PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Was it a fumblerooski? Well, not really. But a trick play on Saturday delivered a huge play in what was an upset bid by Rutgers football against No. 1 Ohio State.
In what became a 35-16 loss, Rutgers utilized a bit of trickeration to kickstart their offense and get back into the game against Ohio State.
Down 7-0 and with 10:29 left in the second quarter, Rutgers faced a fourth-and-short on their own 43-yard line. That’s when Rutgers rolled the dice with a trick play that changed the momentum of the game for the next quarter.
It was a designed play, where Gavin Wimsatt (under center), received the ball and then snapped it between his legs to running back Kyle Monangai.
Wimsatt sold the quarterback dive and Monangai instead squirted into the open field, running 45 yards as he took the ball down to Ohio State’s 12-yard line.
It was a trick play that Rutgers had been working on in practice.
“It worked like that, except I scored,” Monangai said after the game.
Monangai finished with 159 rushing yards against the Big Ten’s second-best defense. With the win, Ohio State is 9-0 (6-0 Big Ten). Rutgers saw their two-game winning streak snapped and are now 6-3 (3-3 Big Ten).
The play came at an important time for Rutgers. It helped kickstart the offense and brought the crowd at SHI Stadium back into the game.
THIS PLAY DESIGN 🤯
Rutgers with the 4th down fumblerooski vibes pic.twitter.com/D21wXzQg6n
— CBS Sports College Football 🏈 (@CBSSportsCFB) November 4, 2023
Four plays after Monangai’s run on the trick play, Jai Patel had a 22-yard field goal to make it a 7-3 lead for Ohio State. Rutgers would add two more field goals in the second half to take a 9-7 lead at halftime.
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The play call showed some considerable moxie from Rutgers, but its success was in the details.
“Their quarterback sneak defense – it’s really good, actually,” quarterback Gavin Wimsatt said after the game.
“You know, so we’re just prepared and we had practiced it and then my job was to be a great actor, you know, trying to sell it I had just trying to get it but credit to Kyle and our offensive line for selling it.”
The offense, after a slow start, started to get things rolling nicely. The defense was strong all game.
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Rutgers actually outgained Ohio State and had a decided edge in time of possession. It was a strong performance from Rutgers, one that showed
“You’ve got to be willing to try stuff in a game where you know that it is – they are a good team,” Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano said after the game.
“Yet we didn’t go crazy with a whole bunch of stuff because I felt we could do just what we did. We could run the ball if we stuck to it. Kyle and the offensive line, I thought they ran the ball hard, Gavin ran the ball hard.”