ESPN and writer Adam Rittenberg released an article today where Rittenberg looked at the future of all the power conference college football teams and ranked them from most promising to least for the 2027 season. Notre Dame landed at the top of the list, with Ohio State and Texas right behind it.
Rutgers came in at 56, 13 teams lower than when ESPN released the same list the year prior. Rittenberg broke down his analysis into categories: Quarterback, offensive/defensive line outlook, coaching staff,
roster management, and star power.
In each of the categories, Rittenberg talks about where the team was last year and any off-season happenings that relate to that. For example, in terms of quarterbacks, he went over the fact that Rutgers will have a quarterback competition, and for star power, he went over the feats of KJ Duff and Antwan Raymond, and how important it was to retain them.
The two most interesting breakdowns came for the quarterback and roster management sections.
“QB situation: Athan Kaliakmanis departs after developing into a very solid Big Ten quarterback, especially as a senior, when he improved his accuracy considerably and had 3,124 passing yards with 20 touchdowns. Rutgers will have a competition to replace him between Boston College transfer Dylan Lonergan and AJ Surace, who backed up Kaliakmanis but had only 34 snaps the past two seasons. Both Lonergan and Surace have multiple years of eligibility left.”
“Roster management: The Scarlet Knights have checked the boxes for recruiting and retention in recent years, and keeping top running back Antwan Raymond and top receiver KJ Duff is significant, especially with a new quarterback. The team also brought back experienced linemen on both sides of the ball, and signed the nation’s No. 38 recruiting class. But Rutgers also saw several key contributors depart in the portal, namely wide receiver Ian Strong (Cal), starting offensive tackle Taj White (Colorado) and several defenders, including cornerbacks Bo Mascoe (Texas) and Jacobie Henderson (Virginia). The team had nice portal additions on defense but the new staff will have its work cut out to engineer a Year 1 impact.”
With both of these responses, the reason why Rittenberg ranked the future of Rutgers football much lower on the totem pole than he did last year is because of all the unknowns. An unknown quarterback situation and a defense undergoing a massive overhaul. We will have a better understanding of these unknowns by the time this list comes out next season. Hopefully, there is enough on tape for Rutgers to be ranked higher next year.
