Nebraska Opponent Spring Review: Rutgers

As Nebraska enters a critical fifth season under head coach Scott Frost in 2022, we decided to look at where things stand with the Huskers’ 12 opponents coming out of spring practices.

Today we continue with Rutgers, which will be rebuilding in the 2022 season. Richard Schnyderite of TheKnightReport.Net gave us his thoughts on the Scarlet Knights' spring and their week-six matchup with Nebraska in New Jersey.

Related: Northwestern | North Dakota | Georgia Southern | Oklahoma |

1. Quarterback battle

Like many programs in the spring, Rutgers has a quarterback battle between three players.

Sixth-year quarterback Noah Vedral is the frontrunner as he has started two seasons for the Scarlet Knights after transferring from Nebraska. Last season, Vedral completed 181-of-304 passes with 1854 passing yards and seven touchdowns. The Wahoo, Neb. native rushed for 297 yards on 102 attempts.

The other two quarterbacks in competition with Vedral are sophomores Gavin Wimsatt and Evan Simon.

Wimsatt, who is from Owensboro, Ky., played in four games as a freshman and completed nine passes for 45 yards and rushed for 68 yards. Simon played in six games in 2021, going 16-for-28 for 145 yards.

2. Rebuilding the offensive line

Rutgers brought in 11 new offensive linemen including seven freshman and four transfers. Schnyderite said Rutgers fans have been watching to see if the new additions can win over the start spots from last seasons starters.

The transfers are Minnesota transfer Curtis Dunlap Jr., Colorado State transfer Mike Ciaffoni, FCS transfer J.D. DiRenzo and JUCO transfer Willie Tyler III, who was at Texas during his sophomore and junior years.

As for the freshman, two interior linemen were on campus for spring practice. Four-star interior lineman Jacob Allen from Princeton, N.J. highlights the group. Rutgers has four interior linemen and three tackles in its freshman class.

3. Replacing two NFL draft picks on offense

Rutgers lost its star players on the offense sides of the ball to the 2022 NFL draft.

Wide receiver Bo Melton was selected in the seventh round by the Seattle Seahawks. At Rutgers, Melton was on the Biletnikoff Award Watch List as he ranks among one of the best receivers in Rutgers history.

Melton is third in program history with 56 games played, sixth with 164 receptions, tied for eight with five 100-yard receiving games and 10th with 2,011 receiving yards.

Running back Isaih Pacheco was selected in the seventh round by the Kansas City Chiefs. Since his freshman season in 2018, Pacheco played in every game (44) for the Scarlet Knights.

He left Piscataway, N.J. with 2,442 career rushing yards and 18 touchdowns. Pacheco knotched 249 receiving yards on 47 receptions and one receiving touchdown.

The Scarlet Knights need to replace their leading rusher and receiver for the last three seasons in this upcoming season.

Schnyderite: "A lot of fans don't really talk about it and obviously, most coaching staffs are always going to focus on one game at a time. So I guess the main focus right now is Boston College for both the fan base and the coaching staff.

"But I think Rutgers thinks they have a pretty good shot against Nebraska this year. Obviously, results aren't showing what Nebraska is doing, as they kind of struggled a little bit last year in terms of record, but they did look like a pretty solid team at times. So I think it should be an interesting matchup for both programs."

Schnyderite: "Their out-of-conference schedule is a little interesting this year because Boston College has a pretty good team under Jeff Hafley. Temples up and down but again, new coaching staff so it should have at least two if not three out-of-conference wins.

"And then it gets that Big Ten slate where it gets really troublesome. They're playing against Minnesota, Michigan, Michigan State and Penn State back to back to back to back then Iowa and Ohio State back to back.

"I want to say anywhere between three to four wins right now. It's going to be tough. I do think they could snag a Big Ten win or two depending on how Nebraska does, how Indiana does (and) Maryland, I think those are the three winnable ones.

"I probably say around three wins right now. But it's definitely a rebuilding year. This is a long-haul rebuild for Rutgers. When (Greg) Schiano came in, he kind of knew that was happening. But who knows, maybe they can pull some magic out of that."