PISCATAWAY, N.J. — The status of Tyler Needham remains very much up in the air as the Rutgers starting right tackle was taken into the locker room following an injury suffered during Week 2’s win over Temple.
Needham left Saturday night’s game in the second quarter and did not return. On the same play, left tackle Hollin Pierce was also injured. Needham was solid in his first two appearances this season, both starts.
Pierce did return and finished out the game. Needham did not.
The injury to Needham hurts as he had settled in nicely during spring practice and then during preseason training camp. In the season opener against Northwestern, he did a tremendous job as Rutgers rolled to a 24-7 win.
On Monday, Schiano addressed Needham’s injury:
“I’m gonna I’m going to stick to the strategy of if it’ sa season-ending injury I’ll let you guys know from not sure if it is or it isn’t then I’ll just refer to the report on Saturday. Just so we have consistency,” Schiano said.
“But yeah, Tyler had a rough, rough deal on Saturday night.”
Junior Kamar Missouri came in for Needham on Saturday night. Much like on the severity of the injury, Schiano wasn’t ready to commit to who could potentially replace Needham.
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“We’re talking about as a staff right now what’s the best? Again, it’s always to get the best five and then get the sixth and the seventh. So we’re spending time on that right today as we gameplan,” Schiano said before being asked about the performance of Missouri.
“Some good things – did some things that we can’t do at a critical position because when I talked about their line, I think their edge guys are dangerous. And they have they can roll – that’s one thing that I look at them I see they roll eight guys so they’re going to be fresh up front too,” Schiano said.
“So we’re really going to have to be on point with our offensive line because not only are they rolling but they roll good players. Stout inside, really athletic outside. Probably the best edge players we faced so far – not probably they’re the best edge players we’ve faced.”