Matt Alaimo sees improvement and growth happening at Rutgers

Matt Alaimo talks Rutgers football and the direction of the program over the past three seasons.

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Matt Alaimo has been through plenty during his college football career, which leads the Rutgers tight end to appreciate what he sees as an upward trajectory for the Scarlet Knights.

Alaimo, who transferred to Rutgers following a redshirt freshman season at UCLA, has played his college football at two different schools. He has had four different head coaches (including interim head coach Nunzio Campanile at Rutgers in 2019, four different head coaches and now four different offensive coordinators.

Campanile, of course, was promoted to interim offensive coordinator with the letting go of Sean Gleeson last week.

Oh, and let’s not forget that Alaimo has had three different tight end coaches as well with Joe Susan now sliding over to fill the role vacated by Campanile’s elevation in title.

[lawrence-related id=19974]

That is a lot of change packed into five years of college for Alaimo.

“I feel like our team in general has got so much better since I first got here,” Alaimo said on Wednesday.

“And it’s like close. So I mean, just take it every day, try and get better and see where this thing goes.”

Alaimo, who battled through an injury during training camp and the start of the season, made his debut three weeks ago in a loss to Iowa. He has two catches for 13 yards on the season.

[lawrence-related id=19966]

The elevation of Campanile to offensive coordinator is something that Alaimo said has made an impact on the offense so far.

“I think we just like have a lot of energy now; we’re more energetic in practice out here and we’re really coming together,” Alaimo said.

Last season, Alaimo had five catches for 50 yards for the Scarlet Knights.

Rutgers football: Aaron Young and Matt Alaimo OUT vs. Boston College

Aaron Young and Matt Alaimo are out for Saturday’s season opener against Boston College.

Rutgers football will be living the “next man up” mentality in Week 1 and the game hasn’t even kicked off yet. Running back Aaron Young, expected to be at the top of the backfield rotation, and tight end Matt Alaimo, second on the depth chart, have both been ruled OUT for today’s season opened against Boston College.

Saturday morning has been a busy one for the USA TODAY Network – New Jersey’s Chris Iseman. He already reported that returning starting quarterback and captain Noah Vedral will be missing the season opener. Now, his sources have confirmed that Young and Alaimo will also miss Game 1 on the Scarlet Knight schedule. Head coach Greg Schiano noted to the media that Young was questionable earlier in the week, but the Alaimo injury came as a surprise. All three players are listed as day-to-day with undisclosed injuries.

[lawrence-related id=17631]

Schiano already planned to have a rotation at the running back position. Expect Kyle Monangai to see the lion’s share of the snaps with young backs in sophomore Al Shadee-Salaam and incoming freshman Samuel Brown likely to see more snaps than previously expected.

Young was the backup to now Kansas City Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco last season. He finished with 205 yards on 56 carries (3.7 ypc) and five touchdowns. In very limited field time, Alaimo caught five passes for 50 yards in 2021.

[lawrence-related id=17759]

A lot of players who were expected to learn this season and become the future of the program are going to have a trial by fire today. Rutgers fans should be excited to see flashes of what the future of the program will look like.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01fc3gzhz7qrm49z6q player_id=none image=https://rutgerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]