ball back to the other team since our D was so bad.

 

[RUTGERS95]

I don’t think we really played it the old school “Greg way” on offense last year though. Do you? We went for it on 4th down a ton, and Greg/Kirk had no problem airing out the ball. The red zone play calling def sucked, but not because we were afraid to throw the ball. If anything, some of the worst decisions were times when a pass play was called and we took a sack that pushed us out of FG range. We also didn’t play with good discipline in the red zone and took a few gut wrenching penalties there. These things are on the coaches - but it wasn’t like we were running 4 straight rushes up the middle to “not lose” the way we did in previous years. At least it didn’t seem that way to me. Arguably - there were times I felt we should’ve thrown less simply to avoid giving the ball back to the other team since our D was so bad.

Greg has had teams that threw a lot
we went for it more because the defense was bad and we were behind a lot. More desperation than anything else

 

[RUTGERS95]

With all due respect, "light years ahead of RUTGERS?"

1. Last couple of years it didn't look like that on Saturday.

2 The Under Armour has dried up with the founder's equity diminished.

3. Have you ever been to a game there? One of the kids was there four years. We saw a few games. The place is the worst stadium in the B1G. If half the seats are full for a B1G game, then that is a normal crowd.

4. Locksley will be gone by December.

Every problem we have, they have worse.

and yet if you ask anyone who is better they will say MD.

lol @ have I ever been to a game there .....

look, I get it but the reality is that the perception of RU football is one of poor, lousy, shouldn't be in the BIG, worst team in the BIG, and should be booted from the BIG. Even the tards writing preseason scrap have MD a few spots ahead of us where we are 1 above Purdue.

you guys gotta get out of the bubble

 

[thegock]

and yet if you ask anyone who is better they will say MD.

lol @ have I ever been to a game there .....

look, I get it but the reality is that the perception of RU football is one of poor, lousy, shouldn't be in the BIG, worst team in the BIG, and should be booted from the BIG. Even the tards writing preseason scrap have MD a few spots ahead of us where we are 1 above Purdue.

you guys gotta get out of the bubble

We went to Lincoln NE two years ago and our experience was very different. It was a B1G event---a sellout in their cavernous concrete antique. If Ben Black didn't drop that bomb in the 25mph wind, it would have been even more fun. Better than Rapey Valley or Ann Arbor.

My wife is really looking forward to Chestnut Hill, cuz her closest nephew with two toddlers lives there.

I understand that there are some people who are jealous of Rutgers and definitely look down at our disappointing results, so we should win soon and turn that around. This season I would settle for continuing our recent dominance over and MSU. Hopefully we get an upset or two.

 

[RUTGERS95]

We went to Lincoln NE two years ago and our experience was very different. It was a B1G event---a sellout in their cavernous concrete antique. If Ben Black didn't drop that bomb in the 25mph wind, it would have been even more fun. Better than Rapey Valley or Ann Arbor.

My wife is really looking forward to Chestnut Hill, cuz her closest nephew with two toddlers lives there.

I understand that there are some people who are jealous of Rutgers and definitely look down at our disappointing results, so we should win soon and turn that around. This season I would settle for continuing our recent dominance over and MSU. Hopefully we get an upset or two.

Ben Black isn't why we lost, certainly didn't help but not the reason we lost. That was one of the worst coached games of his career

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

Greg has had teams that threw a lot
we went for it more because the defense was bad and we were behind a lot. More desperation than anything else

He would go for it on the first drives of games. Not just because we were behind. Certainly, the defense being bad was a factor in that as well as play calling, in general. There were head scratching plays that made zero sense including the one I referred to before where we took a sack that took us out of FG range. I remember thinking to myself, why throw there? Worst case, just take the 3. Lots of calls I didn’t agree with but not what you and Cali referred to. He didn’t play it conservative. He was probably conservative with GW, not because Greg refused to allow the game to be called to win but simply because Gavin was allowed to be QB (his awful decision) and couldn’t complete a pass to save his life. (Even worse - yes, I know…). I’m just saying - for better or worse, I don’t think we’re going to play to hold onto the ball and not take any chances. I’m sure Greg knows damn well the D won’t be good enough to compete that way. He has to.

 

[RUTGERS95]

He would go for it on the first drives of games. Not just because we were behind. Certainly, the defense being bad was a factor in that as well as play calling, in general. There were head scratching plays that made zero sense including the one I referred to before where we took a sack that took us out of FG range. I remember thinking to myself, why throw there? Worst case, just take the 3. Lots of calls I didn’t agree with but not what you and Cali referred to. He didn’t play it conservative. He was probably conservative with GW, not because Greg refused to allow the game to be called to win but simply because Gavin was allowed to be QB (his awful decision) and couldn’t complete a pass to save his life. (Even worse - yes, I know…). I’m just saying - for better or worse, I don’t think we’re going to play to hold onto the ball and not take any chances. I’m sure Greg knows damn well the D won’t be good enough to compete that way. He has to.

I'm going to respectfully disagree. Everyone is harping on the Ohio game celebrating the aggressive nature but if he doesn't we lose. He's not smart but he's not outright stupid either. Greg hasn't changed his tune to the bell curve,

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

I'm going to respectfully disagree. Everyone is harping on the Ohio game celebrating the aggressive nature but if he doesn't we lose. He's not smart but he's not outright stupid either. Greg hasn't changed his tune to the bell curve,

Which recent games did you feel we played conservatively? I don’t recall any except Nebraska but that was a wind storm. I’m not saying the play calling was good - just that I don’t recall thinking we weren’t willing to take any chances. I just didn’t love the chances we decided to take.

 

[Knight Shift]

I'm going to respectfully disagree. Everyone is harping on the Ohio game celebrating the aggressive nature but if he doesn't we lose. He's not smart but he's not outright stupid either. Greg hasn't changed his tune to the bell curve,

I'm going to slightly disagree here. Greg is extremely smart. But even extremely smart people can make poor decisions under pressure because of an underlying tendency (play conservative). Play calling can be stupid, which can be more frustrating for a smart person. But I am picking nits here.

 

[RU#1fan]

Ben Black isn't why we lost, certainly didn't help but not the reason we lost. That was one of the worst coached games of his career

If Ben does not drop that pass that hit him on the shoulders on the Nebraska 5 yard line he walks in and scores. We win .

 

[RUTGERS95]

If Ben does not drop that pass that hit him on the shoulders on the Nebraska 5 yard line he walks in and scores. We win .

one play doesn't cost a game. rewatch that game, there were many fubars.

 

[RUTGERS95]

I'm going to slightly disagree here. Greg is extremely smart. But even extremely smart people can make poor decisions under pressure because of an underlying tendency (play conservative). Play calling can be stupid, which can be more frustrating for a smart person. But I am picking nits here.

definitely not extremely smart. He's not out right dumb but smart isn't something I think you can say. He's dedicate to process and that masks a lot of dumb stuff and normally protects one from appearing smart. Smart would be having better relative awareness, having the ability to break a mold and do new things without reverting to the mean, having a better grasp of the overall process of choosing coaches for task at hand, not reverting back to his situation sheet devoid of any real feel for what's going etc etc etc.... I mean, we've got a litany of examples to go by that would refute 'extremely smart'

 

[Section124]

He’s not capable of doing that. He coaches like it’s 1983

Plus with Raymond in the backfield it will be all running the ball and trying to control the clock with this defense. Same **** with this guy. Duff at least keeps the defenses honest.

 

[Knight Shift]

Ben Black isn't why we lost, certainly didn't help but not the reason we lost. That was one of the worst coached games of his career

Speaking of Nebraska, gotta think they have their October 17 game against Oregon circled, and Raiola may not even start. Raiola sounds like a huge doucher here:

 

[LotusAggressor_rivals]

A keep from making mistakes offense, keep the score close with the D, that isn't keeping up with the times is my opinion of what to expect in 2026.
With AK at quarterback and Antwan Raymond's plays last season , Rutgers was better then it's record ,but because of the coaching and expecting the D to do it's job, Rutgers record was worse then it should have been.

That's what kept 2024 and 2025 from being much better seasons than they turned out to be, among other things.

 

[DHajekRC1984]

I think you're wrong. But we will see 4 weeks from this Thursday.

UMASS? Sorry, that game tells us little. The BC game is the one and USC fer sure...

 

[DHajekRC1984]

Speaking of Nebraska, gotta think they have their October 17 game against Oregon circled, and Raiola may not even start. Raiola sounds like a huge doucher here:

what an asshat...

 

[DJ Spanky]

UMASS? Sorry, that game tells us little. The BC game is the one and USC fer sure...

I disagree as far as the offense goes: I think that will tell us a lot about how our new QB, whether Lonergan or Surace, is meshing with our receivers and the offense overall. Yes, it's UMass, but seeing the O work as a unit with a new QB is really independent of who the opponent is, outside of a team like Howard of course.

As for the D, I think the BC game is the one where we'll get more of a judgement on that. The D should roll over UMass.

 

[RUTGERS95]

Speaking of Nebraska, gotta think they have their October 17 game against Oregon circled, and Raiola may not even start. Raiola sounds like a huge doucher here:

oh yeah....God I love this kind of stuff. I hope Oregon beats them by 50!

 

[RUTGERS95]

I disagree as far as the offense goes: I think that will tell us a lot about how our new QB, whether Lonergan or Surace, is meshing with our receivers and the offense overall. Yes, it's UMass, but seeing the O work as a unit with a new QB is really independent of who the opponent is, outside of a team like Howard of course.

As for the D, I think the BC game is the one where we'll get more of a judgement on that. The D should roll over UMass.

I agree
it's always better to see how we play at full speed

 

[DHajekRC1984]

I disagree as far as the offense goes: I think that will tell us a lot about how our new QB, whether Lonergan or Surace, is meshing with our receivers and the offense overall. Yes, it's UMass, but seeing the O work as a unit with a new QB is really independent of who the opponent is, outside of a team like Howard of course.

As for the D, I think the BC game is the one where we'll get more of a judgement on that. The D should roll over UMass.

fair enough. That part is true but I think it is much easier to do those things against much lessor competition and as example a QB not running for his life.

(or more importantly a Head Coach having to make tough calls in a tight game lol). HA.

 

[Branchrentals]

Have no idea didn’t vote. Ceiling is a 5 or 6 win season. Until we get a better X and O coach. And a super donor like Cuban. Nothing will change.

Watched the training camp podcast and first topic was if jersey mikes subs patch would be on the uniforms. Then they were worried press box would be moved for luxury boxes. Totally Rutgers type mentality discussion. Turned it off.

 

[Rutgers Chris]

One second of one clip but he’s not wrong…

 

[mugrat86]

this is the year that Greg needs to let Kirk open the offense as much as possible. ball security isn't going to win us games to the degree that Greg needs. We need to fix the perception of the program badly

The offense was pretty wide open last year except when we got in the red zone.

 

[Bob Chaewsky_rivals]

Who are the two that voted for Ashenfelder? It must have been a mistake.

 

[RUTGERS95]

The offense was pretty wide open last year except when we got in the red zone.

yes and no, we know there are more plays in the book we don't use but to your point, the production outside the 20s was there. Inside the 20s I agree, 100%.

 

[Knight Shift]

One second of one clip but he’s not wrong…

El Vis knows nothing about moving feet. Hips maybe, but not feet. . . .

But by that comparison, AJ Surace is way better than Lonergan. . . . . .

 

[RU#1fan]

Who are the two that voted for Ashenfelder? It must have been a mistake.

Al was looking to vote for Wimsatt.

 

[Knight Shift]

Who is correct here- Podcast or Man Frizzle?

 

[Postman_1]

When will they announce who is starting QB?

 

[MADHAT1]

When will they announce who is starting QB?

Would put "In the year 2525" but post this instead :

I thought Lonergan as a shoe in, thinking AJ would be bypassed because of Dylan's being BC;s starter and it would be his job to lose , Surace would be on the bench, unless Lonergan wasn't getting the job done

Glad to see AJ has a fighting chance
A study of the Big Ten starting quarterbacks in 2026
Rutgers -- too close to call

https://www.footballscoop.com/2026/08/18/big-ten-quarterback-study-2026

 

[Rutgers Chris]

Who is correct here- Podcast or Man Frizzle?

I posted that footwork clip above, he’s absolutely right that it looks horrible. Someone commented that it was a one read drill with one receiver who fell down. Who the hell knows at this point lol

 

[Knight Shift]

I posted that footwork clip above, he’s absolutely right that it looks horrible. Someone commented that it was a one read drill with one receiver who fell down. Who the hell knows at this point lol

Some fans are so desperate for any crumb of information. . . .
Everything that has been said about AJ has been fantastic. Not going to judge him by one throw in a practice. That would be silly.