Rutgers Football: Wishlist for the Scarlet Knights’ 2019 season

1. Defensive depth

A legitimate concern for the Scarlet Knights in 2019 will be defense. That side of the ball loses plenty of starters and before the season, depth was already a foreseeable problem.

Prior to the 2018 season, Rutgers saw a KJ Gray, a starting defensive back as well as up-and-coming linebacker Brendan DeVera dismissed from the team.

Gray would have been entering his second season as a starter while DeVera would have most definitely been a part of the rotation.

Pair these dismissals with the slew of injuries Rutgers had including the one to defensive leader Blessaun Austin, and the Scarlet Knights didn’t stand much of a chance defending high-powered Big Ten offenses as they were hampered by defensive inconsistency.

Perhaps the biggest void next season will be the secondary. Austin, Saquan Hampton, Isiah Wharton and Kiy Hester won’t be on the team next year because of graduation.

This leaves four spots open for next year –– causing some alarm for a defense that surrendered more than three touchdowns per contest this season.

A quick-and-easy fix may be to add a graduate transfer (or a transfer in general). This has somewhat already been achieved with the boosted addition of Drew Singleton.

Singleton, a former Paramus Catholic standout and Michigan linebacker, decided to transfer back closer to home and will join Rutgers with three years of eligibility left.

This was a key addition with the impending graduations of senior linebackers Trevor Morris and Deonte Roberts.

While the offense seemed to be the most worrisome aspect of the team this year, the defense also had a fair share of struggles.

The biggest wish should be for Rutgers to develop depth early, considering there will be a lot of key seniors leaving the program prior to the start of the 2019 season.