LAS VEGAS — The 2025 season has unofficially kicked off.
Rutgers previewed the upcoming campaign at Big Ten Media Day on Tuesday, with head coach Greg Schiano and veterans Athan Kaliakmanis, Ian Strong and Dariel Djabome taking the podium to discuss where the Scarlet Knights stand entering training camp next week.
Here are five things we learned:
Injury updates
— True freshman defensive lineman Braxton Kyle underwent surgery on his foot/ankle this offseason and is expected to miss significant time during the 2025 campaign.
“I don’t know where he’ll be, if he’ll be back for the season, (but) it won’t be early,” Schiano said. “He might be later. That’s another good thing with the redshirt rules the way they are: If a guy is ready, you don’t worry about blowing a year because he can play in four. He is really a promising prospect, so it’s a shame. (He will probably miss training camp and) probably a good portion of the season. (When it comes to his potential return), we’re talking way down the road.”
— Running back Samuel Brown and linebacker Abram Wright, who each suffered season-ending injuries in the second half of the 2024 campaign, are both expected to contribute for the Scarlet Knights at some point this fall.
Because neither player has used their redshirt season, Rutgers will be able to play them for four regular season games (and any potential postseason games) without using one of their years of eligibility.
Training camp will be “real important” for the multiple players who suffered significant injuries last fall and did not participate in the spring, Schiano said.
“We have to be really smart on how we construct the roster and then how we employ the roster with the newish rules,” Schiano said. “With the four games plus the postseason not counting, you can do some things strategically with redshirts if you have to, so we’ll see how they are all doing. There’s nobody that’s not on schedule in their recoveries, but none of them have played live football yet. You never know. They’re on schedule, but until you go torque somebody up, and then all of a sudden, that didn’t feel right.”
Key position battles in training camp
While Schiano acknowledged that “every position battle is important” in the pursuit of finding “the best 11,” the Rutgers coach did point out some positions he is keeping a close eye on entering training camp:
— Running back: The Scarlet Knights are replacing program great Kyle Monangai, who is now in the NFL. FAU transfer CJ Campbell and rising sophomore Antwan Raymond are favorites to shoulder a majority of the carries, but the pecking order will be decided in camp — and beyond.
“I think we have a really good running back room, so it’s going to be really a matter of who wins the competition,” Schiano said. “It’s not always decided by the opening game.”
— Defensive line: Rutgers added five transfers — ends Eric O’Neill and Bradley Weaver, tackles Oliver Billotte, Darold DeNgohe, Doug Blue-Eli — to compliment a group of returnees led by Jordan Walker, Zaire Angoy, Jordan Thompson and Keshon Griffin.
“We have some new faces,” Schiano said. “That competition is going to be fierce. We have enough good players up there. We just got to figure out where to play them and who gets how much (playing time).”
— Linebacker: Djabome and fellow returnee Moses Walker are heavy favorites to start, but there will be competition for the backup spots.
The position is in flux between Wright working his way back from injury, a late transfer from veteran Mohamed Toure, and a medical retirement from redshirt freshman Sam Pilof, but between rising sophomore Sam Robinson, true freshman DJ McClary and incoming transfer Austin Dean, there will be multiple candidates for snaps at the end of the rotation.
“We need the young guys to develop for sure,” Schiano said. “That’s going to be a critical spot. Beyond the guys that are the first two backers, they’re all young kids.”
Who is filling in at tackle?
While Rutgers has a veteran core returning in the middle of its offensive line, both tackle spots are in flux. With stalwart Hollin Pierce now in the NFL, Tyler Needham “has a chance to secure the spot” on the left, per Schiano, but “he’s got to go do it.”
The Scarlet Knights brought in multiple offensive linemen via the transfer portal this offseason (Ryder Langsdale, Zach Aamland, Moshood Giwa), so Needham will have plenty of competition. If he does ultimately win the job, that leaves an open spot on the right side for the rest of the room to compete for.
“I hesitate whenever anybody asks me: what do you think my role will be?” Schiano said. “I have no idea. You’re going to create your role by how you practice and how you play in games. I’m just going to facilitate that.”
Non-conference scheduling philosophy seems set
The Scarlet Knights are set to face two Group of Five programs — specifically, from the MAC — and an FCS team this fall before diving into their Big Ten schedule.
It is a formula that, barring rule changes from the conferences amid constant College Football Playoff format upheaval, will be the norm for Rutgers under Schiano.
Aside from a home-and-home series against Boston College in the 2026 and 2027 seasons — which was signed in July of 2015, a full decade ago — the Scarlet Knights do not have any Power Five opponents on any current future schedule. Rutgers recently agreed to a four-game series against local G5 program Temple between 2030-2033, filling in slots previously held by a cancelled home-and-home series with Kansas State.
“We play nine Big Ten games, a challenging slate, so unless there’s a certain game that we feel we need to play, we’re going to play games that are challenging but don’t need to be conference games,” Schiano said. “I think where we have found ourselves now is probably pretty much what you can expect. To me, it’s all about our team getting ready, and I think the schedule we have is a challenging one.”
Grueling travel ‘not an issue’
Due to a five-game road slate that includes a cross-country trip to Seattle and no flight shorter than 450 miles, Rutgers will travel more distance during Big Ten play than any team outside of the West Coast quartet, according to Bookies.com.
Schiano did not seem concerned.
“I think it matters only if you let it matter,” he said. “If you have a plan of how to do your travel and share it openly with your players and you don’t make it a big thing and they comply, it’s not an issue.”
Scarlet Knights are not satisfied
Rutgers finished with a 7-6 record last fall, marking a second consecutive winning season and a step forward in Schiano’s second build of the program. For Kaliakmanis, that was not enough.
“The season left a bad taste in our mouths,” the quarterback told the Big Ten Network’s Dave Revsine, who asked the natural follow up: “Why?”
“We want to be better,” Kaliakmanis responded. “It’s never enough. The standard is the standard, and the standard is high at Rutgers. We feel like we have to be better and we’ve been working really hard this offseason getting together, all of us, and just working and being the best that we could possibly be.”
Schiano was not shy about his high expectations, either.
“We have, step-by-step, climbed our way to the middle of the league, but I didn’t come back to do that,” the coach said at the dais. “I came back to win the (league) championship. That may sound funny to some that have followed college football, but that’s what we’re going to do. I can’t tell you when that’s going to happen, but that’s why we’re back.”
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Brian Fonseca may be reached at bfonseca@njadvancemedia.com.
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