NFL News NFL News, Reports and Updates
PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Greg Schiano only had about two weeks. It was December 2019 and the Rutgers coach from 2001-11 had been rehired at his old stomping grounds to save a program that was the butt of all Big Ten jokes. His first tasks was one of the most difficult in college football roster-building: organizing a transitional recruiting class between his hiring date and the early signing period.
That initial group of 18 players included running back Kyle Monangai, an undersized in-state running back who wasn’t even the most highly touted prospect in his own high school backfield.
All Mongain’s done as a Scarlet Knight is lead the Big Ten in rushing during a breakout junior campaign in 2023, and he’s repeating that in 2024 as one of the nation’s leading rushers through the first part of the season, ranking second in the Big Ten in yards per game (152).
“To say that it was all science, and we knew it was going to be that now, no chance,” Schiano told CBS Sports. “I wish I was that gifted.”
Schiano had a small staff initially that winter, with Nunzio Campanile and Fran Brown as his only assistants on staff and Eric Josephs essentially trying out to be his full-time player personnel guy. It’s a time when coaches are a little more apt to take risks.
Monangai is the son of Cameroonian immigrants who didn’t really understand football at first before he and his older brother Kevin picked it up as children.
Kyle Monangai played high school football at New Jersey powerhouse Don Bosco Prep. When the Ironmen needed a yard in a tough situation, he was most likely to get the ball.
But when college coaches cycled through the practice fields in Ramsey, New Jersey, they were drawn to 6-foot-1, 215-pound teammate Jalen Berger rather than the…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/how-rutgers-rb-kyle-monangai-went-from-overlooked-recruit-to-big-ten-star-and-face-of-greg-schianos-rebuild/
Author : Richard Johnson
Publish date : 2024-09-26 16:27:45
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
