SOTC Update: Rutgers Scarlet Knights

Greg Schiano has this program back to playing winning football. Can they keep it going with a much tougher schedule in 2025? This is the State of the Chart for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.

Mar 04, 2025

State of the Chart™ Recap Edition

Live All-In Ranking: 33rd
Offense: 40th
Defense: 41st
2024 Results: 7-6 (4-5 in Big Ten)

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|||||| STATE OF THE CHART™ SUMMARY

Greg Schiano has returned to Piscataway and returned this program, operating in the ‘birthplace of college football,’ to respectability. They have won seven games two years in a row now, and while they did it with about the most friendly possible schedule in the Big Ten, it’s an accomplishment nonetheless. They have their quarterback in Athan Kaliakmanis, and they rode their bellcow, star running back Kyle Monangai into the ground in 2024. The Kirk Ciarrocca-led offense did a great job moving the ball methodically down the field, and the defense, though flawed, did just enough to get to bowl eligibility and really could have won against a good Kansas State team. As the calendar turns towards 2025, the biggest question mark will be how they can keep that same offensive success without Monangai and big left tackle Hollin Pierce. Schiano is pulling in a very nice portal haul to address some of those immediate concerns but hasn’t yet addressed that all-important role on the offensive line. There is still time to do that. They got the easy schedule last year, and it will come back to bite them in 2025. They add Ohio State, Penn State, and Oregon back to the slate, making it all the more challenging to keep this above .500 run going. If anybody can find a way, it’s Greg Schiano and company.

|||||| HEAD COACH AND COACHING STAFF

Greg Schiano has again built Rutgers, against all odds, into a winning program. That seven-win 2023 was not a fluke as he backed it up in 2024. How much more can be expected here? He’s a great recruiter and getting even better, bringing his staff along as well. They are being smart about their portal involvement and targeting key replacements. He is just a good football coach and will be here as long as he wants to be.

Coaching Staff Notes/Changes:

With defensive coordinator Joe Harasymiak moving to take the head coaching job at UMass, Schiano is going the co-defensive coordinator route, bringing in a veteran and and young buck. Robb Smith comes back to Piscataway after most recent stops at Penn State as an analyst after serving as Duke’s defensive coordinator/linebackers coach in 2022. He reunites with Schiano as he was the lone defensive coordinator here in 2021-22. He teams him up with another former Duke coach, 32-year old Zach Sparber, who gets a promotion, adding that co-DC tag to the linebackers role. Smith will call the plays.
Safeties coach Drew Lascari heads to the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars after three seasons here. He is replaced by Vic Hall, who served as an analyst with Smith at Penn State last season and has experience at Ball State in various defensive back roles from 2021-23.
David Rowe is promoted, dropping his ‘assistant’ tag from his cornerbacks coach role for 2025.
Charlie Noonan, a former Rutgers defensive tackle, has been been promoted to the defensive tackles coach role, elevated from assistant linebackers coach. He’s been on staff since 2020 in various assistant roles.

Note: This is a “dynamic” article; meaning we will update any information that comes in this “off-season” and post a note when impactful moves are made or news breaks.

|||||| 2024 SCHEDULE / RESULTS ANALYSIS

This was the 59th ranked schedule in SOS+ and that is the result of missing Ohio State, Penn State and Oregon on the slate. They started with two easy wins and then beat Virginia Tech on the road and opened Big Ten play by beating Washington in Piscataway to get to 4-0. They then went on a four-game losing streak with two close ones (Nebraska and UCLA) and two that were never in doubt (Wisconsin and USC). They reset after the week ten bye and beat a good Minnesota team and won easily at Maryland. They finished up with a hard-fought loss to Illinois and then whooped Michigan State on the road to finish up the regular season. They let the bowl game against Kansas State slip away with some defensive let downs, which became their achilles heel.

||||||| POSITION GROUP CHECK-INS

OFFENSE: We’ll describe Kirk Ciarrocca’s offense as boringly effective. They run at an average/fast rate of speed, they have a run lean and rely on solid offensive line play to set the tone and hold the ball. Interestingly, this offense moved the ball into opponents’ red zone at a rate of 4.8 times per game. That ranked fifth amongst all FBS squads. They finished with a 66% touchdown rate (41st) and that fueled a 28.9 points per game mark (55th). They had more success in the run game and that set the tone for quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis to manage the game. He did a nice job of that. Star running back Kyle Monangai was a beast, taking over 250 carries for over 1,200 yards and 13 scores. This was exactly what head coach Greg Schiano wants from his offense, holding the ball and getting the defense some rest to do their thing. Again, it may be boring, but it’s pretty darn effective. Heading into 2025, the question becomes, can they have the same success without Monangai and star left tackle Hollin Pierce?

||| QB

Athan Kaliakmanis was brought here from Minnesota to manage the game and deliver a few dynamic throws. He did just that in 2024. He limited mistakes for the most part and developed into exactly what they need here from the position. Nobody else even attempted a single pass for the Gophers in ‘24 and that is not going to change in ‘25. He may be asked to do more if the running game takes a step back without their star. Ajani Sheppard is the backup.

||| RB

Kyle Monangai was simply a beast here. He was the bellcow, taking over 240 carries two years in a row. He will be missed. It’s easy to say you can’t replace him, but they do have some talent behind him, and they may just be able to match these numbers in a committee. Antwan Raymond was the primary backup and Samuel Brown V is talented and will get more carries. Plus, they bring in former FAU/FSU back CJ Cambell Jr. to the mix. They don’t need a ‘bellcow’ if they can piece this together.

||| WR

Dymere Miller was not your typical slot receiver. He was a bit more dynamic and less reliable, but overall was a great weapon for the offense. He will be missed as he graduates. Ian Strong and true freshman KJ Duff were the next two most productive on the outside and both return. Chris Long is headed out to Syracuse after his role never materialized. They bring in former North Texas (via Washington State) veteran slot receiver DT Sheffield to replace Miller and they shouldn’t miss a beat with this group.

||| TE

Injuries struck this group mid-season with both Kenny Fletcher and Victor Konopka announced out for the season week eight. Fletcher was chipping in nicely as a pass catcher through six games and he will return to a similar role. Logan Blake and Mike Higgins stepped in and did just fine. In fact, Blake showed well as a plus blocker and may have a role there in ‘25. The expectation is that they go back to Fletcher/Konopka as the primary starters here.

||| OL

This was a really solid group opening holes for a dynamic running back. They had a NFL mid-round draft pick in Hollin Pierce at left tackle to anchor this thing. The other four starters (Dantae Chin; Gus Zilinskas; Kwabena Asamoah and Tyler Needham) were solid and cohesive and will return for 2025, setting the stage for another line. They will need to address Pierce’s vacated tackle spot and at time of writing, they don’t have an obvious replacement. That will likely be a spring portal window focus area.

DEFENSE: Much like the offense, this group was boringly just effective enough. It’s really not from a lack of talent as they molded together to form a decent group that allowed 25.4 points per game, squarely in the middle of the pack in FBS football. The biggest problem was that they gave up too many touchdowns. They didn’t shut down in the red zone and opponents were cashing in for six on most occasions (86.3% touchdown rate overall ranks 132nd in FBS; 68% in the red zone is ranked 110th). That was the downfall. They didn’t create much havoc in the backfield, accumulating just 52 tackles for loss (121st) and 22 sacks (90th). They gave up too much in the run game, both on average — 5.21 yards per carry (118th) and in explosive plays, giving up 27 run plays of over 30 yards (118th). So, what did they do well? Looking at their profile, the answer is…nothing, really. They just did everything just well enough. They did lock down in the passing game as the secondary made up for some woes up front. It’s a wonder this wasn’t worse. The scary part is that this was against about as easy a schedule as they will see. 2025 will not be so kind.

||| DL

There is plenty of talent in this defensive front, led by Kyonte Hamilton and Aaron Lewis (Michigan transfer). They went pretty deep getting ten involved in the rotation and with both of those top two graduating, along with Malcolm Ray, they will need others to step up/into roles. Expect to see more of Jordan Walker, who showed really well in his 1/2 snaps as a Junior. They hit the portal to bring in two really good ones in Eric O’Neill (JMU) and Bradley Weaver (Ohio). If those two handle the level-up; we may see an improvement here.

||| LB

Dariel Djabome has developed into a plus middle linebacker. Tyreem Powell was the bigger name, but he struggled with injuries and was limited. Al-Shadee Salaam performed well in run defense for his limited snaps and will be expected to play a bigger role with Powell headed to the NFL and another injured player in Mohamed Toure, who graduates. They should be fine with Djabome returning and leading the way.

||| DB

This was the saving grace for 2024. Led by Shaquan Loyal at his strong safety position, they also had great cover corners in Robert Longerbeam and Bo Mascoe. They do lose their top five to either graduation or in the case of Longerbeam, the NFL. Mascoe returns along with only S Kaj Sanders, who got some good run as a true freshman, as those with meaningful playing time last year. They hit up the portal to get CB Cam Miller (Penn State), Jett Elad (UNLV) and Jacobie Henderson (Marshall) to give a jolt of talent to a diminished group. It will take some time, but this could mold into solid group once again.

SPECIAL TEAMS: The Knights had one of the best punt returners in the nation in Christian Dremel. He graduates though and they’ll need to find somebody else to take on that role. Ben Black did return a few kickoffs and may be in the running for that job next year as a sophomore. Jai Patel was a solid kicker and Jakob Anderson an average punter. Both will return.

Reader feedback is requested and encouraged! Who knows these teams better than their passionate fan bases? We don’t pretend to know it all and would love your feedback. We will update/edit based (and credit) for anything that is brought to our attention. Let’s do this together…

|||||| TRANSFER PORTAL TRACKER

Schiano is smart and tactical about portal involvement. He doesn’t have the same resources (read: NIL) to get the top guys, so he looks to the group of five a bit more to bring players who can make this transition. The incoming group is headlined by a pair of defensive linemen, Eric O’Neill (JMU) and Bradley Weaver (Ohio). They get a couple of offensive weapons in RB CJ Campbell Jr. and WR DT Sheffield to fill specific needs. The secondary is strengthened with three high-upside players as well. The losses were more numerous, but less impactful with only two players above the 13.0 rating. Wesley Bailey left for Louisville and LB Timmy Hinspeter followed Joe Harasmyiak to UMass. Overall, a great job here and they are likely not done. One area that still needs to be addressed is left tackle.

Below is a screen shot of the full, live Transfer Portal Tracker over at CFBDepth.com. Click the image or the button below to view it in its entirety…

Live Rutgers Portal Tracker >

|||||| 2025 RECRUITING CLASS

We said he is a good recruiter, but even for Schiano, this is overachieving. Getting a top-15 class would be remarkable. This one is more volume driven with 27 recruits coming in, but he’s getting four 4-stars and five more high 3-stars. With their track record of player development, this has the chance to be something special. He’s keeping kids in New Jeresy. They have the fifth ranked wide receiver class, led by in-state Michael Thomas III. They also bring in five linebackers, again led by an in-state kid DJ McClary.

Here is a snapshot of the 2025 Recruiting Class+ with a link to the live page with updates throughout the cycle:

2025 Rutgers Recruiting Class+ >

|||||| 2025 SCHEDULE LOOK AHEAD

We said 2024 was an outlier and as you can see, it comes back in a big way. Those three that they avoided a year ago — Ohio State, Oregon and Penn State — well, they all show up on this one. They don’t have cake walk non-conference games either with both Ohio and Miami (OH) as solid group of five programs. They do not have to go to Eugene or Happy Valley, so if you are looking for any pluses — that’s where you can go. But, overall, this is a really tough one with three that they are likely double-digit underdogs in on this slate.

There is a lot of movement and decisions to be made throughout the off-season, including more portal moves, winter workouts and spring ball. Get all caught up with the full-on State of the Chart Magazine coming in July. If you missed the ad before, get more information and give us your e-mail to stay in the loop on everything SOTC!

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