BRONX, N.Y. – On his bucket list for 2023, it is doubtful that Kyle Monangai had ‘making Rutgers football sexy’ as one of his task items. But here, in the season of resolutions, is Monangai apparently doing just that.
The Big Ten’s leading rusher in the regular season, Monangai has certainly helped put Rutgers football back on the map. His performance this past year helped Rutgers to a record of 7-6 (3-5 Big Ten) and a bowl win over Miami. In fact, his 163 rushing yards on 25 carries and a touchdown were influential in Rutgers getting their first bowl win since 2014.
In fact, one could make the argument that the Pinstripe Bowl is Monangai’s first statement of intent for the 2024 season. His development at Rutgers is certainly a wake-up call to New Jersey’s top high school talent that Rutgers can develop players for the next level.
All of which led to an interesting question following the Pinstripe Bowl, directed at Monangai. Here is the full question followed by Monangai’s answer:
Question: Kyle, back on the subject of recruiting. Rutgers just won a bowl game at Yankee Stadium. Tommy DeVito was a quarterback at the Giants for a few weeks, and Anthony Volpe, shortstop of the Yankees, and Dylan Harper just committed to Rutgers. Do you think there’s a new sexiness to being a homegrown New Jersey athlete that influenced your decision to come back and could help Rutgers on the reciting trail?
KYLE MONANGAI: That’s an interesting way to put it, sexiness. If you want to put it that way, yeah, sure, there’s a sexiness to being a homegrown guy.
I think it’s just interesting — I love the fact that I can say I’m from Jersey, I go to school in Jersey, I was raised here, grew up here, and I was able to do things well in my home state. And now getting this win at Yankee Stadium, I know it’s New York, but it’s like it feels like home still, just across the water.
Yeah, to answer your question.
The interesting phrasing aside, and notwithstanding that DeVito and Volpe are not products of Rutgers, it is a reflective question, to say the least. Harper, alluded to in the question above, committed to Rutgers basketball in December, is a five-star guard and the No. 2 player in the nation.
It was a commitment that certainly opened some eyes about the future of Rutgers basketball and athletics in general.
[lawrence-related id=33711,33671]
Rutgers, if it can continue to do well with the top players in New Jersey, can absolutely be a solid program in the Big Ten. [autotag]Greg Schiano[/autotag], now in his second stint as head coach, has repeatedly called Rutgers football a “developmental program.”
They don’t get the ready-made players, he has said, but they will find talent and develop it.
Out of high school, Monangai was ranked the No. 26 player in New Jersey by Rivals. He was a three-star and held just two offers from Power Five programs.
[lawrence-related id=33570,33567]
And yet here he is, atop the Big Ten’s rushing charts.
“The developmental part of the program, the pipeline that I speak about, I’m thrilled. Can’t wait,” Schiano said after the Pinstripe Bowl.
“I love bowl games as a program developer because we had seven practices were strictly developmental. That’s half of spring ball, right, seven practices that we got to develop those young guys. They got all our coaching. They were the ones on the video. Not the older players and not the guys that have played.
“To be able to coach them off of those tapes and to have them all winter, we can make cut-ups for them. It’s huge. That’s why winning begets winning at this level. When you win and get to go to bowl games, it pushes it forward…yes, we need to get better at everything, but I don’t think it’s anymore (that) every position has to get better.
“We need to improve as a program but I love doing it with another trophy in the case.”