PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Greg Schiano sees progress from the offensive line, but the Rutgers football head coach doesn’t know yet who will be the starters for that unit.
The line, a weak link of the team the past three seasons, returns some good experience and depth this year. In fact, it is undoubtedly the deepest offensive line that Schiano, now in his fourth year with the program, has had since his return to Rutgers.
But whether the line has progressed or not is an entirely different question. And this offense – in fact the team as a whole – will only go so far as the offensive line will take it.
Following Saturday’s scrimmage, the second of fall camp, Schiano seemed pleased with the direction of the line, even if he was unclear about who would be getting the nod for the season opener in two weeks.
“Getting better. We’re getting better. Don’t know if I can tell you who the five starters are yet,” Schiano said.
“I think there’s some good competition but I can’t tell because no one is stepping up. I think there’s competition. But we’ll figure that out the next few days.”
Saturday’s scrimmage was a long one for Rutgers, but Schiano was enthusiastic about the performance of the offense as a whole.
He saw it as an opportunity to get the group through some important things, especially with the clock ticking ahead of the Northwestern game.
“I thought it was great. I thought, you know, we did a lot of different situational football. We got a lot of reps, the guys we’re focused, intentional for over for what wasn’t close to four hours and did a really good job,” Schiano said.
“We hit on a bunch of different stuff. We’ll watch the tape a lot, a lot of things that were not happy with. I was happy with their focus and concentration.”
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