Rutgers Star RB Paul James Out for Year with ACL Injury

Submitted by alum96 on

Very bad news for Rutgers football as their best offensive player by a country mile was injured in their win versus Navy.  James is not quite at the level of the Abdullahs, Gordons, Tevin Colemans, but would be in the next tier and relative to Rutgers offense it is a quite massive blow.  This leaves the offense in the hands of.... Gary Nova. 

The backup RBs did seem to do a solid job against Navy but obviously there will be a step down in talent.

James will miss the remainder of the season after rushing for 363 yards on 5.76 yards per carry through the Scarlet Knights' first four games. The fourth-year junior had rushed for 96 yards with a touchdown on seven carries against the Midshipmen before taking a helmet to the knee.

James' injury will put more pressure on senior quarterback Gary Nova, who through Rutgers' 3-1 start has averaged more than 10 yards per attempt and thrown for six touchdowns, but also threw five interceptions in the team's loss to Penn State.

LINK.

ccdevi

September 22nd, 2014 at 12:45 PM ^

not sure but i think you may be serious

I know we still have some fans who haven't internalized whats going on with this team but is it possible that any of us really thinks we might win a road game easy?  I suggest you watch the tape of the Uconn game from last year.

We should be a dog in this game.

Voltron is Handsome

September 22nd, 2014 at 2:00 PM ^

I never insinuated that Michigan would win easily either way. My point was that regardless of personnel, it's going to be a tough, hard-fought game.

NJblue2

September 22nd, 2014 at 12:47 PM ^

He gets hurt every year and always misses an extended amount of time. They're use to it by now, so I don't think it really changes Michigan's chances, which aren't looking very good to begin with.

ccdevi

September 22nd, 2014 at 2:20 PM ^

not saying they're great but we need to get past this, calling everyone else shit all the time.  Its actually a small part of the problem.  Actually perhaps not a part of the problem, its a symptom.  We're not better than anyone.  We don't do it better than anyone (or the "right way").  We're just another team just like most, trying to get by.  We're Iowa, we're Purdue.

They've won 2 road games, one of them 3000 miles from home. And they're one play away from being 4-0.  Their fans should be looking at us saying we blow and thinking it should be a relatively easy win.

NJblue2

September 22nd, 2014 at 1:18 PM ^

If Michigan actually played up to maybe 60% of it's potential it would win. Their secondary is terrible, their offense if it loses its run game implodes because of Gary. Normally that would play right in Michigan's favor, but who knows, I'll just say Michigan probably loses just so I'm not disappointed if/when they do.

LSAClassOf2000

September 22nd, 2014 at 1:08 PM ^

Without speaking to win probability, of course, it is important to note that they are losing 51% of their net rushing production so far her against someone who was getting 38% of the carries to date. It's a significant loss for them...highly so. It probably helps us from a strategic standpoint in that we could just go with a "get Nova" sort of emphasis on defense. 

Now, speaking to estimated chances - if you're interested at all - it was 68% on Massey's site last week. The Utah adjustment, if you will, brings it to 58% in our favor, so make of that what you will. 

flashOverride

September 22nd, 2014 at 1:12 PM ^

Neat. I'll toy with the notion of changing my forecast for the W-L from 4-8 to 5-7. Probably still stick with 4-8 in the end, though, as I presume Rutgers will likely still be fielding a defense consisting of live humans.