Wisconsin Badgers early scouting report: Rutgers Scarlet Knights

With Big Ten media days fast approaching and fall camp slated to open shortly thereafter, the 2024 college football season is right around the corner. In year two of the Luke Fickell era, Wisconsin has further revamped its roster but faces a daunting schedule littered with marquee matchups.

Throughout July, BadgerBlitz.com will break down each game on Wisconsin's slate. We'll continue with Rutgers, a team that head coach Greg Schiano appears to have on the rise.

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Rutgers has certainly come a long way in a relatively short period of time under Schiano. When he took over for his second stint in Piscataway, the Scarlet Knights were nothing more than a punchline. They won 10 Big Ten games in six years before Schiano took over, including two consecutive 0-9 conference finishes in 2018-2019. But last fall, in year four of Schiano's tenure, Rutgers posted a winning record (7-6) for the first time since 2014.

This was a team that, two to three years ago, had no business in the Big Ten. All of the sudden, the Scarlet Knights have momentum on and off the field and look as good as they have in a decade. That still may not be saying much, but Schiano deserves loads of credit for embarking on the same rebuild he already completed and beginning to see similar results.

Last season, Rutgers did it the old-fashioned way: a stout defense and a punishing running game. The Scarlet Knights had the 16th-ranked total defense in the nation, and paired that with the conference's leading rusher in Kyle Monangai. With both Monangai and 79 percent of the defensive production returning, per ESPN, it's not hard to see why hope and optimism abounds in North Jersey.

Rutgers' season was a success last year, but it could've been even better had it gotten the quarterback right. It's hard to blame the Scarlet Knights, as they deployed former four-star, top-10 quarterback prospect Gavin Wimsatt. However, he never developed into the player Rutgers hoped. Schiano appeared set to give him one more chance, letting him battle it out this spring with Minnesota transfer Athan Kaliakmanis. After Kaliakmanis won the job, Wimsatt high-tailed it to Kentucky via the transfer portal, leaving the former Gopher with the keys to Rutgers' offense.

Former Minnesota offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca also joined Rutgers this offseason, a fact that helped Kaliakmanis both win the job and continue to develop and grow his game. The gunslinger isn't elite by any stretch of the imagination, but he has experience and can make plays with both his arm and his legs. After Wimsatt failed to complete even 50 percent of his passes for the duration of his Rutgers career, Kaliakmanis figures to be a tangible upgrade.

If Rutgers gets better quarterback play, it can open up a passing game that needs to replace two of its top three receivers. Still, the leading pass-catcher from a season ago Christian Dremel returns, and is joined by Dymere Miller, who lit up the stat sheet at FCS Monmouth a season ago with 90 catches for 1,293 yards and nine scores. He's in line to start this fall.

If the passing game opens up, there should be even more room for Monangai to run wild. The dynamic halfback had some massive games last season, like his 143-yard, three-touchdown performance on just 16 carries against Virginia Tech. It's worth noting, however, that Wisconsin bottled him up better than anyone last season: Monangai tallied just 16 yards on eight carries against the Badgers. His longest run went for four yards.

This is a unit that seems primed to improve on its 120th-ranked total offense and 94th-ranked scoring offense. With how stout this defense figures to be again, even marginal improvement on offense could make the Scarlet Knights a much tougher foe in 2024.

Rutgers' defense was its calling card last season. It was good against the run but borderline lights out against the pass, allowing just 176 yards-per-game, good for 10th nationally. What's more, many of that secondary's top players, including the safety tandem of Flip Dixon and Shaquan Loyal, return this fall.

This is one of the most veteran defenses in the entire country. Every projected starter is a senior. That's one of the reasons Rutgers only felt the need to bring in one transfer on defense, lineman Malcom Ray from Florida State. He should start at defensive tackle right away. Otherwise, this should be an extremely cohesive unit that knows how to play with one another.

The linebacker tandem of Tyreem Powell and Mohamad Toure will be the heart and soul of this unit, but we'll let Rutgers writer Richie O'Leary break those two down further. Otherwise, nickelback Desmond Igbinosun, defensive linemen Aaron Lewis and the aforementioned safety tandem are a few of the other key pieces that make this defense run.

With all of the returning experience and lack of departing production, it's feasible that this already impervious defense could be even better in 2024.

It's always fascinating to see how transfers from lower levels of college football fare in the Big Ten, and Miller is no exception. He looked like a man amongst boys at the FCS level last fall, getting separation with ease and torching hapless defenders with blazing speed.

With Miller's run-after-catch ability, he's the kind of player you can expect an offense to make a concerted effort to get the ball to. Reverses, screens and the like should all be on the table for the receiver in Piscataway.

Again, it remains to be seen just how improved this Scarlet Knights passing game will be. But Miller jumps off the tape as an instant difference-maker, one that, if used correctly, could give Big Ten defensive coordinators fits this fall.

We spoke to Richie O'Leary of TheKnightReport to get the inside scoop on Rutgers:

1. How much does Athan Kaliakmanis raise this team’s ceiling?

After having the least accurate quarterback in college football two years in a row with Gavin Wimsatt, you can argue that just about anybody would be an improvement.

Now, Kaliakmanis; accuracy numbers weren’t much better than Wimsatt’s, but he’s able to hit the simple passes that Wimsatt couldn't. With a more accurate passer, it should open up the offense as a whole because they already had the Big Ten’s leading rusher last year with Kyle Monangai. But add in a legit passing attack and that forces teams to not just sell out for the run thus creating an even strong rushing attack as that’s the program’s bread and butter.

2. What are the expectations for Greg Schiano’s squad coming off the first bowl-eligible season of his tenure?

Expectations are high this season, as the schedule is arguably the easiest it’s been for the Scarlet Knights since they joined the Big Ten. They won’t face off against former division mates Michigan, Ohio State or Penn State for the first time ever.

On top of it all, they had a strong defense last year and return over 80% of their team’s production from last year only replacing a few pieces here and there, most of which are considered upgrades.

There’s some talk that if things fall the right way, people think double-digit wins is possible, but I’d say 8-9 with a shot at 10 with a bowl victory sounds about right.

3. What’s been the catalyst for the Scarlet Knights’ big time recruiting efforts, especially in the 2025 class?

It’s a couple of things, first things first they have a good combo of veteran coaches who have been around the game for a while and young up and coming recruiters with juice. End of the day, Schiano knows how to build relationships with not just the players themselves, but their families, coaches and even their close friends and that same reflection can been seen throughout his staff.

Obviously NIL helps some things from time to time, but they don’t have the deepest pockets in the world. But with the new revenue sharing expected to come in to play, it equals out the playing field a bit and kids want a part of that.

Finally, they are showing serious progress. When Schiano took over, Rutgers was arguably the most laughable program in the country, as former HC Chris Ash ran them into the ground. Now entering year five, he has some proof and results on the field to show they are truly rebuilding this program just like he did his first go around.

4. Who or what is the biggest X-factor on this team?

On offense it’s easy as I mentioned before Monangai led the Big Ten in rushing yards last season and that was without a threat of a passing attack. If they can get the pass game going this season with a new QB at the helm and some more beef in the trenches, he could light it up once again.

Now as for the defense, it’s pretty tough to pick just one as they have several guys who will be playing on Sundays and are one of the most veteran led defenses in the conference and nation. However I’ll pick two here and say the linebacker duo of Tyreem Powell and Mohamed Toure.

They both provide different things to the game, as Powell is more of your modern linebacker who can do it all running sideline to sideline, line up in coverage, be used as a pass rusher and not to mention is a sure fire tackler.

Now as for Toure, he’s rotated between edge rusher and linebacker throughout his career, leading the Scarlet Knights in sacks over multiple seasons. However this past season he was asked to step up more and became one of the conference’s best overall linebacker prospects.

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