Tag: Pat Flaherty

Michael Troutman on where things stand with Rutgers football

Michael Troutman III talks about where things stand with Rutgers and Penn State.

One of New Jersey’s top prospects in the 2024 class is intrigued by Rutgers football. Michael Troutman III sees Rutgers as trending up both on the field and in his recruitment.

An offensive lineman at DePaul Catholic (Wayne, New Jersey), Troutman is the No. 21 player in New Jersey according to On3. He is a three-star prospect and has a strong list of offers that includes Boston College, Duke, Illinois, Michigan State, Penn State, Pittsburgh and Texas A&M among others.

On Sunday, Troutman will be one of several dozen blue chip recruits who will be on the Rutgers campus for an unofficial visit.

“They’re going pretty well, I talk to them regularly,” Troutman told Rutgers Wire of his relationship with the Scarlet Knights.

“Definitely, how consistent they are when you hear from them, it’s not a once-in-a-while thing. I talk to the staff regularly.”

The relationship with Rutgers is a strong one, and the relationship with coach [autotag]Pat Flaherty[/autotag] is definitely a growing one.

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Flaherty’s first season with Rutgers saw the offensive line coach transform the unit. A former offensive line coach in the NFL for two decades, Flaherty won two Super Bowls with the New York Giants.

“Coach Flats is a great coach, he’s the kind of coach you can call and football won’t be the only thing talked about. He genuinely has conversations with the people he talks to,” Troutman said.

“Our most recent call was just about life and things like that. Really, just a catch-up kind of thing. And we were talking about the basketball game this weekend.”

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Troutman will be at Rutgers this weekend and at Penn State for a visit the first weekend of February.

“I’m still getting to know the new coaches but I have a good relationship with the staff that’s been there,” Troutman said.

Four-star offensive tackle Owen Strebig is offered by Rutgers football

Owen Strebig gets offered by Rutgers football on Monday.

One of the top offensive linemen in the nation was offered by Rutgers football on Monday. Owen Strebig, the top recruit in Wisconsin in the 2025 class, saw Rutgers officially join his recruitment.

Strebig is a 6-foot-8, 290-pound offensive lineman from Catholic Memorial (Waukesha, Wisconsin).

He is the No. 135 player in the ESPN 300 and is ranked the No. 17 offensive tackle in the country.

His offer list is impressive and includes Florida, Florida State, Illinois, Miami, Michigan, Notre Dame and Wisconsin among others. This past weekend, he was on an unofficial visit to Notre Dame

Strebig posted about the offer on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. He tagged Rutgers head coach [autotag]Greg Schiano[/autotag] and tight ends coach [autotag]Andrew Aurich[/autotag]:

 

Rutgers has the benefit of using [autotag]Pat Flaherty[/autotag] as a recruiting weapon in their pursuit of blue-chip offensive linemen.

Flaherty spent over two decades in the NFL as an offensive line coach, most famously reshaping and remaking the New York Giants offensive line into a unit that was dramatically improved and won two Super Bowl titles.

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Now in his second season back at Rutgers, Flaherty did an incredible job in 2023 as he re-made the offensive line into a solid Big Ten unit. Rutgers, as an offense, went from the bottom of the Big Ten in nearly every statistical category into the middle of the conference’s rankings.

The jump was made in large part due to Flaherty’s tremendous job in improving the offensive line.

Rutgers football recruiting: Pennsylvania offensive line standout Kevin Brown gets an offer

Rutgers football sent out an offer to Kevin Brown on Thursday.

An offer went out on Wednesday to Kevin Brown, an offensive tackle prospect from Pennsylvania.

Brown is a 16-year-old athlete who is coming off an impressive season for Harrisburg (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania). The class of 2026 recruit already checks in at 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds.

This past fall, he was named to Pennsylvania’s 6A All-State football team.

Rutgers is the fifth Power Five program to offer Brown, who also holds offers from Penn State, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and West Virginia.

His impressive frame along with good movement and agility are a reason why Brown is already racking up significant offers. According to 247Sports, Brown is a four-star offensive tackle who is the No. 91 recruit in the nation in his class.

He is ranked the third-best overall prospect in Pennsylvania in the 2026 class.

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On Thursday evening, Brown posted on X (the social media formerly known as Twitter) about his offer from Rutgers. He tagged his high school coach as well as [autotag]Pat Flaherty[/autotag], who is the Rutgers offensive line coach.

 

Flaherty had been an offensive line coach in the NFL for over two decades. He won two Super Bowl rings while with the New York Giants.

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Flaherty’s time with the Giants was significant as his job coaching the unit was significant in turning the team into a Super Bowl champion.

Rutgers football saw the Pat Flaherty factor in last week’s Pinstripe Bowl win

Pat Flaherty’s impact can not be measured on the Rutgers football offense.

BRONX, N.Y. — The offensive line played a huge part a week ago for Rutgers football, opening holes and providing good protection in the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl win over Miami.

The Rutgers offense, against a very strong Miami front, played as a cohesive unit in what might have been their best performance of the season. They were the more physical unit in the trenches, paving the way for Kyle Monangai’s 163 rushing yards.

The offense ran for 208 yards and an impressive 4.6 yards per carry in what would be a 31-24 win for Rutgers. And it was the play of the line that made the offense click against Miami.

Not enough credit has gone to Pat Flaherty this season for the job he has done in the overhaul of the offense. In his first season as the offensive line coach at Rutgers, Flaherty turned a unit that was among the very worst in all of the FBS into a solid and dependable Big Ten unit.

“Flats, as you know, I go way back with Flats. He is an excellent line coach. I think the kids — I know the kids love him. I mean, he is a quintessential line coach. He lives in that room with them. Everything he does is for them,” Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano said after the Pinstripe Bowl.

“His wife, Lynn, they’re a football family, and they really, really have been a super addition to our staff.”

Rutgers did not turn the ball over in their bowl win.

Flaherty came to Rutgers after two decades in the NFL. He is best known for his long tenure with the New York Giants, where he won two Super Bowls with the franchise.

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That Rutgers not only held their own against a talented Miami front that is physical and fast, but actually dominated for long stretches of the game, is really a testament to Flaherty.

After the game, quarterback Gavin Wimsatt praised the performance of Flaherty’s unit against Miami. He said that the ability to run the ball can balance the offense as a whole.

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“Today I would say credit to my O-line. It all starts up front,” Wimsatt said.

“You know, Kyle, the run game, it opens up the pass game.”

The Pat Flaherty impact has been felt up and down the Rutgers football offense this season

The Rutgers football line has been offensive – in a good way – this season.

The word offensive can be used as a noun (the position or attitude of aggression or attack) or as an adjective (causing resentful displeasure; highly irritating, angering, or annoying). For the better part of the last decade, the Rutgers football offensive line has been more the adjective and less the noun.

In fact, since 2014, the Rutgers line has struggled at the Big Ten level to be a viable, functioning unit. But in the first year under offensive line coach Pat Flaherty, the group took a rather dramatic step forward.

But this year, the offensive line has been just that – in a good way. Last year, the Rutgers offense was bottom-two in the Big Ten in most categories. This year, they are middle-of-the-conference and viable.

The offensive line has been a major part of this upswing in success, with Flaherty clearly having an impact.

Flaherty, with two decades of experience in the NFL (and two Super Bowl rings with the New York Giants) has helped the offensive line turn from a glaring weak point for Rutgers into a unit that more than held its own in the Big Ten.

“Coach Flats (Flaherty) has done a great job – again, you can be the greatest coach in the world, but if you don’t have a willing pupil, it’s hard,” Rutgers offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca said last week in a conference call for the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl.

“Those kids have done a great job. They’ve been eager from the first day we got here to learn and to learn how we want to do it here and how we want to play now.

“Again, the kids, I give them a lot of credit because they were kind of a group that was — the perception of that group maybe when I got here wasn’t the greatest, and they’ve battled through adversity. Every time they’ve been knocked down, they were able to get back up again and keep learning.”

The offensive line’s development under Flaherty and Ciarrocca is a major reason why Rutgers football finished the season 6-6 (3-5 Big Ten) and in a bowl game.

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But the unit’s growth can also be seen in the fact that they paved the way for Kyle Monangai to lead the Big Ten in rushing this season.

The line allowed 14 sacks all season, tied for No. 16 in the FBS this year. In 2022, they allowed 26.

“I think the improvement is like the offensive linemen are chasing the holy grail. You can always have lower pad level. You can always have better footwork, and you can always have better feet with everything you do,” Ciarrocca said.

“So you’re always talking about they have to be lower, they have to have their hands inside better, strike better with it, but they did make tremendous improvement.

“The kids just kept working and working, and our run schemes, it’s not a deal where you memorize who you’re blocking. You’ve got to understand the concepts and what the reactions are to the defense. And I think when people first learn anything, they memorize it first, and then they start to understand it, and then they master it.

“Those guys definitely went from memorizing to understanding it, and that will help them play better. Now hopefully as we move forward they’re going to be working on mastering it, which will allow them to play even a little bit better.”

Rutgers football: Kevin Wigenton offered out of the transfer portal

Kevin Wigenton pulls down a Rutgers football offer.

Kevin Wigenton was offered by Rutgers football on Tuesday as the transfer portal offensive lineman pulled in six total offers from Power Five programs. Wigenton, who played his high school football in New Jersey, has spent the past three seasons in the Big Ten with Michigan State.

Wigenton, who posted on social media this past week his intentions to enter the transfer portal, was officially able to do so on Monday. He joined Michigan State as part of their 2021 recruiting class.

He is a former three-star recruit who played his high school football at The Hun School (Princeton, New Jersey). Rivals ranked him as the No. 19 player in New Jersey.

Rutgers was one of several offers for Wigenton, along with Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Pittsburgh, South Carolina and Vanderbilt.

Wigenton made 12 appearances with six starts in 2023 for Michigan State.

 

Rutgers has made finding offensive line talent a priority this offseason. The line performed much better this past season in its first year under [autotag]Pat Flaherty.[/autotag]

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A veteran offensive line coach, Flaherty brings a wealth of experience having spent two decades in the NFL as an offensive line coach. He won two Super Bowl titles with the New York Giants as their offensive line coach.

How is the Rutgers offensive line progressing throughout the course of the season?

Heading into Saturday’s Week 13 game, Rutgers’ offensive line has made great strides and has shown progress throughout the season.

Heading into Saturday’s Week 13 game, Rutgers’ offensive line has made great strides throughout the season. In 11 games this season, the Scarlet Knights are No. 11 in the nation for fewest sacks allowed (1.09) and fewest tackles-for-loss (3.91).

The turning point for the Scarlet Knights’ offensive line was in Week 7 against Michigan State, where Rutgers leaned on their offensive line to secure a game-winning touchdown. Rutgers’ O-line carried that performance into Week 8 against Indiana as the Scarlet Knights dominated the Hoosiers upfront. Rutgers recorded 276 yards on 55 attempts, averaging five yards per carry and scoring three touchdowns in a winning effort.

Considering where the offensive line was a year ago (hint: horrible), this has been a very solid season for the unit. This is a real credit to [autotag]Pat Flaherty[/autotag], the former NFL coach who is in his first season as the Rutgers offensive line coach.

When asked about the performance of his offensive line during his weekly press conference on Monday, Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano described the small strides his front five have taken and how the unit has solidified throughout the year.

“We try to make minimal-strength games. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t. But it’s about technical technique and then understanding what defenses are doing,” Schiano said in his Monday press conference..

“The more you face different defenses, I think they build a library of things that they can then go back to, hey, this is like what Iowa did, or this is what Indiana did. I think that’s critical for O-lines. You know what kind of has solidified the five that have played together the back half of the year, you know, that helps a little bit, too. We have certain guys that will sub for now and again, but we are making progress.”

In 11 games this season, the Scarlet Knights’ offensive line has registered 1795 rushing yards on 427 attempts, averaging 4.2 yards per carry and scoring 19 rushing touchdowns. Also, Rutgers is averaging 163.2 rushing yards.

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Rutgers’ front five has definitely improved over a season ago and helped the offense be viable. Their development is a major reason why Rutgers is bowl-eligible and heads into the final game of the season with a chance to clinch a winning record this season.

 

Transfer portal: Rutgers football offers former Long Island standout offensive lineman Jonathan Mendoza

Rutgers football offers Yale offensive lineman Jonathan Mendoza.

Rutgers football sent out an offer on Wednesday night to Jonathan Mendoza, an offensive lineman who recently entered the transfer portal from Yale. The offer has all the markings of Pat Flaherty, the former NFL offensive line coach who is now at Rutgers.

A standout right tackle at Yale, Mendoza has a very crowded recruitment already, despite having just entered the transfer portal this week. Since Tuesday, he has been offered by Duke, Houston, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Tulane and Vanderbilt among others.

He grew up local to Rutgers in Westhampton, New York where he was a standout in the growing Long Island football scene.

The offensive line remains a priority for Rutgers, even as the unit took a huge first step under Flaherty. Hired this offseason, Flaherty did a masterful job in turning an offensive line that was among the worst in Power Five football over the past decade into a group that paved the way for the Big Ten’s top rusher.

The fact that Rutgers is middle of the Big Ten in offensive production is also a testament to the job Flaherty has done. Flaherty spent two decades in the NFL as an offensive line coach, where he won two Super Bowl titles with the New York Giants.

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Mendoza tweeted about the offer on Wednesday:

 

Strong and powerful, Mendoza moves well as a blocker. At 6-foot-9 and 309 pounds, he has some impressive size that would certainly translate well to the Big Ten.

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And he has a frame that could certainly add more muscle.

Mendoza was a First-Team All-Ivy selection on offense in 2023. Last year, he was an honorable mention selection at right tackle.

He has one year of eligibility remaining.

The profile of Mendoza is similar to J.D. DiRenzo, who joined Rutgers for one season in 2022. DiRenzo made the step up from the FCS (Sacred Heart) and his one strong season in the Big Ten with Rutgers saw him sign with the Carolina Panthers after the NFL draft.

Pat Flaherty has made a tremendous difference for the Rutgers football offensive line this year

Rutgers football has had a huge upswing this year on the offensive line.

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — The impact that Pat Flaherty has had on the rebuilt Rutgers football offensive line can’t be overstated. The former NFL offensive line coach, who won two Super Bowls with the New York Giants, has done a tremendous job in reshaping the unit.

Flaherty is in his first season back with Rutgers, joining a revamped coaching staff on the offensive side of the ball. With over two decades of NFL experience, including those Super Bowl rings with the Giants, it is hard to think of an offensive line coach with his pedigree in college football.

And the offensive line for Rutgers has been a major factor in why the offense as a whole has developed this year. A season ago, the Rutgers offense was near the bottom of the Big Ten in nearly every statistical category.

This year they are solidly mid-pack in the conference’s offensive standings and the line is paving the way.

“He and his staff, the o-line guys, have done a great job. You know, there’s the experience there. I think that anytime you have a guy with that kind of experience, it’s a calming factor for group,” head coach [autotag]Greg Schiano[/autotag] said on Wednesday.

“And I think they’re benefiting from all of his experience – and they’re getting better themselves. You know, they’re working very, very hard and they’re getting better. Are we near where we need to be? No, we’re not even close. But we’re a lot better than we were.

“And that’s the key as long as we can keep that trajectory going. We’ll eventually get there…looking forward to the day.”

Improved play from the offensive line is a major reason why Rutgers is 6-2 (3-2 Big Ten) and bowl-eligible. They host No. 1 Ohio State (8-0, 5-0 Big Ten) on Saturday at 12:00 PM ET (CBS).

The Flaherty factor is certainly a major component to how the offense has improved this year. But the line has certainly gelled and come together as a unit.

Compared to last year, there is a rhythm and a precision in place. Flaherty is to thank for all of this, as is the fact that this is a line featuring several upperclassmen as starters.

Part of the growth of the offensive line is experience based off of the lumps taken over the past two years. That has certainly helped Rutgers be a more seasoned unit this year.

“I’ll say it’s a little bit of both. I mean, coach Flats is a great coach coming from the NFL coaching the guys he’s coached,” said sophomore guard Kwabena Asamoah.

“He’s a great offensive mind just to have him give you tidbits and also like the enter o-line just in general, we’ve become a lot closer as a group. You know, every day in practice and the demands – if we have any questions we help each other out, things of that nature.”