 "Photo: Andrew Howard / Photography Editor")
Tom Savage cannot wait to get back on the field. After rejoining the team for practice Wednesday from a concussion, the true freshman quarterback just wants to get back in a game situation.
“I feel a lot better,” Savage said. “Maybe sometime last week I started feeling better and I wanted to get out there and start practicing and got cleared by the doctors.”
Savage went home to Springfield, Pa., because the team was on its bye week and had extra time to relax.
“I hope he does,” said head coach Greg Schiano when asked if Savage will play Saturday against Texas Southern. “He has been practicing for two days now. I guess the only way that would preclude him from playing is if something took a turn in the other direction. Right now, he is on the way up.”
Savage had no prior history of head injuries while playing for Cardinal O’Hara High School, but he did break his foot, forcing him to miss five games.
“I’m excited to go out there and start competing with [the receivers] and go out there and hopefully get the connection going again,” Savage said.
For the first time to start the season, the kickoff coverage disappointed Schiano against Maryland. UMD receiver Torrey Smith returned five kicks for 120 yards against Rutgers and had a long of 29 yards.
“In the special teams, for the first time, I wasn’t overly thrilled with our kickoff coverage team,” Schiano said. “They got a little more than I thought. Granted, [Smith] is a very good returner. But when you start series outside the 30, that is not a good thing.”
The Scarlet Knights are not yet planning on personnel changes in coverage.
“I think with anything — offensive, defense, or special teams — you have to identify is it the same guy over and over again,” Schiano said. “If it is, then you really have to consider making a personnel change. It wasn’t. What we need to do is make sure that we continue to teach. ... I thought we were doing quite well in the first three games and then we weren’t quite as good in the fourth.”
The change in forced turnovers on defense from last year to this year has been widely discussed, but what has not been is a similar positive trend on the offensive side of the ball.
Through four games last season, the Scarlet Knights turned the ball over 11 times, but so far this season, Rutgers has just four turnovers — three of which came in the first half of the team’s first game.
“If we can hold on to the football, we have a chance to win,” Schiano said. “You would like to see what the game would have been if we didn’t turn it over three times in the first half and get it to the third or fourth quarter, where it’s still a game. ... You are turning the ball over at this level, it makes it awfully hard.”
The Scarlet Knights enter Saturday’s game against Texas Southern with the opportunity to get win No. 600 since the team’s inception 1869. In 140 years, the Knights are 599-591-42 overall and would be the 38th team to reach the 600-win plateau if they successfully tame the Tigers.
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