PARSIPPANY, N.J. — Following a season that ended with a winning record and a bowl trophy celebration, Rutgers football running back Kyle Monangai should be satisfied. Monangai, more than anyone on the Rutgers roster, should feel good about what the program accomplished last fall.
Except Monangai says that no one is satisfied with what Rutgers accomplished in 2023.
The Big Ten’s leading rusher a season ago, Monangai capped off the season with 163 yards and a touchdown in the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl win over Miami. During the regular season, he finished with 1.099 rushing yards.
But while seven wins is a big step forward for a Rutgers football program that hadn’t been bowl-eligible in nearly a decade, Monangai said that the core of the team wasn’t satisfied with the overall results.
“I think we all just kind of collectively said like, ‘Hey, you know, seven wins is nice, but we set out on this team to do way more and way and way better’ honestly,” Monangai told Rutgers Wire.
“So, you know, one more dance is kind of the mantra of the offseason. To get it done, we got to just work hard and I think everybody in the building is willing to do that.”
The idea of ‘one more dance’ is reminiscent of the Chicago Bulls in the final year of Michael Jordan with the franchise. The returning core, arguably the strongest in NBA history, set about to accomplish a three-peat before disbanding.
They used the phrase ‘The Last Dance’ to emphasize the unsettled business they had in their final season together as a group.
In the world of college football, where players eventually move on and move up (or move out), it is rare to see so many returning pieces. But for Rutgers, the likes of Monangai along with offensive linemen Hollin Pierce and Reggie Sutton give the offense a strong returning core. The defense will feature some big returning names, including defensive end Aaron Lewis and linebackers Mo Toure and Tyreem Powell.
It makes Rutgers the most…
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