PISCATAWAY, N.J. — One of the assumed strengths of the Rutgers football team this season is their secondary. The expectation is that this group has the right mix of returning players, incoming veterans and young players for the long grind that is the Big Ten season.
The secondary, which showed flashes last year, might be the deepest unit on the roster.
This can especially be the case provided that the safety additions in the transfer portal ([autotag]Flip Dixon[/autotag] and [autotag]Eric Rogers[/autotag]) pan out. Rogers, who played last year at Northern Illinois, has proven he has the potential to play at the Power Five level.
Dixon, coming from Minnesota, has shown that throughout his career.
“Flip Dixon has really shown me that he’s a Big Ten safety. And you know our deal is we’re a five defensive back scheme as long as people are playing with sub personnel three wideouts…four wideouts.You can call it a 4-2-5, whatever you want to call it. I just call it five defensive backs on the field,” Schiano said on Thursday.
“And so that’s the trick – finding the right mix of the best five and then having the subs to come in and outside corners. Inside nickels, inside stars. There’s different jobs that go along with that. So but coach Harasymiak (defensive coordinator Joe Harasymiak) – he does a really good job of personnel and things. Very impressed (with) the way they do that and Drew Lascari who coaches our safeties, he’s doing a really good job because those guys are kind of they move up and back.
“And coach Orphey (cornerbacks coach Mark Orphey) is a pro coaching those corners. So we have talent in the secondary and I think we have really, really fine coaching so we have a chance that could be a part of our strength but I think really I like all three levels of our defense. We just got to get reps and get precise in what we’re doing and then just play as hard as we can. And that’s what I expect from them,”
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Last season, Rutgers was eighth in the Big Ten allowing 349.8 yards per game. With the returning talent on the roster, there is every reason to believe that the Scarlet Knights have the personnel to be a top-half of the conference defense in 2023.
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