2011 Rutgers Scarlet Knights

Since '05, Rutgers has started 6, 5, 8, 9, 11 and 8 Whites. We've seen two White FB/RBs come through in Brian Leonard and Joe Martinek. Martinek will be a senior this year and it will be interesting to see how much he gets to tote the rock. The pickings are much slimmer this year with just 4 Whites currently in line to start. Other Whites who may see action include QB Steve Shimko, FB Michael Burton, WR JT Tartacoff, LG Art Forst, C/RG Caleb Ruch, RT Matt McBride, DE Shane Meisner and SS Patrick Kivlehan.

Offense
QB Chas Dodd
FB Joe Martinek
TE Paul Carrezola-in a fight for the position

Defense
DT Scott Vallone

Edited by: Colonel_Reb

Only 4 whites? They were half white in 2009!

I hope they lose every game. I feel bad for Joe running behind a swiss-cheese, sumo, coal-black O-line.

Why doesn't Rutgers recruit all the talented white players from Jersey?

I dont know if hes on the 2 deep but wr JT Tartacoff has some wheels an will probably factor in for 20-35 catches this year.

Thanks for the info, mattharper. JT is listed as 3rd string by Phil Steele's mag and CFN. I hope he gets some catches though and I'll add him to my original post.

Colonel, have they really moved Martinek to fullback?

wa33, sadly I'm afraid so. All three publications I'm currently using have moved him to FB, along with the Rutgers online roster. There's also this piece.

http://www.nj.com/rutgersfootball/index.ssf/2011/04/rutgers_joe_martinek_says_hes.html



Edited by: Colonel_Reb

So the all-time rushing yards leader in the state of NJ gets moved to fullback just like Leonard? Martinek has legit 4.4 speed and he's 215lbs. Ridiculous!

I dont think Martinek is a fullback but he is injury prone and Im not sure how he would project in the NFL. He dosent run tight but ha has this herky jerky kind of running style. He is no Zach Line who should be at least a 3rd round Draft pick.

This will certainly hurt his already slim chances of being drafted.

6'0 215 pound fullback, thats pretty small. Sad, he had almost 1k rushing in 09 and played on a bum ankle most of last year. Whites at skill positions can't afford to get injured. This is worse than what happened to Leonard because at least Ray Rice is one of the top backs in the NFL, I just don't see any of Joe's replacements being close to that level, I mean the starting rb was a wr last year. Not to mention Martinek is about 15 pounds lighter than Leonard. As a rb I would give Martinek the edge.

I wouldn't call him injury prone, he played on an injury last year when he shouldve sat out. Yeah hes not Zach Line but he is still an above average back, NFL caliber imo. Zach Line should be at least a 2nd round pick if he keeps improving, he needs to work on his open field moves, he runs too much like a scat back, he is good at making people miss but sometimes he needs to use his power when around smaller dbs, some of those 20 yard runs he had last year couldve been longer if he had just given a db a stiff arm instead of trying to make him miss, granted he has made a good share of them miss which is amazing for such a big guy but mix it up and he has a chance at getting 2k and breaking Dickerson's single season record. You want to talk about injury prone just look at some of the backs on an NFL roster the reason why there is the whole RBBC for most teams, go look at the Saints roster. Guys like Pierre Thomas who struggle with injury all the way back to college failing to finish a season healthy, Chris Ivory had a great season averaging 5+ ypc but couldn't finish a game without getting hurt, and he was injured all the time in college as well. That is the definition of injury prone, not some guy who is playing on an ankle injury making it worse for a season.

Rotoworld had this to say:
<div>For those who think that Joe Martinek's move to
fullback means he will be a single-speed battering ram, they are very
wrong. Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano has plans for Martinek at
fullback and went so far as to say "I don't think we're looking to get
him fat. We don't need that. What we do with our fullback he has to be
an athlete."</div> Just look at what Schiano did with Brian Leonard to see how Martinek could be used.

Brian had about 90 carries his last year with over 400 yards rushing, not sure how many receptions. The only problem with that role for Joe is that he is the kind of back that needs at least 15 carries a game to be effective, he gets better as the game goes on (his best games in 09 were with around 20+ carries). Random carries throughout the game from the fb spot + that oline doesn't look good, hopefully he can excel despite being put in a bad spot.


Edited by: snow

snow said:

6'0 215 pound fullback, thats pretty small. Sad, he had almost 1k rushing in 09 and played on a bum ankle most of last year. Whites at skill positions can't afford to get injured. This is worse than what happened to Leonard because at least Ray Rice is one of the top backs in the NFL, I just don't see any of Joe's replacements being close to that level, I mean the starting rb was a wr last year. Not to mention Martinek is about 15 pounds lighter than Leonard. As a rb I would give Martinek the edge.

Rotoworld had this to say:
<div>For those who think that Joe Martinek's move to
fullback means he will be a single-speed battering ram, they are very
wrong. Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano has plans for Martinek at
fullback and went so far as to say "I don't think we're looking to get
him fat. We don't need that. What we do with our fullback he has to be
an athlete."</div> Just look at what Schiano did with Brian Leonard to see how Martinek could be used.

Brian had about 90 carries his last year with over 400 yards rushing, not sure how many receptions. The only problem with that role for Joe is that he is the kind of back that needs at least 15 carries a game to be effective, he gets better as the game goes on (his best games in 09 were with around 20+ carries). Random carries throughout the game from the fb spot + that oline doesn't look good, hopefully he can excel despite being put in a bad spot.

Click to expand...

Leonard was almost completely screwed at Rutgers. He's a running back and the move to fullback gave NFL teams even more reason to keep him at the position. At least he started some games when Jackson was injured.

The Martinek situation is even more bizarre because he's smaller and faster than Leonard.

snow, thanks for the pollyanna-ish positive post, but I don't trust Schiano as far as I can throw him. Until I see it happen for myself, I won't believe it.

I think backs like Martinek, Jake Sharp and Luke Staley that get injured before their senior year tend to look weaker to scouts and coaches. Martinek did average less than 4 yards a carry last year. I think their is this caste mentality that once a white skill position gets injured he wont be as good as he once was. Rutgers has some good up and coming running backs but they are clearly not NFL quality where Martinek could be a 6 or 7th rounder.

Not only that, but Jersey Joe will be blamed for the poor production of his supa-dupa-fast twitch superior afflete replacement. He won't be able to block the 11 defensive guys rushing unimpeded through the mudfront O-line all by himself for some reason.

Colonel_Reb said:

snow, thanks for the pollyanna-ish positive post, but I don't trust Schiano as far as I can throw him. Until I see it happen for myself, I won't believe it.

Click to expand...

Schiano is the pits. The only thing surprising to me is that Rutgers had as many White starters as they did leading up to this year. Too many of the black prospects in New Jersey must have leftthe statefor the Florida schools and other out of state programs.

Wow Rutgers with a coal black line?? I figured Tennessee was the only team that does that??
Was hoping to see a healthy Matrinek rush for 1,000 this year...in 09' he had 900+

Freshman LB Kevin Snyder 4.5 speed should make an impact in the future!Edited by: TwentyTwo

this is a legitimate reason for the <STRIKE>Scarlet</STRIKE> Black <STRIKE>Knights</STRIKE> Nights of Rutgers to quickly become irrelevant once again ...

i can't believe White fans are so starved for something to attach their loyalty to that they'll settle for this. it's like the "die-hard" SEC fans and "their" team of felons, only a Northeast version. *puke*

Can't say I'm a Rutgers fan. This is a pathetic depth chart.

If Martinek showed the ability that he did in 2009 again, I think 6th or 7th round would be a possible slotting for him in the draft if he was not melanin challenged.

I thought Martinek's decline last year was a mix of his ankle injury, even worse blocking from the sumo o-line and a decline in confidence/ performance. He seemed to be thinking a little too much when he got the ball rather than reacting. He's always been a bit of a slow starter who needs handoffs to get going.

Anyway, I never saw Martinek as an ELITE NFL RB talent. He's a Leonard type if he makes it to the NFL and would be best used as a role player/ third RB.

On the other hand, we have a great deal of ELITE white RBs who get screwed like Nile Knapp and Tre Smith- who never got a real shot in college- Justin Beaver, who got the small- white small school stigma, despite being a Marshall Faulk type. Heck, Jake Sharp could have a Leon Washington type offensive impact in the NFL I'd say at least. He would be a very serviceable RB to have split carries.

Best case scenario Sharp could perform like LeSean McCoy. I'm getting off track here b/c I'm so disgusted with this "Black Nights" team I can't really stand focusing on them.

The reason Martinek was moved this year was to accommodate the #1 ranked player in NJ and #6 rb in the country. Rutgers was never able to land kids from St Peters Prep and if they didn't roll out the red carpet for this kid, they'd never get one again.

It will be sad though if the SPP kid doesn't produce they'll blame the line, but when Martinek was getting hammered back there it was because he couldn't avoid the D in the backfield.

NJfan said:

The reason Martinek was moved this year was to accommodate the #1 ranked player in NJ and #6 rb in the country. Rutgers was never able to land kids from St Peters Prep and if they didn't roll out the red carpet for this kid, they'd never get one again.

Click to expand...

Good!

Savon Huggins - 56/146, 2.6ypc, 5td

What a supa dupa afflete indeed. I know the all sumo line is appalling, but Jersey Joe is ripping off some nice runs.

Freethinker said:

Good!

Savon Huggins - 56/146, 2.6ypc, 5td

What a supa dupa afflete indeed. I know the all sumo line is appalling, but Jersey Joe is ripping off some nice runs.

Click to expand...

Joe, will play in the NFL. Lets just hope it is with a team that will use him the right way. What are the predictions on his 40 time?