{"id":52635,"date":"2023-10-06T20:00:48","date_gmt":"2023-10-07T00:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=52635"},"modified":"2025-09-13T16:09:55","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T20:09:55","slug":"september-recap-rutgers-version","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2023\/10\/06\/september-recap-rutgers-version\/","title":{"rendered":"September Recap (Rutgers&#8217; Version)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Welcome to New York! (Or really, New Jersey)<\/h3>\n<p>As we reflect on the Rutgers September, the garden state has been buzzing this week with the chatter of Taylor Swift&#8217;s appearance at the Chiefs and Jets game at MetLife Stadium last week.<\/p>\n<p>Everyone wants a connection to the Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce news. Rutgers and football head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2023\/08\/24\/greg-schiano-is-hopeful-for-a-scarlet-knights-bowl-game\/\" target=\"_self\">Greg Schiano<\/a> have been buzzwords in these conversations. What\u2019s the connection between the State University of New Jersey and Taylor Swift?<\/p>\n<p>Isiah Pacheco.<\/p>\n<p>Pacheco is in his second season with the Kansas City Chiefs, coming to Arrowhead straight from SHI Stadium. Oh, and he\u2019s one-for-one with Super Bowl rings as well.<\/p>\n<p>Pacheco is a Vineland, NJ native and was the Rutgers\u2019 star running back during his time with the Knights.<\/p>\n<p>Reposts from the Chiefs of a picture saying \u201cWelcome home pop\u201d were quickly reshared by a flurry of Rutgers and Chiefs fans Sunday as the Chiefs got ready to take the field at MetLife stadium. Accounts on TikTok boasted the connection by creating a series of pictures ultimately creating the sentence \u201cI love Taylor Swift\u2026\u2019s boyfriend\u2026\u2019s teammate\u2026.\u2019s old college head coach\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>With Pacheco Gone, Rutgers Is Left to Fill His Legacy<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/kyle-monangai-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kyle Monangai<\/a> has really stepped up in his running back position since Pacheco\u2019s leave. His performance similarities to Pacheco can be read about <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2023\/09\/19\/kyle-monangai-leads-rutgers-to-3-0\/\" target=\"_self\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>With one month down in the 2023 season, here are Monangai\u2019s season stats:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>88 rush attempts<\/li>\n<li>6 touchdowns<\/li>\n<li>471 rushing yards<\/li>\n<li>23 passing yards<\/li>\n<li>2 catches<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What should Rutgers expect of Monangai for the remainder of the season? Monangai has done well with short rushes. And although those are not the flashy, big numbers that catch people\u2019s eyes, he wears his opponent\u2019s defenses down with these quick and constant efforts. He is the clear leader of Rutgers\u2019 offense and we can expect him to continue racking up yards with his quick sprints. When asked about Monangai, Schiano had nothing but positive things to say. \u201cHe&#8217;s worked incredibly hard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBoth his physical development and his strength and conditioning area. He\u2019s become a student of the game. Oftentimes, running backs can get away just by being naturally talented guys, and he is naturally talented. But he&#8217;s worked very hard to understand run schemes, understand pass protections, and most importantly, understand defenses. So I think he&#8217;s now what I would call a guy who is in that final quarter of his development here, and those are the guys that we need.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rutgers\u2019 offense has continued to get stronger with the return of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/aaron-young-5.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aaron Young<\/a>. Another name to watch out for at running back, Young has returned from an injury that kept him out of the first few games and has come back ready to fire away. Thus far, he\u2019s had 11 rushing attempts and 78 yards gained.<\/p>\n<h3>Upcoming Opponents<\/h3>\n<p>At this point in the season, Rutgers needs to win two more games to meet bowl game eligibility. Here are the opponents they have yet to face:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Wisconsin<\/li>\n<li>Michigan State<\/li>\n<li>Indiana<\/li>\n<li>Ohio State<\/li>\n<li>Penn State<\/li>\n<li>Maryland<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Last week\u2019s blowout over Wagner was the last of Rutgers\u2019 non-conference games. Penn State and Maryland are powerhouses, leading the Big Ten East with 5-0 records. Ohio State is sitting right behind them at 4-0. While Rutgers\u2019 performance has made major improvements from last season, they\u2019re really going to have to fight to be able to pull wins out against these three teams. Wisconsin, this week\u2019s opponent, is at the top of the Big Ten West leaderboard at 3-1. After seeing the way Rutgers held up against the University of Michigan, we shouldn\u2019t be to quick to count them out against the Badgers.<\/p>\n<p>Indiana and Michigan State fall below Rutgers in Big Ten standings. These games are the most critical for Rutgers. These are two games that they should win and <em>need<\/em> to win to secure a bowl game. Michigan State is currently scrambling, having lost their head coach early into the season.<\/p>\n<p>Going into the Wagner game, Schiano was firm on the fact that he wanted his team to come out as strong as they could. Just because they\u2019re expected to win doesn\u2019t mean they should act like it \u2013 every game should be treated the same. This is what they are going to need to do against Michigan State and Indiana, and then off to a bowl game, they will be!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_52641\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-52641\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-52641\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/10\/USATSI_21559332_168400536_lowres-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"rutgers september\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/10\/USATSI_21559332_168400536_lowres-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/10\/USATSI_21559332_168400536_lowres-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/10\/USATSI_21559332_168400536_lowres-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/10\/USATSI_21559332_168400536_lowres-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/10\/USATSI_21559332_168400536_lowres-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/10\/USATSI_21559332_168400536_lowres.jpg 1295w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-52641\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo courtesy:\u00a0 Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to New York! (Or really, New Jersey) As we reflect on the Rutgers September, the garden state has been buzzing this week with the chatter of Taylor Swift&#8217;s appearance at the Chiefs and Jets game at MetLife Stadium last week. Everyone wants a connection to the Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce news. Rutgers and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4851,"featured_media":52641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,35574,5],"tags":[35,7983,184,32611,79,126,455,3098],"class_list":["post-52635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-alabama-crimson-tide","category-bigten","tag-alabama-crimson-tide","tag-big-ten-football","tag-cfb","tag-chiefs","tag-college-football","tag-ncaa","tag-rutgers-scarlet-knights","tag-travis-kelce"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4851"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52635"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79629,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52635\/revisions\/79629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}