Arguably, there wasn't much of a choice.
"It's a cumulative experience with (Savage) on what he did in the game and what he's done in scrimmages," Schiano told reporters after Wednesday's practice. "I don't think you make a decision based on one day. And as I said the other day, tests count more than quizzes."
Yes and no. I've been frazzled the past few days, and unable to really go into a level of incomprehensible detail that I'm most comfortable with. Dom Natale has something to work with, and I believe he'll play a critical role at some point during the next few months. But Savage had to be the choice, for both the near-term and going forward. Rutgers has youth in spades; time to use it.
Ok, what now? Savage looks like the better option, but let's not kid ourselves. Even the best freshmen will go through rough patches, especially at the quarterback position. RU will steamroll Howard, and beat FIU handily, but the real test comes in a few weeks at Maryland. Savage will have to show the poise to walk into a tough road environment and walk away with the 'W'. He will have his good and his bad moments, and what's critical is how he responds to the later.
On the other hand, you don't want to necessarily overreact too much to one bad game. It's a long season. That's why I don't want to read too much into David Rowe getting a crack at Brandon Bing's starting job at corner. Part of that is the fact that I'm not convinced that we'll see another game like Monday's when it comes to personnel and scheme. Each contest will have its own unique challenges. I'm not saying "double down, full speed ahead", but rather, throwing my hands up in the air, acknowledging that I don't have a clue, maybe calling for a little caution from the idea that the depth chart needs to change for change's sake.
Zaire Kitchen may be available for Saturday. That's a break. Ouch, bad choice of words.
After parsing and parsing, I still don't really understand this one though.
"Tight end, we'll do some mixing around with some different guys," Schiano said. "Maybe get some more wideouts playing behind Timmy (Brown) and (Mohamed) Sanu."
Schiano said that starting tight end Shamar Graves, who caught a touchdown in Monday's loss, is too valuable on special teams and would like to work in more players in the position.
How many times did Jefferson or the freshmen even see the field in the opener? I liked the improved s/t play on Saturday, but isn't Graves too valuable, not only as a starter, but the only player on the roster with anything resembling in-game experience, for that kind of role on specials? One other wrinkle to this is that Savage ran a lot of plays out of Shotgun on Monday. Ever since Rutgers promoted Kirk Ciarrocca, I've been wondering if we were going to see some of what he did with Joe Flacco at Delaware, with a few more spread looks. Wish we had the personnel (re: a healthy and experienced Carrezola, Hoagie seeing the field) to bring back a bit more of a smash mouth style on offense.
I haven't had a chance to listen to week two of the Schiano show podcast yet. Will there be some candor?
Nick Carparelli on the Big East's television deal:
What that means is that each school will receive roughly $1.65 million per season from an ESPN contract that escalates a bit in value annually, but averages about $13.3 million per year. This is the second year in that contract, which runs through the 2013 football season.
In 2008, the first year of the contract hike to $13 million, the Big East split a $9 million pool among the eight members. The other $4 million went into an "appearance pool," with money earned by schools via "units" depending on what network aired the game, whether it was a conference or non-conference game, and home or road.
C. Vivian Stringer enters the Hall of Fame tomorrow.
Jamaal Westerman is expected to contribute on special teams this weekend.
I keep forgetting to mention this, so any Twitter uses should follow @AKinkhabwala.
The Ledger gets down and dirty with claims of Grease Truck supremacy.