Football Rutgers Football names Dylan Lonergan starting quarterback for 2026 season

PSAL_Hoops

Heisman
Feb 18, 2008
14,008
13,274
78
It makes sense. Doubt he would've transferred here if there wasn't a real opportunity to start. He's got some experience and he's our guy now. Hope he kills it.

I’m not surprised at the decision being how long it took. If Surace had been showing he was better (even marginally), I figured it would’ve been announced sooner. After 3 loyal years in our system Greg would want to give him every opportunity to try to earn it.
 

wheezer

Heisman
Jun 3, 2001
169,907
25,623
113
Either guy will probably be a downgrade from Athan
Yes, it is widely expected that he will not be as good
But he played for a bad team and that always hurts performance

On Sept 6th last year, at Michigan state
He went 34 completions out of 45 attempts, for 390 yards

He can have his moments, we hope, behind a good O line and a potent running attack to balance the offense
 

MADHAT1

Heisman
Apr 1, 2003
31,869
16,658
113
I expected Dylan to be named, QB experience goes a long way with Greg.
AJ might have been good, but might have isn't a proven fact .
I believe AK at first had doubters , so no surprise seeing Lonergan having the same
 

PSAL_Hoops

Heisman
Feb 18, 2008
14,008
13,274
78

Why “ouch”? We have two star playmaking position players which figures to mean QB accuracy would be a hugely important metric. Lonergan completed 67% of his passes and threw a grand total of only 5 picks in a sample size of almost 300 passes with a collection of receivers who were nowhere near as good as KJ Duff. How many QBs in RU history do you think have come close in this level of accuracy?

I’m not sure why anyone ever assumed Surace would come in with no game experience at all and beat him out.
 

rosenst2

Sophomore
Nov 6, 2021
114
157
43
I expected Dylan to be named, QB experience goes a long way with Greg.
AJ might have been good, but might have isn't a proven fact .
I believe AK at first had doubters , so no surprise seeing Lonergan having the same
I agree about the experience being a factor. It's less risk for Greg
 

PSAL_Hoops

Heisman
Feb 18, 2008
14,008
13,274
78
I agree about the experience being a factor. It's less risk for Greg

Greg brought in a QB who only threw 5 picks in 290 career pass attempts. And completed 67% of his throws to receivers who are notably worse than ours. He threw 2 untimely red zone picks in situations Greg would never put a QB in (for better or worse), and an untimely fumble (which also isn’t something Greg is going to hold against Lonergan in favor of a QB with no in game experience. Taking a step back, Surace would’ve really had to impress to earn the nod. Not with a transfer who put up those kind of accuracy numbers in the ACC available.
 

tico brown

Heisman
Oct 16, 2005
44,288
14,291
93
I’m not surprised at the decision being how long it took. If Surace had been showing he was better (even marginally), I figured it would’ve been announced sooner. After 3 loyal years in our system Greg would want to give him every opportunity to try to earn it.
Loyalty don’t mean squat if you don’t have the game experience. Longeran is chosen one now. Let’s see what happens.

Speaking of which, I guess that YOU MUST HAVE THREE YEARS OF LEARNING THE KC SYSTEM TO PLAY excuse is out the window?
 

PSAL_Hoops

Heisman
Feb 18, 2008
14,008
13,274
78
Loyalty don’t mean squat if you don’t have the game experience. Longeran is chosen one now. Let’s see what happens.

Speaking of which, I guess that YOU MUST HAVE THREE YEARS OF LEARNING THE KC SYSTEM TO PLAY excuse is out the window?

I always believed that was coach speak to motivate AJ to stick it out and battle. Once the QB race extended into August that meant it wasn’t a factor. This much was obvious a while ago - Greg had been saying the 2 QBs were similar. Nothing about experience in the system helping AJ since very early in preseason. That should’ve been a clue.

Again - it stinks for AJ given his loyalty to RU but there’s a 290 throw sample size in live games that would be tough for any QB to beat out unless one focuses mostly on mobility and the TD pass count (which wouldn’t even be fair to Lonergan considering the lack of surrounding talent he played with). Unfortunately for AJ, even if he’s more of a dual threat than Lonergan - I’m not sure that would be a huge factor with Raymond and Duff in the mix.
 

MrsScrew

All-Conference
Jan 17, 2023
719
1,608
93
Did anyone really think that a QB was transferring here to be the backup?

AJ may not have progressed to become the starter, but a lot of that is on Greg for not pulling Athan when we were getting murdered or when we were well ahead of another team. Guy didn't get the opportunity for reps in live play.
 

PSAL_Hoops

Heisman
Feb 18, 2008
14,008
13,274
78
Did anyone really think that a QB was transferring here to be the backup?

AJ may not have progressed to become the starter, but a lot of that is on Greg for not pulling Athan when we were getting murdered or when we were well ahead of another team. Guy didn't get the opportunity for reps in live play.

Come on - stop. Those kind of garbage time reps weren’t going to change anything either way. Dylan Lonergan completed 7 of his 8 passes in mop up duty at Alabama. Meaningless.
 

Knight Shift

Heisman
May 19, 2011
90,110
88,044
113
Did anyone really think that a QB was transferring here to be the backup?

AJ may not have progressed to become the starter, but a lot of that is on Greg for not pulling Athan when we were getting murdered or when we were well ahead of another team. Guy didn't get the opportunity for reps in live play.
We don't know that for sure.

Found this on Dylan when I was a freshman at Alabama and lost the job to Jaden Milroe:

" Lonergan, from Snellville, Georgia, might be the best pure passer of the bunch. He impressed with his accuracy this preseason but needs some experience to be ready to play."

I don't put a ton of stock into what happened at BC. He had two years of training under Saban at Alabama. That's worth something. Now he has to prove it.

And as I said above, don't sleep on Ashenfelder.

 

DHajekRC1984

All-Conference
Jul 20, 2025
1,156
1,036
113
Come on - stop. Those kind of garbage time reps weren’t going to change anything either way. Dylan Lonergan completed 7 of his 8 passes in mop up duty at Alabama. Meaningless.
Sorry, regardless if you are never given the chance to play then you'll never even get a chance to play if experience is the deciding factor. The message for any High School QB looking at Rutgers is don't come. Unless you are transferring in from another school where you played already you'll never have the real shot. I guess in today's NIL world that's just how it is going to be.

Will be interesting to see how things play out this year if Dylan struggles at all. Will GS give AJ the chance to prove him wrong or will he not want to risk being wrong.

Well it is what it is so good luck to Dylan and (I hope) GS for having made the correct choice because I have never had faith in his QB decisions until AK..and maybe that is Kirk.
 

RU206

All-American
Jan 23, 2015
5,187
5,260
113
Sorry, regardless if you are never given the chance to play then you'll never even get a chance to play if experience is the deciding factor. The message for any High School QB looking at Rutgers is don't come. Unless you are transferring in from another school where you played already you'll never have the real shot. I guess in today's NIL world that's just how it is going to be.

Will be interesting to see how things play out this year if Dylan struggles at all. Will GS give AJ the chance to prove him wrong or will he not want to risk being wrong.

Well it is what it is so good luck to Dylan and (I hope) GS for having made the correct choice because I have never had faith in his QB decisions until AK..and maybe that is Kirk.
It's not just RU. All schools are bringing in transfer QBs over the guys in the program. HS QBs really need to be selective on their career path. It is probably better to go to a lower level school where you can play and put up big numbers, so you can transfer after 2 years to a P4 program.
 

PSAL_Hoops

Heisman
Feb 18, 2008
14,008
13,274
78
We don't know that for sure.

Found this on Dylan when I was a freshman at Alabama and lost the job to Jaden Milroe:

" Lonergan, from Snellville, Georgia, might be the best pure passer of the bunch. He impressed with his accuracy this preseason but needs some experience to be ready to play."

I don't put a ton of stock into what happened at BC. He had two years of training under Saban at Alabama. That's worth something. Now he has to prove it.

And as I said above, don't sleep on Ashenfelder.


Just curious. Why don’t you put any stock in a 67% completion rate at BC on only 5 thrown picks? That means he’s clearly pretty accurate, no?
 
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PSAL_Hoops

Heisman
Feb 18, 2008
14,008
13,274
78
Sorry, regardless if you are never given the chance to play then you'll never even get a chance to play if experience is the deciding factor. The message for any High School QB looking at Rutgers is don't come. Unless you are transferring in from another school where you played already you'll never have the real shot. I guess in today's NIL world that's just how it is going to be.

Will be interesting to see how things play out this year if Dylan struggles at all. Will GS give AJ the chance to prove him wrong or will he not want to risk being wrong.

Well it is what it is so good luck to Dylan and (I hope) GS for having made the correct choice because I have never had faith in his QB decisions until AK..and maybe that is Kirk.

He had a shot. If he outperformed even a little in preseason he would’ve gotten the job. He had to beat out Lonergan and didn’t.
 

Knight Shift

Heisman
May 19, 2011
90,110
88,044
113
Just curious. Why don’t you put any stock in a 67% completion rate at BC on only 5 thrown picks? That means he’s clearly pretty accurate, no?
I should have been more clear. He lost the job for a bit (or longer? ) after his injury. He did not come back very strong.
 

RUinBoston

All-Conference
Aug 17, 2006
1,412
1,065
63
Maybe. But look - he can’t enter until January and unless he ends up taking over the starting role for some reason he won’t have any live film to market himself.
It sucks being named #2, but we all know that #2 can become #1 on very short notice in this game for any number of reasons. I wouldn't assume Surace is done just yet.
 
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Knight Shift

Heisman
May 19, 2011
90,110
88,044
113
Sorry, regardless if you are never given the chance to play then you'll never even get a chance to play if experience is the deciding factor. The message for any High School QB looking at Rutgers is don't come. Unless you are transferring in from another school where you played already you'll never have the real shot. I guess in today's NIL world that's just how it is going to be.

Will be interesting to see how things play out this year if Dylan struggles at all. Will GS give AJ the chance to prove him wrong or will he not want to risk being wrong.

Well it is what it is so good luck to Dylan and (I hope) GS for having made the correct choice because I have never had faith in his QB decisions until AK..and maybe that is Kirk.
Agree.
Disagree. Watched the podcast on this topic 6 of 8 of the last Heisman winners were transfer portal players. You play the best player.
He had a shot. If he outperformed even a little in preseason he would’ve gotten the job. He had to beat out Lonergan and didn’t.
Agreed. That loser who started the Quarterback poll thread should put a sock in it.
Mood Flexing GIF by Lil Mayo
 

RUTGERS95

Heisman
Sep 28, 2005
34,792
51,035
113
Come on - stop. Those kind of garbage time reps weren’t going to change anything either way. Dylan Lonergan completed 7 of his 8 passes in mop up duty at Alabama. Meaningless.
except Greg said otherwise this week
game speed and action, despite score and comp, is invaluable
 

Shelby65

All-Conference
Apr 1, 2008
8,528
4,718
66
I’m not surprised at the decision being how long it took. If Surace had been showing he was better (even marginally), I figured it would’ve been announced sooner. After 3 loyal years in our system Greg would want to give him every opportunity to try to earn it.
Disagree with the logic. Schiano plays everything close to the vest. It could have been a Josh Allen vs Art Sitkowski competition and Schiano would announce late. Competitive advantage, of course.
 

Caliknight

Hall of Famer
Sep 21, 2001
197,379
149,432
113
Come on - stop. Those kind of garbage time reps weren’t going to change anything either way. Dylan Lonergan completed 7 of his 8 passes in mop up duty at Alabama. Meaningless.
You really don't think live game reps would help a player progress? That's crazy talk.
 
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