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An outsider’s take on the RU UM game

S

ShoreLion85V2

Sophomore
Oct 17, 2016
79
197
21
From my very good seat, here are the things I noticed. Please keep in mind that I have no opinion/position on the Head Coach’s job situation - I’m a guest here, and I try to act like one.

1. RUs passing attack could use the TE much more/better - don’t understand the lack of TE in the O;
2. Your LBs are not fast enough, and your safeties are not as good as RU usually has;
3. DL is improving - better pressure on QB than previous games, although some over-pursuit plus lack of speed at LB really hurt you when the UM QB ran;
4. Special Teams can be a force multiplier and change the trajectory of the game. Why does your coaching staff remove the kick and punt return portion of them? Especially when a big play could tie or win the game - why not give your returners a shot?
5. Waaay to many visiting team fans in the stands! Cmon Jersey - keep your tix away from the UM Walmart fans!!

See you vs Nebraska - go RU (except on Nov 21st, of course)!
 
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R

RUChet

All-Conference
Apr 8, 2023
3,325
4,070
113
ShoreLion85V2 said:
From my very good seat, here are the things I noticed. Please keep in mind that I have no opinion/position on the Head Coach’s job situation - I’m a guest here, and I try to act like one.

1. RUs passing attack could use the TE much more/better - don’t understand the lack of TE in the O;
2. Your LBs are not fast enough, and your safeties are not as good as RU usually has;
3. DL is improving - better pressure on QB than previous games, although some over-pursuit plus lack of speed at LB really hurt you when the UM QB ran;
4. Special Teams can be a force multiplier and change the trajectory of the game. Why does your coaching staff remove the kick and punt return portion of them? Especially when a big play could tie or win the game - why not give your returners a shot?
5. Waaay to many visiting team fans in the stands! Cmon Jersey - keep your tix away from the UM Walmart fans!!

See you vs Nebraska - go RU (except on Nov 21st, of course)!
Click to expand...
Pretty much agree with you

Our OC only sees TEs for help blocking

We were 2-5 going into a matchup with a historically bad Michigan team. We had 2 wins - 1 over the worst B1G team and 1 over a horrible FCS team - hard to motivate fans . We flat out stink
 
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Knight Shift

Knight Shift

Heisman
May 19, 2011
91,861
90,047
113
ShoreLion85V2 said:
From my very good seat, here are the things I noticed. Please keep in mind that I have no opinion/position on the Head Coach’s job situation - I’m a guest here, and I try to act like one.

1. RUs passing attack could use the TE much more/better - don’t understand the lack of TE in the O;
2. Your LBs are not fast enough, and your safeties are not as good as RU usually has;
3. DL is improving - better pressure on QB than previous games, although some over-pursuit plus lack of speed at LB really hurt you when the UM QB ran;
4. Special Teams can be a force multiplier and change the trajectory of the game. Why does your coaching staff remove the kick and punt return portion of them? Especially when a big play could tie or win the game - why not give your returners a shot?
5. Waaay to many visiting team fans in the stands! Cmon Jersey - keep your tix away from the UM Walmart fans!!

See you vs Nebraska - go RU (except on Nov 21st, of course)!
Click to expand...
1. RU has not effectively used TEs since Tyler Croft. Seems to be a recruiting/talent problem and a coaching problem.
2. Yep and yep.
3. Yep.
4. It's a shame what GS has done to special teams. Basically taken that phase of the game out of the game with 95% fair catches.
5. Seven years of mediocrity trending further down breeds fan apathy.
 
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Caliknight

Caliknight

Hall of Famer
Sep 21, 2001
198,420
151,155
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ShoreLion85V2 said:
From my very good seat, here are the things I noticed. Please keep in mind that I have no opinion/position on the Head Coach’s job situation - I’m a guest here, and I try to act like one.

1. RUs passing attack could use the TE much more/better - don’t understand the lack of TE in the O;
2. Your LBs are not fast enough, and your safeties are not as good as RU usually has;
3. DL is improving - better pressure on QB than previous games, although some over-pursuit plus lack of speed at LB really hurt you when the UM QB ran;
4. Special Teams can be a force multiplier and change the trajectory of the game. Why does your coaching staff remove the kick and punt return portion of them? Especially when a big play could tie or win the game - why not give your returners a shot?
5. Waaay to many visiting team fans in the stands! Cmon Jersey - keep your tix away from the UM Walmart fans!!

See you vs Nebraska - go RU (except on Nov 21st, of course)!
Click to expand...
As to special teams, it’s one of the biggest blunders of Greggo’s career. He willingly nullifies the best chances he has to get athletes in space. And we don’t even block punts anymore.

He coaches scared and feckless. When he was asked why he does this he responded about some bs about “analytics” told him this is the way to coach. Apparently he has a different AI tool than every other coach.
 
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rureadyforsomefootball

rureadyforsomefootball

All-Conference
Aug 20, 2005
5,412
2,174
113
ShoreLion85V2 said:
From my very good seat, here are the things I noticed. Please keep in mind that I have no opinion/position on the Head Coach’s job situation - I’m a guest here, and I try to act like one.

1. RUs passing attack could use the TE much more/better - don’t understand the lack of TE in the O;
2. Your LBs are not fast enough, and your safeties are not as good as RU usually has;
3. DL is improving - better pressure on QB than previous games, although some over-pursuit plus lack of speed at LB really hurt you when the UM QB ran;
4. Special Teams can be a force multiplier and change the trajectory of the game. Why does your coaching staff remove the kick and punt return portion of them? Especially when a big play could tie or win the game - why not give your returners a shot?
5. Waaay to many visiting team fans in the stands! Cmon Jersey - keep your tix away from the UM Walmart fans!!

See you vs Nebraska - go RU (except on Nov 21st, of course)!
Click to expand...
Great post. You are the anti-Rutgers Al, with a well thought out, logical thinking post.
 
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C

ClassOf02v.2

Heisman
Sep 30, 2010
13,999
15,649
103
ShoreLion85V2 said:
From my very good seat, here are the things I noticed. Please keep in mind that I have no opinion/position on the Head Coach’s job situation - I’m a guest here, and I try to act like one.

1. RUs passing attack could use the TE much more/better - don’t understand the lack of TE in the O;
2. Your LBs are not fast enough, and your safeties are not as good as RU usually has;
3. DL is improving - better pressure on QB than previous games, although some over-pursuit plus lack of speed at LB really hurt you when the UM QB ran;
4. Special Teams can be a force multiplier and change the trajectory of the game. Why does your coaching staff remove the kick and punt return portion of them? Especially when a big play could tie or win the game - why not give your returners a shot?
5. Waaay to many visiting team fans in the stands! Cmon Jersey - keep your tix away from the UM Walmart fans!!

See you vs Nebraska - go RU (except on Nov 21st, of course)!
Click to expand...
I will try to respond to each point as objectively as possible, without letting my disdain for our current coaching staff cloud my comments:

1. Our blockhead head coach limits the usage of things that can be weapons in the offense, and prefers that TEs exclusively block. It’s a wonder we get any in the program at all.

2. Our blockhead head coach can’t attract a defensive coordinator like every other P4 team can, so it took him until February to hire one and fill out the coaching staff on that side of the ball. Obviously, portal talent wasn’t coming without knowing who would be coaching them.

3. I was very surprised at the amount of pressure we had against Michigan. First time we’ve seen that all year.

4. Our blockhead head coach is scared of penalties and turnovers. Some analytics guy convinced him that 51% of the time something bad will happen if you return a kickoff or punt, so naturally he decides to just eliminate any potential of changing a game on special teams. Funny thing is, GS 1.0 was known for special teams play. It’s now completely gone from the game plan. Sometimes I wonder if the Eric Legrand injury has an impact on his special teams strategy.

5. When a UMass defensive line absolutely manhandles our O line in the first game of the year at home — after a 2025 season of being overwhelmed on defense — it has a funny way of breeding fan apathy. The program was already trending downward, but the bottom fell out in the very first game this year.

So, to sum up….all your observations really come down to one thing: our head coach is a blockhead. But don’t worry, he knows what to do and he’ll fix it.
 
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R

RUGuitarMan1

All-Conference
Apr 5, 2021
2,712
4,342
73
We lack speed and explosive players across the entire defense. The defense has gone from bad to horrendous over the last 3 seasons. Poor player evaluation in recruiting and in the portal. Poor development of HS recruits over the last 3-4 years. This goes to the quality of the defensive coaches starting with the HC. The offense is mediocre and has been better than the defense over the last several years because there are better coaches and recruiters on that side of the ball.
 
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R

RUChet

All-Conference
Apr 8, 2023
3,325
4,070
113
Caliknight said:
As to special teams, it’s one of the biggest blunders of Greggo’s career. He willingly nullifies the best chances he has to get athletes in space. And we don’t even block punts anymore.

He coaches scared and feckless. When he was asked why he does this he responded about some bs about “analytics” told him this is the way to coach. Apparently he has a different AI tool than every other coach.
Click to expand...
Yep. His analytics result in winning 1 in 4 conference games
 
R

RUChet

All-Conference
Apr 8, 2023
3,325
4,070
113
Knight Shift said:
1. RU has not effectively used TEs since Tyler Croft. Seems to be a recruiting/talent problem and a coaching problem.
2. Yep and yep.
3. Yep.
4. It's a shame what GS has done to special teams. Basically taken that phase of the game out of the game with 95% fair catches.
5. Seven years of mediocrity trending further down breeds fan apathy.
Click to expand...
We must be the only football program that literally doesn’t understand the TE is a weapon yet it wasn’t that way under GS1.0.

We heard about Rothbar and Anthony will step up yet all I see is Blake blocking and 1 short catch a game
 
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R

Redrich66

Senior
Sep 19, 2025
565
601
63
ClassOf02v.2 said:
I will try to respond to each point as objectively as possible, without letting my disdain for our current coaching staff cloud my comments:

1. Our blockhead head coach limits the usage of things that can be weapons in the offense, and prefers that TEs exclusively block. It’s a wonder we get any in the program at all.

2. Our blockhead head coach can’t attract a defensive coordinator like every other P4 team can, so it took him until February to hire one and fill out the coaching staff on that side of the ball. Obviously, portal talent wasn’t coming without knowing who would be coaching them.

3. I was very surprised at the amount of pressure we had against Michigan. First time we’ve seen that all year.

4. Our blockhead head coach is scared of penalties and turnovers. Some analytics guy convinced him that 51% of the time something bad will happen if you return a kickoff or punt, so naturally he decides to just eliminate any potential of changing a game on special teams. Funny thing is, GS 1.0 was known for special teams play. It’s now completely gone from the game plan. Sometimes I wonder if the Eric Legrand injury has an impact on his special teams strategy.

5. When a UMass defensive line absolutely manhandles our O line in the first game of the year at home — after a 2025 season of being overwhelmed on defense — it has a funny way of breeding fan apathy. The program was already trending downward, but the bottom fell out in the very first game this year.

So, to sum up….all your observations really come down to one thing: our head coach is a blockhead. But don’t worry, he knows what to do and he’ll fix it.
Click to expand...
Do we have a Lucy for the Blockhead?
 
R

rob kight

All-American
Oct 22, 2020
5,019
6,399
113
ShoreLion85V2 said:
From my very good seat, here are the things I noticed. Please keep in mind that I have no opinion/position on the Head Coach’s job situation - I’m a guest here, and I try to act like one.

1. RUs passing attack could use the TE much more/better - don’t understand the lack of TE in the O;
2. Your LBs are not fast enough, and your safeties are not as good as RU usually has;
3. DL is improving - better pressure on QB than previous games, although some over-pursuit plus lack of speed at LB really hurt you when the UM QB ran;
4. Special Teams can be a force multiplier and change the trajectory of the game. Why does your coaching staff remove the kick and punt return portion of them? Especially when a big play could tie or win the game - why not give your returners a shot?
5. Waaay to many visiting team fans in the stands! Cmon Jersey - keep your tix away from the UM Walmart fans!!

See you vs Nebraska - go RU (except on Nov 21st, of course)!
Click to expand...
Was a winnable game, if Lonergan and Duff were healthy, believe we would have won. Agree that we need a solution to defend a QB that can run or we will be 0 for 4 the rest of the year. RU makes average QBs look like Heisman candidates
 
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ScarletDave

ScarletDave

Heisman
Oct 7, 2010
34,755
15,659
85
rob kight said:
Was a winnable game, if Lonergan and Duff were healthy, believe we would have won. Agree that we need a solution to defend a QB that can run or we will be 0 for 4 the rest of the year. RU makes average QBs look like Heisman candidates
Click to expand...
We havent had a solution for defending mobile QBs for 20 years under Schiano nor for the first 8 games of this season but I’m sure they figured it out this week in practice
 
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