Tag: Drew Lascari

Former college quarterback Drew Lascari brings a unique perspective as Rutgers football’s safeties coach

Drew Lascari sees his safeties through the eyes of the quarterback.

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Lessons learned as a former quarterback now guide Drew Lascari on the defensive side of the ball. Lascari, set to enter his third season as the safeties coach at Rutgers, has a unique perspective that he brings to his position.

It is a perspective formed from years of seeing the safety as the enemy. And now at Rutgers, Lascari’s time as a high school and college quarterback is paying dividends for his position group.

Lascari has been at Rutgers since 2018 where he started as special teams quality control. In 2019, he was elevated to quarterbacks coach following the in-season dismissal of then-head coach Chris Ash and the subsequent shakeup of the team’s coaching staff.

But since the return of head coach [autotag]Greg Schiano[/autotag] in 2020, Lascari has been on the defensive side of the ball. First, he spent two years as a defensive assistant and now is in his third season as the safeties coach.

“What’s wild now is this is going to be my fifth season now on the defensive side of the ball. It feels like it just happened yesterday,” Lascari said on Thursday.

“But I think for me, there was certainly some a bit of a learning curve for me initially, just because I spent most of my career on the other side of the ball up to that point. But I do think that my background on offense does give me a unique opportunity to see things a little bit differently, to teach things a little bit differently. And I’m grateful for my experience on offense because I think it does make me a much better DB coach.”

Lascari was a former standout in Morris County at Pequannock High School (Pompton Plains, New Jersey) who went on to play his college football at SUNY Cortland. He coached in high school in New Jersey and Florida at the start of his career before joining Ash’s staff in 2018.

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It is an unconventional coaching path for Lascari, who started his college career on special teams at Rutgers before settling in on the offensive side of the ball in 2018 (eight games as the quarterbacks coach).

Now, the former college quarterback is coaching safeties.

“He teaches us a lot about offensive terminology, run scheme and stuff,” Flip Dixon said on Thursday.

“It’s very helpful.”

Veterans like Flip Dixon believe that the Rutgers football defense can be even better this year

The Rutgers football defense, good last year, can be even better.

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — With most of their starters returning, the Rutgers football defense has the potential to take another step forward as a unit. One of those returning pieces is safety Flip Dixon, who had a strong first season with Rutgers in 2023.

An addition out of the transfer portal, Dixon had 76 total tackles, an interception, a forced fumble and five passes defended last year for Rutgers.

With a number of big pieces opting to return, the Rutgers defense is arguably the most experienced in the Big Ten. They were seventh in the Big Ten in scoring defense and sixth in yards allowed per game.

For Dixon, there is a belief that the unit can take a step forward in 2024 and be even better.

“I’m very excited. We got a lot of people coming back. Basically, the whole defense just about – so I’m very excited to see what we can do,” Dixon said on Thursday following practice.

“I know we will do better than last year, for sure.”

One of the pieces not returning for Rutgers is Max Melton.

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The defensive back, who had one year of eligibility remaining, opted to declare for the NFL draft. An All-Big Ten selection, Melton is appearing in mock drafts in the top half of the NFL draft and is popular as a second-round pick.

The loss of Melton will hurt the secondary, given that he was an elite cornerback in the Big Ten.

“I love Max. He’s a great player, phenomenal,” Dixon said.

“You know, he, he’d been here for well, he helped me get used to it here. And it was a great time with him.”

No group is more experienced than the safeties room, with Dixon and Des Igbinosun both returning as starters. For safeties coach Drew Lascari, this is quite the luxury to have.

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The safeties will be relied on this upcoming season for Rutgers as a foundational unit. With two players who are All-Big Ten caliber (Dixon was an All-Big Ten selection last season), this Rutgers defense has the potential to be a top-tier unit in the Big Ten.

“I think for us, the expectation of our room now is to take the next step and what is the next step?” Lascari said on Thursday.

“Well, that’s the next step with everything. Okay, we want to take the next step with our nutrition, with our rehab, with our recovery, with our sleep. And then on the field, our playbook.

“So, with two returning starters that we have a lot of faith in. We’re really excited about the next steps that we’re going to take as a group.”

New talent in the Rutgers football secondary is exciting for coach Drew Lascari

Two freshmen safeties are intriguing additions for Rutgers football and position coach Drew Lascari.

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — A pair of young athletes has Rutgers football safeties coach Drew Lascari excited about the future of the backend. Kaj Sanders and Antonio White, a pair of four-star talents, are a big part of the future of the Scarlet Knights’ defense.

And not just the future, but also the present for Rutgers. Deep and loaded with talent, it is easy to forget how young this group is for Lascari.

White, part of the 2024 class, missed time this week attending his senior prom. Extremely athletic and instinctively a ballhawk, he was a big get for Rutgers in the recruiting circuit. He was a four-star recruit out of Georgia.

Sanders, a four-star and one of the top players in New Jersey last year, is twitchy and athletic. He has tremendous speed and fluidity in his movement.

Both players come to the Scarlet Knights with the chance to make an early splash and crack the rotation for playing time.

“Both really, really talented, young players for us; we’re really, really excited about both of them,” Lascari said on Thursday.

“I think both of them can cover, both of them can run. Both of them are tough. There they will tackle for us. And we’re just really excited about both of them. I think that they, every single da, learn something new. If not one thing, five things right? And they’re going to continue to stack days.

“Continue to learn how we do things here and continue to blossom but we are really really excited about both those guys.”

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Lascari is in his third year as the safeties coach at Rutgers and seventh overall on the coaching staff.

Rutgers football continues big recruiting week, lands a Big Ten caliber athlete Antonio White

Antonio White commits to Rutgers football.

The momentum is continuing on the recruiting trail for Rutgers football as the Scarlet Knights nabbed a three-star wide athlete from Georgia in Antonio White.

Oozing with athleticism, White is a 2024 athlete can play wide receiver or as a defensive back at the next level. He moves fluidly in space, is strong in coverage, instinctual in his understanding of routes and has good straight line speed.

In 2022 as a junior, he had 75 total tackles, a sack, three passes defended and an interception,

A 6-foot-2, 175-pound wide receiver from Parkview High School (Lilburn, GA), White is a massive get for Rutgers. He has an impressive Power Five offer list, picking Rutgers over listed offers that included Auburn, Georgia Tech, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisville, Mississippi State, North Carolina and Texas A&M among others.

He is a consensus three-star recruit on Rivals, 247Sports and On3.

 

White made his commitment known on Saturday afternoon via social media. He tagged several members of the Rutgers coaching staff in his commitment post including head coach [autotag]Greg Schiano[/autotag], safeties coach [autotag]Drew Lascari[/autotag] and wide receivers coach [autotag]Damiere Shaw[/autotag]:

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Rutgers football: Desmond Igbinosun continues to grow at safety

Safety Desmond Igbinosun is returning to Rutgers football for the 2023 season, looking to take the lead at the safety position.

Desmond Igbinosun returns to Rutgers football for the 2023 season, looking to take the lead at the Scarlet Knights safety position.

The junior safety appeared in ten games last season, recording nine starts, 55 total tackles, four pass breakups, and one forced fumble. Igbinosun appeared in 17 games and has 69 tackles for his Rutgers career. Can the New Jersey native (Union, N.J.) emerge as the number one safety for the Scarlet Knights?

The 2023 season will be Igbinosun’s third season with the Scarlet Knights. So far this spring, his progress has been noticed by safety coach Drew Lascari. Lascari spoke about Igbinosun’s development after Friday’s practice.

“I think Des is continuing to develop every day. Having that Big Ten experience this past year as a starter helped him tremendously,” Lascari told reporters.

“He got better as the season went on and we’re really excited. We think the sky’s the limit for Des and where he is going.”

Igbinosun came in this spring with a focus on his leadership skills. His goal is to emerge as a leader of the safety group and try to lead as an example on and off the football field.

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The safety group is different than last season, with the departure of former starters Christian Izien and Avery Young. The Scarlet Knights played a high percentage of three safety schemes in 2022 which could lead to even great opportunities for Igbinosun this fall.

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They call him Flip: Rutgers football excited about the early returns from safety Flip Dixon

In his first spring with Rutgers football, Flip Dixon is standing out in the Rutgers football defense.

One of the new additions to the Rutgers football secondary, Flip Dixon, is proving himself this spring with a blend of experience and power that is certainly encouraging to the coaching staff.

Dixon committed to Rutgers out of the transfer portal, joining the program in time for spring practice. Across three seasons, he played 30 games for Minnesota where he had six starts.

Last year, he had 28 tackles and three passes defended.

Poised for a bigger role in the Minnesota defense, Dixon decided to join Joe Harasymiak at Rutgers. Harasymiak was at Minnesota as their defensive coordinator prior to taking over the Rutgers defense last season.

“Flip, for one, brings a lot of Big Ten experience. It is so important to understand that he has played a lot of Big Ten football and with that, you learn a lot every single snap in this league,” safeties coach Drew Lascari told reporters on Thursday following practice.

“In terms of his physicality, it has been something that is exciting for us to see. He certainly loves to play physically, he knows our scheme really, really well so that allows him to play fast. Really excited about the direction that Flip is going.”

The emergence of Dixon this spring is encouraging for Rutgers, especially after some pretty steep offseason losses including Christian Izien heading for the NFL draft.

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Dixon has experience in the same base defense that Rutgers uses, which isn’t a surprise given that Harasymiak was his coordinator at Minnesota and now at Rutgers. And with Rutgers very often playing three safeties, a role for Dixon is very much there.

On Saturday, Dixon talked about his unusual nickname. Turns out it has nothing to do with backflips.

(He can’t do one anyway, so that’s good).

“It came from my uncle man when I got it when I was a baby when I came from the hospital,” Dixon said before being asked why he got the nickname.

“My feet they was like long like flippers.”

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No doubting: Thomas Amankwaa has impressed Rutgers football safeties coach Drew Lascari

Thomas Amankwaa is back on defense and thriving according to safeties coach Drew Lascari.

Thomas Amankwaa is making some strides this spring as he settles in on the offensive side of the ball. After spending last season as a true freshman playing wide receiver, Amankwaa is now a safety.

It is a position that safeties coach Drew Lascari said is well-suited for the player.

A redshirt last season, Amankwaa’s transition back to the defensive side of the ball isn’t necessarily a steep one. He played as a cornerback at Hillsborough High School (Hillsborough, N.J.), where he was a three-star recruit and a top 10 player in New Jersey according to 247Sports.

Lascari said that he is encouraged by Amankwaa’s transition back to the defensive side of the ball and his unit.

“One, he can run and he’s not afraid to be physical. He knows how to use his hands well. He has a really good sense of zone coverages as well as man preparations,” Lascari told reporters on Thursday.

“He works really hard in terms of his preparation and his studies. I’m really, really proud of Thomas and how he is developing. Looking forward to seeing where he will go.”

The Rutgers secondary lost a couple of starters this offseason, including safety Christian Izien. Amankwaa could well project into a prominent role in the two-deep.

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This offseason his older brother, Charles Amankwaa, committed to Rutgers out of the transfer portal.

Injured throughout last season, Amankwaa showed some serious flashes for Akron in 2021. That year, he had 44 total tackles, a sack, three interceptions, 12 passes defended and a forced fumble.

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Teddy Foster gets first Big Ten offer from Rutgers football

Florida safety Teddy Foster gets offered by Rutgers football.

Class of 2024 safety Teddy Foster pulled in an offer from Rutgers football over the weekend, representing the athlete’s first offer from a Big Ten program.

Listed as 6-foot-2 and 170 pounds, Foster also holds offer from FIU and Tennessee in addition to Rutgers. He is set to enter his junior season at Cardinal Mooney (Sarasota, FL).

Last season in seven games played, he had 26 total tackles and six passes defended as a sophomore. Cardinal Mooney went 7-4 in 2021.

Foster tweeted about the offer on Sunday evening. In the picture that Foster tweeted was Rutgers safeties coach Drew Lascari:

 

The offer for Foster is part of a busy spell for Rutgers football as they received three commitments in the past week from three-star h-back Dante Barone (The Hun School; Princeton, N.J.) as well as a pair of Long Island athletes in wide receiver Dylan Braithwaite (Holy Trinity; Hicksville, N.Y.) and safety Ian Strong (St. Anthony’s; Long Island City, N.Y.).

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