So There Has Been A Lot of Departures.....

This has been called a transition year for Rutgers, and that apparently not only applies to their conference affiliation, but their roster as well. Through out the season, there have been numerous departures, and while it may not effect the starting line up or the two deep much, it hurts the team's overall depth, and trickles down to the practice squad, where the starters won't get as good of a look practicing as they should.

The most notable departure is that of former starting corner back Ian Thomas, who has decided to quit football and pursue a baseball career. This is peculiar not only because he decided this in the middle of the season, but because he didn't even play baseball in high school. I won't fault a guy for making this type of decision, football is really hard and if he has any prospects of turning pro in baseball at all he is better off doing that, but this leaves Rutgers in a major bind. Corner was already a weakness coming into the season, and his departue combined with Lew Toller's season ending injury leaves just Gareef Glashen, two true freshman and a bunch of back up safeties as their depth at corner. His absence also leaves the position as a question mark in the future too.

Also leaving is defensive tackle Al Page. Page wasn't playing a whole lot, but he made the most of his limited opportunities and was an injury away from being thrust into the line up. This leaves the Knights with less depth at a position where depth is arguably the most important.

The other two transfers are runningback Dontea Ayers and offensive guard Marquise Wright. Ayers probably saw the writing on the wall that he was going to be burried on the depth chart because of the emergence of Justin Goodwin and the three runinng backs committed as part of Rutgers' 2014 recruiting class. Wright recently moved to guard from defensive tackle, but he was not listed on the two deep and probably never really had a chance to start next year.

Defensive linemen Myles Jackson and Jamil Pollard have also had to call it a career, due to injuries.

According to my unofficial count, Rutgers now has only 77 players on scholarship. That may not seem like a problem, but you need a strong roster from top to bottom, and they are getting dangerously thin at the bottom. The silver lining here is that they won't have as bad of a scholarship crunch when they welcome in their colossal 2014 recruiting class.