Kyle Monangai got some quality praise from Michigan State linebacker Cal Haladay, this as the Rutgers football running back had a career day carrying the ball.
The praise is especially meaningful considering the strong performance from Haladay in the Michigan State win.
Monangai not only set a personal rushing record on Saturday afternoon, but he also broke the Rutgers rushing record in Big Ten play. It was an impressive showing from Monangai, who took over the starting running back role following a season-ending injury to Samuel Brown V.
It was some physical running from Monangai, in particular in a first half where he ran through tackles and consistently got to the second level. Monangai ran hard, carrying multiple Michigan State defenders with him on nearly every rushing attempt.
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Following the game, Haladay had this to say about Monangai:
“He’s a very good running back,” Haladay told reporters about Monangai.
“He is a hard runner that will attack you downhill. He was getting gaps and hitting creases, there’s things we need to tighten up on with tackles, wrapping up and squeezing, those are things we do every day that we need to focus on next week. We need to focus on that because that is something we can’t let happen again, we can’t let them get leaky yards from missing tackles.”
It was certainly no slouch of a performance from Haladay. The sophomore linebacker had 19 tackles in keying the Michigan State defense to victory.
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Coming out of Southern Columbia High School (Catawissa, PA), Haladay was a three-star recruit who held Power Five offers from Michigan and Nebraska and Pittsburgh as well as Michigan State.
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