PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Kyle Monangai doesn’t have a nickname yet. But perhaps the Rutgers football running back, who is leading the Big Ten in rushing yardage this season, should be known as the ‘Energizer Bunny.’
Monangai, much like the battery mascot, doesn’t seem to ever turn off.
He just keeps going…and going…and going…and…
Monangai, a fourth-year player, had 148 rushing yards and a touchdown as he was a jolt of energy for Rutgers on Saturday afternoon in their comeback win over Michigan State. It was his 21-yard touchdown run midway through the fourth quarter that gave Rutgers the lead.
And it was his hard running, to the tune of 55 yards on the final drive of the game, that ran the clock and iced the win for Rutgers.
“I’m big on you got to kind of practice how you want to play -there’s no such thing as somebody who just rises to the occasion on Saturdays,” Monangai said on Wednesday.
“If you don’t put the work in, it’s not likely that you’ll be able to bring that out of yourself on Saturday.”
Turns out that Monangai wasn’t giving lip service to the credo that practice makes perfect. He practices the same way he plays.
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Hard. Unrelenting. With no breaks.
[autotag]Tyreem Powell,[/autotag] who was part of the 2021 recruiting class that included Monangai, said that his teammate is the same in games as in practice – “He runs just as hard, you have to be ready to buckle him up.”
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It is part of the chemistry that makes Monangai the top rusher in the Big Ten and puts him top-20 nationally.
“Like since I got here, we came in together so we used to battle each other since we both got here at the same time,” Powell said this week.
“I’ve been seeing it, how he works hard. He goes every play (with) how hard he runs. It is great to battle against him every day. It makes you better as a defender because you know you are getting the same competition on the other side so it is great going against him every day.”
The former Don Bosco Prep standout has plenty of steak to his sizzle, and he absolutely isn’t a burger. There is substance when he lowers the pad level to deliver a thud into a would-be tackler. But there are also subtleties to his game.
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Monangai is light on his feet, with the ability to float and cut back, as he did on Saturday during his touchdown run. His ability to re-direct and cutback into the open hole is an impressive testament to not just his footwork but his vision in the backfield.
R-U SERIOUS??!!
My call of Kyle Monangai’s game-winning touchdown for @WRSUsports , as @RFootball had a remarkable comeback, down 18 in the fourth quarter, to beat Michigan State.
One more win for bowl eligibility #CHOP pic.twitter.com/px4Q74D2vw
— Eddie Kalegi (@EddieKalegi) October 14, 2023
It is the byproduct of a work ethic that he always had, but that truly began to develop at Rutgers under head coach Greg Schiano.
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“So I try to run the way I’m going to run on Saturday on Tuesday and Wednesday, practice so that way -it’s just my natural setting. It’s not something I have to turn on on a Saturday afternoon,” Monangai said of his work ethic.
“I’d like to say I was born with that part of me but I think the importance of it was probably heightened once I got here. You know, coach Schiano says practice is everything – you practice how you play. I’ve always known that but the importance of and the emphasis of it definitely was brought more to my attention when I got here.”