PISCATAWAY, N.J. — It isn’t easy replacing a legend, but that is exactly what Flynn Appleby is trying to do at Rutgers football.
The argument can be made that Adam Korsak is the best Rutgers football player of all time, regardless of position. Korsak, simply, was a dominant punter who reminded head coach Greg Schiano at times of a golfer with the way he was able to meticulously ping a ball and directionally land it.
Korsak kicked with strong distance but mainly accuracy, winning the Ray Guy Award last season as the nation’s top punter. It should have been consecutive Ray Guy Awards for Korsak but that is for a column some other day.
From Saturday’s scrimmage, the first of spring, Schiano saw some things from his specialists including Appleby, the punter who is trying to replace Korsak. Also included in Schiano’s assessment were kickers Jude McAtameny and Jai Patel.
“It was overall I thought favorable, the specialists in particular,” Schiano said on Saturday.“Flynn has done a nice job, he continues to do a nice job. Jude had a couple that today that got away from him but down in the end (but) in the competition he really kicked well. Jai (Patel) has been kicking well all camp.“So I like it. We have competition at the placekicker and I think in the punting game you got a big name to replace there. But I think he’s doing a great job of trying.”