Rutgers is set to have Dylan Lonergan back under center when it heads to Maryland this weekend.
Head coach Greg Schiano said Tuesday that the Scarlet Knights quarterback is “full go” and will start Saturday’s game on the road after leaving the loss to Indiana early with an injury.
“I think Dylan’s going to be fine and he will be the starter,” Schiano said. “I thought he was performing well and then he got injured. As of now, he’s full go and he’ll be the starter.”
Lonergan’s night against the Hoosiers ended after the fifth drive, when he was stopped on a quarterback sneak on fourth-and-1 at the Rutgers 34-yard line. On the play, he appeared to strike his head hard against the turf.
He headed into the medical tent afterward, then later sprinted on the sideline with a trainer watching. By halftime, he was back with his teammates as they went up the tunnel.
Before exiting, Lonergan had completed 5 of 10 passes for 67 yards, with most of that damage coming on a 41-yard connection to wideout KJ Duff.
The Boston College transfer has also looked sharper over his last two games against Indiana and Howard. After a rough start to the season, when he threw five touchdowns and five interceptions on his first 65 passes against UMass and USC, he has gone 17 of 27 for two touchdowns and no interceptions against Howard and Indiana.
“I think he’s really starting to grow in our scheme,” Schiano said. ”I wished he had played more. ...
He’s making progress. What I see on the practice field, I get really excited about.
We need to have more reps in the games, so we got to keep him healthy, we got to keep him upright. That’s our job, right, to protect him.
Unfortunately, the play got hurt on was kind of a freak accident, but he’s back, and we’ll try to get everything we can out of him."