Rutgers football is finally getting credit for how they worked the final minutes of this past Saturday’s game against Michigan State.
Taking possession up 27-24 and with 7:05 left in the game, Rutgers ran 12 plays to ice the game. They racked up four first-downs with running back Kyle Monangai going for 55 yards as they bled the clock to secure the win.
And they did so with Michigan State holding three timeouts, a point not lost on the Big Ten Network’s Gerry DiNardo and Urban Meyer.
The two former head coaches made the Rutgers offense a point of emphasis this week during the Big Ten Network‘s ‘Urban Analysis’ segment. Meyer, a two-time national champion as head coach at Florida and Ohio State, praised the work done by Schiano’s team to seal the game.
“You know how hard it is to take seven minutes off the clock when (the opposing team) have all three timeouts? Rutgers did this. I coached with Greg Schiano – he’s a maniac about situations to the point it drove me nuts. But he’s fantastic at it,” Meyer said on the Big Ten Network.
Monangai, who had 148 rushing yards and a fourth-quarter touchdown, ran his hardest at the end of the game. He followed an offensive line that paved the way for his hard, physical runs.
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The other three plays of the drives were kneels by quarterback Gavin Wimsatt.
A point not brought up by DiNardo and Meyer: Not one of the nine rushing attempts by Monangai on the game’s final drive saw him lose yardage.
“Nine straight runs. Incredible ball security. Remember we told you: Run the ball as if you’re in traffic the entire time. That means get both hands on the ball, clamp the ball,” Meyer said.
“And you hand the ball to the official. I watched every snap. They ate up all three timeouts. They got it down to two minutes.”