Rutgers Football: 5 Knights primed for breakout season in 2018

Rutgers football faltered in 2017 but has plenty of talent to rebuild around come 2018. Here are five breakout candidates to watch for this coming season.

After a fourth-place finish in the Big Ten East division a year ago, the Scarlet Knights will look to regroup and find a foothold in the conference.

In 2017, Rutgers finished the season with a 4-8 record (3-6 in Big Ten). There is much room for improvement and with the way the roster is shaping out, the defense will be particularly strong in the linebacker corps and the secondary while the offense will feature several underclassmen.

Each season, there is a potential for new waves of talent to emerge as top players. This may be true for the Scarlet Knights as well come 2018. Here are five names to keep an eye on this upcoming season.

Bo Melton is a New Jersey product and is a former four-star recruit and the No. 7 ranked player out of the Garden State in his class.

He played in all 12 games last year as a freshman and made three starts at wideout. In 2017, he only had four receptions for 83 yards.

He could be a key part of a young resurgence for Rutgers in 2018. While the none of the receivers put up outstanding numbers (mostly because of the ineffectiveness at the quarterback position), Melton turned some heads in the Rutgers Spring Game when he hauled in three touchdown catches.

He isn’t the tallest receiver standing at 6-foot but he has the speed and quickness to be a dangerous weapon in the passing game, especially when he gets behind the secondary.

In this video, Melton mentions that last year, Rutgers had a good running offense, but fell short in the passing game. In the video, Melton says the wide receivers have “evolved as a passing group.”

If there is one area for improvement the Scarlet Knights must focus on it is the passing attack and Melton could play a major role in how that develops in 2018.