Football Rutgers Football names Dylan Lonergan starting quarterback for 2026 season
- Thread starter Alec Crouthamel
- Start date
I think PSAL is just arguing to argue. He must be bored.
You didn’t say he bombed. I was actually the one who said he looked bad vs. Pitt and Clemson but after watching it again I took that back. He wasn’t great - but he didn’t stand out as awful either. The way I see it - he was really good in 2 games - Michigan State and Georgia Tech (better of the two). He was solid in most of the other games as well but the good things he did were camouflaged by a few costly mistakes that ultimately contributed to the losses.
Mostly - I just find it annoying that we have fans suggesting a major coaching mistake was made in not playing AJ last year. There were limited opportunities to get him in the game. It’s really that simple. Real game reps may be valuable but I do keep going back to the TKR on Duff’s decision to stay being contingent on bringing in an experienced QB. Duff will say the right things publicly, but at the end of the day, what he say from AJ in practices obviously didn’t yield all that much confidence.
@willisneverrana43 nailed it above.
There are a lot of noisemakers on this board, and their true colors show whenever major decisions are made by HC Schiano. IDK every aspect that went into the decision, but anyone who thinks that they considered hurt feelings or it being unfair fails to realize these decisions are based the coaching staff's feeling on who will give the team the best chance at winning. This is not Pop Warner or rec league football. It's big business, and the pressure is on this staff to win. In hindsight, could it be shown they judged it incorrect? Of course, it happens, and not just a Rutgers. It's a message board, filled with trolls and people who want to beat dead horses and ghosts of slighted players past. At least we are discussing football and not obscure dead people.
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WTF are you talking about, never said it was a season predictor…lol. Like @Knight Shift has said in multiple replies, you’re claiming things that were not said and basically trying to find things to argue for the sake of arguing.
The article compared the most recent year because BC had good WRs. One is in the NFL, the other starter is WR1 at his new school and the RB was very good. Sound familiar?
Maybe go back and re-read what I wrote for starters instead of wanting to hear yourself talk. You seem to be making up a lot of things when I’m not arguing against Dylan…lol.
They had two offensive lineman drafted (4th Rd./6th Rd.) and a third go as a FA.
1.he stole those comments from my earlier posts!!!!!!
2.he got his AJ stuff either our site mods or reading the boards because his AJ vid sounded like the stuff you heard here. He actually must have gotten quite a bit actually given his view on short game
lol
The doubt was not unwarranted. AK improved A LOT throughout his first year.
Just to be clear, my argument wasn’t that it wouldn’t have been nice to get him some reps. Cali is arguing that Greg made some kind of grave mistake that cost us AJ’s development. Did Ryan Day make a mistake only giving his back up 14 pass attempts? Saban didn’t play his back ups much either except when he was forced to because of injury. Most coaches don’t.
I’m not on Round Table so I really don’t have any context for what was discussed. I didn’t say you said anything - again I don’t even have access to what was said. I asked “generally” why the comparison to a graduated senior vs someone coming off a junior season. The whole point of comparing Lonergan to anyone is in anticipation of the coming season at Rutgers. It’s not as if our position group with Strong, Duff and Kyle Monangai wasnt good in 2024 too.
But in any case - nothing I said was directed at you. It bothers me that me a large subset of our fan base views it as some kind of big coaching failure that AJ didn’t beat out Lonergan.
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The running back usually ends up on the opposite side he started. Something's changing.
Just to be clear, my argument wasn’t that it wouldn’t be nice to get some reps for back ups. But not playing AJ more wasn’t some kind of bad coaching mistake by Greg as Cali suggests. Often times, even on the best teams with tons of garbage time opportunities don’t get the back ups in. Ryan Day’s back up QB threw only 5 more passes than AJ last year.
I don’t know what to tell you other than that the drop from being a 7 win team to a 2 win team couldn’t really be blamed on the QB position because James was there both years and he put up way better numbers in 2024 than he did in 2025. Unless he suddenly got a lot worse this trend suggests something else changed?
Who cares about James. Different situation/different players over 2 seasons. Let’s see how it plays out.
My gut says AJ comes in and saves the season. We shall see.
Because somehow the BC offense fell off a cliff from 2024 to 2025. Despite having all these supposed weapons stocked at the skill positions, 3 OL draftees, etc. BC was way worse. If not for James, one might argue reasonably that perhaps the difference was a big drop off at he QB position. But James was the QB for 3 of BC’s 4 ACC 2024 wins. He was there when they were much better. And his numbers were worse than Lonergan’s in 2025.
As for Surace, it seems to me that perhaps you simply want AJ to have success. And your not alone. Seems like a lot of fans are disappointed Lonergan won. There’s no real basis though for assuming AJ is better. As discussed, he hasn’t played enough to opine either way.
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Articles from Asbury Park Press/North Jersey and The Targum:
Gee, isn't this what several people were saying about his performance at Boston College last year?
"Lonergan had an up-and-down season at Boston College, completing 190-of-284 passes (66.9 percent) for 2,025 yards and 12 touchdowns.
He was benched midway through the season before earning it back again at the end. And that benching?
The exact reason Lonergan’s not letting himself get too comfortable."
“You’ve still got to earn it every single day,” Lonergan said. “I think I learned that last year. You’ve just got to approach every day like it could be the last, and you’ve got to do your best and that's all you can do.”
"Lonergan saw himself benched for a period of 2 games but finished up starting 9 games for the Eagles last season, playing in a total of 10 of them."
"After a rocky year up in Chestnut Hill, Lonergan hit the portal . . ."
wrsu.org
Gee, isn't this what several people were saying about his performance at Boston College last year?
"Lonergan had an up-and-down season at Boston College, completing 190-of-284 passes (66.9 percent) for 2,025 yards and 12 touchdowns.
He was benched midway through the season before earning it back again at the end. And that benching?
The exact reason Lonergan’s not letting himself get too comfortable."
“You’ve still got to earn it every single day,” Lonergan said. “I think I learned that last year. You’ve just got to approach every day like it could be the last, and you’ve got to do your best and that's all you can do.”
"Lonergan saw himself benched for a period of 2 games but finished up starting 9 games for the Eagles last season, playing in a total of 10 of them."
"After a rocky year up in Chestnut Hill, Lonergan hit the portal . . ."
Rutgers Football Names Boston College Transfer QB Dylan Lonergan Starter - Rutgers Radio
It was announced in the morning on August 24th, 2026, first reported by...
wrsu.org
Indiana will be facing a former QB similar to BC. . . .but a little different. Jackson competed against Sorsby in 2023 and temporarily replaced him before losing the starting job.
I never once argued that practice and live game reps are the “same thing”. If AK got hurt and Surace had been forced into action, the experience would’ve been very valuable. No question - and I never suggested otherwise.
I called out your suggestion that Greg “messed up” in how Surace was handled along with the related assumption that not finding him a couple extra throws in low pressure live-game situations (which is realistically all that we could’ve done) was a clear difference maker in this outcome.
Articles from Asbury Park Press/North Jersey and The Targum:
Gee, isn't this what several people were saying about his performance at Boston College last year?
"Lonergan had an up-and-down season at Boston College, completing 190-of-284 passes (66.9 percent) for 2,025 yards and 12 touchdowns.
He was benched midway through the season before earning it back again at the end. And that benching?
The exact reason Lonergan’s not letting himself get too comfortable."
“You’ve still got to earn it every single day,” Lonergan said. “I think I learned that last year. You’ve just got to approach every day like it could be the last, and you’ve got to do your best and that's all you can do.”
"Lonergan saw himself benched for a period of 2 games but finished up starting 9 games for the Eagles last season, playing in a total of 10 of them."
"After a rocky year up in Chestnut Hill, Lonergan hit the portal . . ."
Rutgers Football Names Boston College Transfer QB Dylan Lonergan Starter - Rutgers Radio
It was announced in the morning on August 24th, 2026, first reported by...
Seems pretty similar to AK’s experience at Minny. AK didn’t lose the starting role in 2023, but it also wasn’t like there was someone else available on the roster to turn to who took over prior season QB duties and went 3-1 in the last few conference games.
If we max out at 4 wins this year, we will be talking about a whole lot more changes at the end of the year
You ever think maybe he has developed and his development just wasn't good enough to win the starting job
Not when he wasn't actually being developed in games. As soon as Lonergan transferred in it was obvious he was the guy. YOu don't pay that guy to come to sit behind someone who has never started. But that's a separate topic.
Thats the boat I fall in. By all accounts we’re not picking between crap and poop. Both guys were decent and close, so AJ developed but Lonergan won fair and square. And yes, Lonergan was paid but I swore the team here at On3 said it wasn’t a ridiculous amount (@Richie O am I correct with that line of thinking?).
So it’s not like you overpaid for a guy and need to justify it.
You seem to be convinced that 10-15 additional pass reps in lopsided games would’ve made AJ materially better than he now is. I disagree - but there’s clearly no way to prove or disprove it either.
But for the avoidance of doubt - there was a TKR podcast (I believe right when Ian left) which discussed that Duff’s decision to stay was contingent on us bringing in a QB with meaningful experience to compete with AJ which makes complete sense. It would’ve been way too much of a risk for him to stay here not knowing what the floor of the pass game would be. That had to be the reason we shelled out the money for another QB.
You can disagree with me about AJ’s development trajectory regarding the impact 10-15 throws could realistically have had - but just to be clear, the only path to getting Duff comfortable with AJ’s floor without bringing in someone seasoned was an injury to AK. Duff wasn’t getting comfortable based on a handful of throws in low pressure game situations against second and third stringers. So the outcome in terms of bringing in a QB wasn’t changing.
Actually - come to think of it, there’s another possibility we didn’t consider. How do you even know AJ would’ve done well against OSU / Oregon subs if green lighted to make throws to try to prove himself. Suppose he throws a couple picks? If that happened, Duff would’ve had even more concerns.
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10-15 throes is an arbitrary number you are making up. It could have been way more. Of course Duff wanted a proven QB. He saw the guy on the roster being a hand off machine when he was put in sparingly.
Why did Schiano say he wished he’d have played him more if not for more development reasons?
He said he wished he COULD HAVE played him more. Meaning that he wished there had been more opportunities where it made sense. Of course that would’ve been a positive for his development. Nowhere did I suggest otherwise. But the point is the opportunities weren’t there.
.
The Ohio game went down to the wire and the Miami game was 2 score game into Q4 too. There was no other game outside the 2 we got manhandled in to bring him in. So your not talking about more than 3 additional series and in garbage time that’s highly unlikely to translate into more than 15 additional pass attempts. Again - OSU blew plenty of teams. Their back up threw 15 passes compared to 9 from AJ. None in meaningful situations. Our guy took 2 sacks which were intended pass attempts so it was really 11. We know you don’t like Greg but there isnt a reasonable argument that a major coaching mistake was made regarding AJ’s playing time. Robb Smith and in turn Schiano are to blame for not being able to trust the D even against the MAC which meant there were less garbage time reps available on the season. The spots where Greg maybe could’ve found a series or brought him into throw instead of handed off to run out the clock arguably could’ve also hurt his confidence as much as helped. You have no idea how the team would’ve faired if he started firing away while we were getting man handled. Everyone else just wanted the clock to wind down. But either way you are talking about maybe 3 more series In total. Possibly one at the end of Illinois but a stretch because we were trying to save face for morale and let AK end on somewhat of a high note. Not really a spot you bring a back up in. But there’s no other place to even consider it.
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He could have played him more. He chose not to. Which to his credit he's admitting that mistake. Not sure why you don't see that. Here are his 25 stats. If you think throwing 9 passes in a season is all he could do to prepare the back up QB who had a real chance of being the starter either that season or the next, you're crazy. There was no guarantee he was going to get Lonergan or any other QB with experience. He just didn't develop the guy he had in real game settings and admitted such. This isn't controversial.
Yeah, he only had way more NIL than before to utilize but he may not have gotten a QB with experience.He could have played him more. He chose not to. Which to his credit he's admitting that mistake. Not sure why you don't see that. Here are his 25 stats. If you think throwing 9 passes in a season is all he could do to prepare the back up QB who had a real chance of being the starter either that season or the next, you're crazy. There was no guarantee he was going to get Lonergan or any other QB with experience. He just didn't develop the guy he had in real game settings and admitted such. This isn't controversial.
Every P4 school has way more NIL and rev share money.Yeah, he only had way more NIL than before to utilize but he may not have gotten a QB with experience.
I’m far more caught up than you. Keli wouldn’t know you from a hole in the wall.
Do you need me to send you a dude to keep stroking your ego?
Not interested, but thanks though. Admitting you know a plethora of dudes who do a lot of stroking lol. Ooof. Send em to Knight Shift. He’d be very appreciate.
I don’t want to find dudes who stroke anything. Your search history must be diabolical. You do you though pal.
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