gavin wimsatt

B1G play starts this week and for the second time in three seasons, the Michigan Wolverines get it going with the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at Michigan Stadium. Rutgers is 3-0 on the season, a win over Northwestern followed by non-conference wins over Temple and Virginia Tech. Is this squad something to fear, or merely coasting against three very bad opponents? We will settle that debate this week in our two part breakdown, starting today with the offense. 

The Film: None of these three opponents are anywhere close to the same caliber as Michigan, but being two P5 schools, I decided to pick between Northwestern and Virginia Tech. Both teams are brutal this season, with VT having fallen a shockingly far ways from the perennial 10 win days of the Frank Beamer era and Northwestern is going through a scandal we are all familiar with by this point. Per SP+, Virginia Tech is a bit better of a team this season than the 'Cats and so I decided to lean towards the Hokies. Also, the VT game has the benefit of being more recent by two weeks, which should give us a more accurate picture of the Rutgers offense. Though I charted only the VT game, I did review the extended highlights of the Northwestern game and will use them when appropriate. 

Personnel: Click for big. 

For the second year in a row, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights are led by the still-teenage QB Gavin Wimsatt, who has a bigger arm than Noah Vedral but has been plagued by accuracy issues so much that a chart of his pass attempts looks extremely Vedral-like. Passing problems aside, the major difference in Wimsatt's play compared to last season is the way they've reconfigured the offense to optimize his legs, something we will explore in length later on. As a result of this situation, we have cyan'd half of Wimsatt to represent his passing game but have left the other side alone, representing his running ability.  

The RB position is headlined by Kyle Monangai, a workhorse and the Dangerman for this piece. Monangai has already carried the ball 58 times this season for 357 yards, a yardage total that ranks sixth in the NCAA in total rushing so far. Of the five ahead of him, two are ahead of him by *one* yard and two more have played an additional game. With 5 rushing TDs as well, Monangai has been a beast so far and a player that the Rutgers offense revolves around. The other RBs include Ja'shon Benjamin, a true freshman who had some flashes in the game I charted and has emerged as the clear #2 back on the depth chart, as well as Samuel Brown V, a stand-out last season in his brief trial before injury. Whatever momentum Brown had last season appears to be gone, with just seven carries to his name in three games in 2023. 

Heavy turnover at the WR room means that all three WRs to get starter status on last season's diagram, including 2022 Dangerman Sean Ryan, have left the program. 6'3 Isaiah Washington is now the top outside receiver while 5'9" Christian Dremel is the go-to player in the slot. Washington seldom leaves the field, while Dremel has played about two-thirds of offensive snaps this season. Neither of those two have looked particularly dangerous but they are tied for the team lead in catches with seven. The other outside WR spot has been a rotating cast of characters, JaQuae Jackson's five catches and 94 snaps leading the group but Chris Long and Ian Strong have been in the mix as well. Farther down the list you can find Rashad Rochelle and Max Patterson. 

At tight end we find eternal Scarlet Knight Johnny Langan, preserved from the 14th century to don the scarlet shining armor every season for the rest of the universe's existence. Langan, once a wildcat QB, has been the TE for a few seasons now and is entering his fifth season as a contributor at Rutgers and his sixth season of college football in totality. If Langan can find a way to play more season he can challenge Chris Autman-Bell for the title of longest tenured B1G player in modern memory. Langan is the team's primary TE, having played over 80% of snaps this season, an important check-down target (5.8 yards per reception) and an okay blocker, having a very strong game against Virginia Tech. Shawn Bowman is the second TE who comes on in 12 personnel and has been largely terrible this season. 

Rutgers' offensive line has been a sore spot for years and the projection coming into the season was for it to be as bad as ever, with heavy attrition from last season. Last year's RT Hollin Pierce has slid over to LT and despite getting a cyan last year, he was surprisingly strong in the VT game, a major catalyst for Rutgers' left-handed rushing attack. I did not give him the designation of feebleness on this year's diagram. On the other side of the line, the RT entering the season was Tyler Needham, who looked okay through 1.5 games before an injury against Temple sidelined him for the Virginia Tech game. In his place was Kamar Missouri, who had a very poor showing and earned a cyan. Taj White is the fourth tackle who gets involved every so often, but I don't have a ton of notes on him. 

On the interior of the line, C Gus Zilinskas is both our name of the week winner and the most-used lineman on the team. He came close to a cyan with a poor performance against Virginia Tech, but the PFF grades from his other two games were good enough for me to avoid putting it on him. Kwabena Asamoah starts at RG, a player who I only noticed three times and all three were negative moments. That, plus a track record of subpar play, earned him a cyan. The final guard spot has been a rotation of Curtis Dunlap Jr., Bryan Felter, and Mike Ciaffoni (some of these guys sub in for Asamoah from time to time too). Of these three, I actually liked Felter and Ciaffoni more than Dunlap but there wasn't a massive difference and I didn't get enough snaps of either to get a feel for it. None of them are "good" and all teeter on the edge of cyan status. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: I hope you like QB draws]