A fierce Penn State defense will look to continue its surge at Rutgers

Rutgers coach Greg Schiano saw the same thing everyone else saw when Penn State shut out Maryland last weekend at Beaver Stadium. The Nittany Lion defense clamped down hard on every aspect of the Terrapins’ offense, totaling 9 tackles for loss and 7 sacks in a 30-0 shellacking. 

“Certainly defensively, they played extremely well last week,” Schiano said. “Suffocating.”

Maryland had gone into the game ranked fourth in the Big Ten in total offense, but even with two of Penn State’s top defensive players — redshirt junior cornerback Joey Porter Jr. and third-year sophomore linebacker Curtis Jacobs — out of action, the Terps couldn’t get anything going on the ground or through the air and finished with 134 total yards. 

Now comes a road finale against a Rutgers team that hasn’t enjoyed nearly as much success on offense as the Terps had been having. The Scarlet Knights are 12th in the Big Ten in scoring offense at 19.9 points per game and 13th in total offense at 308.3 yards per game. 

Wimsatt wins QB battle

One of the biggest challenges for Rutgers has been at quarterback, where Schiano and interim offensive coordinator Nunzio Campanile have been working to get sophomore Gavin Wimsatt settled in. 

The Knights have used a lot of quarterbacks this year. In their very first offensive possession of the season against Boston College, three players lined up under center in a span of three plays. In the weeks that followed, Wimsatt, senior Noah Vedral and sophomore Evan Simon all earned starts. 

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No matter who was operating the offense, though, Rutgers wasn’t able to keep pace with its Big Ten opponents. Following a 14-13 home loss to Nebraska on Oct. 7 in which Vedral completed just 6 of 15 passes for 133 yards, Rutgers fired offensive coordinator Sean Gleeson and promoted Campanile, who had been serving as tight ends coach.

The Scarlet Knights responded by defeating Indiana 24-17 the following week, but Vedral again posted modest numbers, hitting just 12 of 24 attempts for 113 yards.

Since that game, Rutgers has committed to Wimsatt, a 6-foot-3, 220-pounder who missed time earlier in the season due to an undisclosed injury he suffered in the Knights’ 16-14 win over Temple in September. 

A fast learner

When he was recruiting Wimsatt, a four-star prospect in the On3 Consensus coming out of Owensboro (Ky.) High in 2021, Schiano said he was intrigued by the young quarterback’s ability to process information quickly.

“He was very quick at picking things up, and he understands he has a unique spatial awareness,” Schiano said. “That’s why I say, if he can read it out, he’ll read it right most of the time. 

“But there are some really good defensive coordinators [in the Big Ten] who are tricky and show you one look and then take it away. For a young quarterback, it can be a little bit confusing. … On each play, there may be a little subtle difference on what you’re reading.  So, he has to know what that is, and then he has to know what it’s going to look like. … When you guess, you’re all right or you’re all wrong. It’s great when you’re all right, but when you’re all wrong, it’s ugly.”

The Knights have taken their lumps as Wimsatt has gained the necessary experience. They were shut out 31-0 by Minnesota, then went scoreless in the final two quarters of a 52-17 loss to Michigan.

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Rutgers lost again last weekend at Michigan State, 27-21, but Wimsatt and the offense fared better. He completed 20 of 34 passes for 236 yards and 2 touchdowns, while Kyle Monangai gained 162 yards on the ground, the most ever by a Rutgers running back in a Big Ten game.  

Schiano said the big difference between last week’s game and the ones that preceded it was that Wimsatt was better able to recognize what he was seeing when he scanned the Spartans’ defense.

“He didn’t read everything correctly, but he read everything out,” Schiano said. “There were a couple times in the Michigan game when we just guessed. As a quarterback, you can’t guess.

“But he’s learning, and he works incredibly hard at it. This isn’t a guy who just shows up and relies on his athletic ability. This is a guy who grinds the tape. He grinds in his preparation, and he’s only going to get better. I think Nunz is doing a really good job leading him along the path and learning how to get better as a quarterback.”

An elite defense

While his team is a 19.5-point favorite this week, Penn State coach James Franklin is wary of Rutgers, particularly Monangai, a 5-9, 205-pound sophomore. 

“I remember going to scout him,” Franklin said, recalling Monangai’s time at Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J. “We were going to scout another running back, and this guy just kept showing up. I remember coming back and saying, that’s a really good running back there.

“He is playing really well right now. I think their offense right now kind of goes through him.”

The challenge for Monangai, Wimsatt and company is that hardly anybody has been going through Penn State’s defense lately. Schiano called it “one of the elite defenses, I think, that we’ve played.”“When you get into Big Ten play, especially Big Ten East play, you’re talking about the elite of the elite,” he added. “I watch what they’ve done in Big Ten games, and they have really played at a high level.”