OCTOBER 5, 2012
GAMEDAY PAGE 5
IDENTITY
Experienced Rutgers secondary prepares for balanced Connecticut attack, decreased number of pass attempts BY JOEY GREGORY ASSOCIATE SPORTS EDITOR
The Rutgers football team’s secondary is among the most experienced groups on the field. Of the starting four, sophomore safety Lorenzo Waters is the only one not to have played in all 13 games last season. Senior cornerback Marcus Cooper, who backed up classmate Brandon Jones a year ago, also appeared in ever y game of the 2011 campaign.
Cooper believes the unit is reaping the benefits of that experience. “The more experience [and] the more game time you get, the more comfortable you are out there, the more confident you are in the play,” he said. “Just that everybody has that experience level … it helps out the unit, definitely.” Waters has undergone a different sort of season. He is the only member of the secondary new to a starting role. He is undergoing an adjustment period the others are far beyond.
The team’s last contest against Arkansas was a huge stepping stone in his growth, said junior cornerback Logan Ryan. “Your first year as a starter, there’s nothing like playing in front of 70,000 fans,” Ryan said. “That’s something everyone has to get used to and he’s doing a great job. He’s taking coaching, he’s getting better week to week. I think you should really grade him after the season. No one is great after four weeks.” Ryan, a preseason All-Big East first team member, has his own
role to play in defensive coordinator Robb Smith’s scheme. He is largely regarded as one of the best cover corners on the team. But head coach Kyle Flood stresses there is no such thing as a cover corner. All cornerbacks have to be able to stop the run as well as the pass. Ryan is no exception. “Logan [because of his place on the field] has a lot more responsibility when it comes to the run,” Jones said. “As a whole unit we pride ourselves in being
Junior cornerback Logan Ryan intercepts a pass from Arkansas quarterback Tyler Wilson intended for wideout Cobi Hamilton in the end zone. Ryan leads the Rutgers secondary in tackles this season with 27. NOAH WHITTENBURG, PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
able to stop that pass and the run, and that’s been since Day 1, since we been here.” Judging by statistics, the secondary is having more success at stopping the run than the pass. Rutgers ranks first in the nation in run defense while it is 80th against the pass. Part of that, Ryan believes, deals with where the defense’s main focus lies. “Stopping the run is our biggest concern, and the secondary needs to be involved in that and we’re doing a good job,” he said. “That’s making people pass about 50 attempts, 40 attempts, switch their game up, which we want [them] to do. But when they are passing about 50 times, we want to do a better job of playing pass defense.” The Knights’ last opponent did not help the numbers, either. Razorback quar terback Tyler Wilson was an all-conference selection last year and was on target Sept. 22, despite taking the loss. But many of his passes went in the direction of wide receiver Cobi Hamilton, who caught half of Wilson’s 20 completions for an SEC-record 303 yards. In contrast, Connecticut quar terback Chandler Whitmer, who the Knights face tomorrow, completed 15 passes to eight different receivers in his last performance. But the difference between the two signal callers in terms of targets will not cause much of a dif ference in the secondar y’s focus. “We play each receiver honestly,” Waters said. “We’re not going to spend any special attention to one specific receiver. We’ll have them all covered. Hopefully that’ll take care of it.” If statistics are any indication, the Knights secondar y will likely not face the sort of air attack it did nearly two weeks ago, as the Huskies have 54 more rushing attempts than passing. But UConn also has yet to face a defense ranked as high Rutgers’.
Defense A look at how Rutgers’ Pass Defense has fared against their opponents so far in the 2012 season compared to the average passing yards per game of each opponent in the 2012 season
9/8/12 Game 2 vs
Howard
9/1/12 Game 1 @
Tulane
254 Pass Yards 182.2 Avg. Pass Yards
75 Pass Yards 164.9 Avg. Pass Yards
9/13/12 Game 3 @
South Florida
242 Pass Yards 260.4 Avg. Pass Yards 9/22/12 Game 4 @
Arkansas
419 Pass Yards 310.4 Avg. Pass Yards GRAPHIC BY HAKAN UZUMCU