The Knights Watchman

UMASS Added to the 2019 Football Schedule A couple weeks ago, Rutgers announced that a faceoff with UMASS will round out the 2019 football season. The Scarlet Knights and Minutemen will do battle on August 31st. It will be the first time the schools have met on the gridiron since 1978. Harte Adds Depth to Kicking Competition It appears Andrew Harte has joined the football team as grad transfer kicker from the University of Minnesota . Recruited while Offensive Coordinator Jerry Kill was head coach of the Golden Gophers, Harte has seen action mainly on kickoffs, specializing in onside kicks. It is likely that Harte is joining the team as a walk-on, with Coach Ash recently stating that the team is at the scholarship limit. Click here for more information from onthebanks.com. Michael Burton Released by Lions NJ.com is reporting that former Rutgers fullback Michael Burton has been released by the Detroit Lions. Although it's never pleasant to hear of a Rutger...

For a number of years, a point of pride for Rutgers fans was the football program's rank in the top 10 percent of schools in Academic Progress Rate, APR for short. APR is a metric used to assess how well players are doing academically with an emphasis on the number of players who remain eligible, are still with the team from the year before, and how many have graduated from the institution. Last year, after accounting for the dismissals and other roster turnover during the 2014–15 academic year, the team had dipped well out of the top percent with a score of 948. This year the score increased thirty-three points to 981. Although not back in the top 10 percent of all football programs, it was tied for sixth in the Big Ten. To me, it's an indicator of the progress being made by the program under Chris Ash. For more information on the APR boost, check out this article by J.P. Pelzman of the Asbury Park Press , which sums it up nicely. In addition, scarletknights.co...