Rutgers Football: 5 reasons the Scarlet Knights may struggle in 2018
4. No proven offensive weapons
Even in years past when Rutgers wasn’t the best football team, it still had playmakers on the offense. Some names that immediately come to mind are Mohamed Sanu, Leonte Carroo and two players who played at the apex of Rutgers’ success in the mid-2000s– Ray Rice and Brian Leonard.
In 2018, Rutgers may be in trouble because it doesn’t have a true go-to guy in the offense. With the way this season is shaping out to be, the Scarlet Knights will have to entrust several underclassmen to manufacture points.
While this may just be the inklings of a fruitful offense in the future, it also threatens to dash the hopes of turning around the offensive struggles of last season.
In 2017, the Scarlet Knights struggled mightily to get the ball into the end zone. Rutgers was blanked twice last season– against Ohio State and Indiana– and only scored one touchdown against other teams such as Eastern Michigan, Purdue, Penn State and Michigan State.
The receivers did not produce much at all mostly because of the ineffectual play of the quarterbacks, but sophomore Bo Melton probably has the best chance to be a playmaker on the outside.
The running game was most definitely a strong point in the Rutgers offense last season, but now its top two tailbacks, Gus Edwards and Robert Martin have departed for the NFL.
The running back position shouldn’t be in too much flux given the state of the position heading into the new season and will most likely be the anchor of the offense.
Raheem Blackshear played behind the top two runners and proved to have an impact as a freshman. In 2018, he can evolve into more of a playmaker as he has shown both speed and explosiveness with the football in his hands.
Add in a veteran running back in Jonathan Hilliman who has experience in a Power 5 conference and Rutgers has two running options that provide different skill sets.
Both of these running backs have the promise of providing a strong running game, but the reality is that neither has been thrust into a Big Ten game in a feature role.