Rutgers Football

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Chris Faytok/The Star-LedgerAnthony Davis, the star of the offensive line, was held out of any serious practice work because of a back problem. Davis is one of two players who needed rest on O-Line.

"We want to get them exposed to it, so we've gone five full periods (working on Fresno)," Schiano said. "So that's pretty good. Then we will be full gear come Wednesday."

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Noah K. Murray/The Star-LedgerHead coach Greg Schiano named Shamar Graves the No. 2 tight end behind Kevin Brock this week.

He had a good feeling about the way he had performed in preseason camp for one reason.

"Coach didn't yell at me once the whole time," said the third-year sophomore.

And that was a contrast from his first two years?

"Oh yeah," Graves said, smiling.

Beginning Saturday, it's all Fresno State all the time for Rutgers. That's when the Scarlet Knights begin installing their gameplan for the opener on Sept. 1 after breaking camp on Friday.

Head coach Greg Schiano spent his post-practice session with the media on Friday dealing mostly with the highs and lows of his eighth summer in Piscataway.

Here is what he had to say:

No one felt the frustration of Rutgers' problems in the punting game last year more than Teddy Dellaganna.

After all, he was supposed to be the reason there wouldn't be any problems. That's why he was brought in from the junior college ranks in California.

But Dellaganna couldn't win the job -- even though the Knights finished last in the Big East in punting average and net punting, with placekicker Jeremy Ito forced to do double duty in a role he had never been in before.

The scaffolding is still up. The running game is still down. It's almost as if nothing has changed from last week's first intra-squad scrimmage to the second and final one that Rutgers held on Wednesday.

The most impressive performers? The construction crews. They are working feverishly -- rumor has it on Sundays as well -- to get Rutgers Stadium spruced up and game-ready for the Sept. 1 opener against Fresno State.

The new club seats, of course, are the big-ticket item. With scaffolding covering the stands on the east and west sides (the latter directly in front of the pressbox view), it's hard to tell how much progress is being made with the club seating area. We'll know in 12 days.

So what's left for Rutgers coach Greg Schiano to determine after Wednesday's second and final intra-squad scrimmage before the Sept. 1 opener against Fresno State?

In the way of starters, not much.

The first-team guys on both sides of the ball have been virtually unchanged since preseason camp began. Not that there were a lot of spots available with 14 returning starters.

Rutgers offensive coordinator John McNulty faces an interesting challenge these days beyond trying to replace the greatest running back in school history as well as three offensive line starters from a year ago.

He's also trying to strike the right balance between winning now and preparing for the future at the quarterback position when the season starts on Sept. 1 against Fresno State.

A day after Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano declared the competition open for the No. 2 quarterback job, Chris Paul-Etienne, now battling Jabu Lovelace for the position, said there really was no competition.

Well, sort of.

"To tell you the truth, I'm not really battling for the No. 2 spot. I'm not battling for any spot," Paul-Etienne said after practice Friday. "I'm battling myself to be the best I can be every single day I come to practice."

Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano, unhappy with a practice session that featured "too many" penalties for the first time this summer, put the players through some rigorous post-practice work as the final penalty.

"Guys were hitting the wall. They're tired," he said. "It's a long camp. We're hitting the wall (and) we're pushing them hard.

Zaire Kitchen didn't mind the question at all. In fact, he laughed when it was asked. Three major knee surgeries later tend to change your outlook on things -- even when people openly wonder about your sanity for continuing to play football.

So it was posed to him after Rutgers practice on Friday.

You keep tearing up your knees, you keep needing surgery and extensive rehab and yet you're still pushing your body to the limit on the same field where you suffered two ACL tears. Are you crazy?

Rutgers coach Greg Schiano officially narrowed the competition for the job as the No. 2 quarterback behind Mike Teel on Thursday, making it a battle between incumbent backup Jabu Lovelace and third-year sophomore Chris Paul-Etienne.

That leaves Dom Natale as the odd man out, at least for now, and practically assures that true freshmen D.C. Jefferson and Steve Shimko will redshirt.

Photo By tony Kurdzuk / The Star-LedgerDC Jefferson probably has the strongest arm of any Rutgers quarterback.

That's no small thing considering there are six players competing at the position.

Mike Teel, of course, is the unquestioned starter. Jabu Lovelace, for now, is his backup -- though Chris Paul-Etienne appears to be closing the gap. Dom Natale looks to have slipped to fourth, followed by true freshman D.C. Jefferson and his classmate, Steve Shimko.

A look at the six QBs and how they have fared so far this summer:

Rutgers coach Greg Schiano cautioned the media not to read too much into Wednesday's first intra-squad scrimmage, but really, what fun would that be?

So here are some quick impressions off the scrimmage as seen from the scaffolding-obstructed view of the press box (at least the air conditioning works):