Rutgers has not had the greatest first half of the season heading into their bye week. The Scarlet Knights sit at 2-6 overall record and a 0-5 Big Ten conference record.
Their record is not good by any means and there has been offensive and defensive issues all year long. There were hopes of Rutgers’ backfield having a monster season this year as Martin and Hicks were near the top of the Big Ten in rushing statistics last season.
Let us take a look at how each back has done this season...
By looking at this graphic you could tell that Robert Martin is easily the best back we have. You can also see that Justin Goodwin has had some solid performances and is a viable replacement when Martin is injured, which he was during Minnesota.
You can also tell from this graphic that there has been one game where all four backs have had yardage. For a team using a rotation, only one game with all four touching the ball is a little surprising.
Trey Sneed and Josh Hicks have small numbers but that is largely in part to little playing time. Hicks can move the ball well if he gets touches. Having to play safety for a few games definitely did not help his numbers in the backfield.
Trey Sneed is a Freshman and is not expected to get too many carries or yards. Sneed was the only one to get a Rutgers first down in the Michigan game, though. It is fair to say that Sneed has looked good in the games he has played.
The last thing you may notice is the lack of rushing yards this group as a whole has produced. There have been a select few monster games, but, overall, Rutgers has struggled to get the run game going.
This is in part due to the poor play of the offensive line or maybe even to the fact that we are constantly down by a large number of points. Either way, the run game needs to produce more yardage the rest of the way to help out Giovanni Rescigno and the offense and to give the defense a breather.
Here is a chart showing the total offense produced by our running backs.
The Rutgers backs are not getting terrible yardage per carry this season, they just are not getting the carries. We need Martin to stay healthy and keep running like the horse we know him to be.
If the backfield can stay healthy and Gio continues to produce, look for the running game’s numbers to go up the second half of the season.
Enjoy the bye week, see you for Indiana #GoKnights #KeepChopping