PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Rutgers hasn’t had a real Heisman Trophy conversation around one of its players in nearly 20 years. KJ Duff has changed that in a hurry.
After a breakout sophomore season, Duff is off to an even bigger start this year, and Greg Schiano isn’t shying away from the idea that the receiver belongs in the national conversation.
"I certainly think he is capable of being in that discussion," Schiano said Tuesday following practice.
But the Rutgers coach made the bar clear, too.
"We have to win, right? You don't get in that discussion unless you win.
We have to go out and win games. If we do that, and he continues to play very well, then certainly he belongs in that discussion."
Duff is already backing up the noise. He has 29 catches for 550 yards and seven touchdowns this season, with the touchdown total already matching what he did last year. He’s currently tied for the fourth most receiving yards in college football, and his name is now floating around with some of the sport’s top wideouts, including Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith.
The preseason buzz was there before kickoff. Duff made both the Walter Camp Player of Year Watch List and the Biletnikoff Award Watch List, which goes to the nation’s top receiver. Now he’s turning that hype into production.
Inside the Rutgers locker room, there’s no debate about who the team’s best player is. Duff owns that label, and Schiano says he also carries the title of hardest worker on the roster.
That combination has made his rise especially compelling. Four years ago, he was a four-star recruit out of St.
Anthony's in Long Island, with Miami and Tennessee among the schools chasing him. He chose Rutgers, got early playing time and kept developing under receivers coach Dave Brock, whose NFL background, including time with the Atlanta Falcons, has helped shape Duff’s game.
The result is a player who has gone from prized recruit to one of the Big Ten’s most productive receivers, with first-round NFL Draft buzz already building for next spring.
Rutgers also made sure it had a hand in keeping him. An increase in NIL resources this offseason helped the Scarlet Knights retain their top player.
For Schiano, Duff is more than a star and more than a draft prospect. He’s proof of what Rutgers wants its development to look like when everything comes together: a highly touted recruit arrives, grows, and becomes the kind of player pro teams start circling.
"He definitely is a guy that I point to in our own program," Schiano said.
"I always tell the players, if you want to do something, find someone who's done it and copy him. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. As you do it, your own personality will show - your own slant on whatever you're doing will show.
"I point to KJ a lot in our own team. We have an award from the summer, the hardest-working player on our team - offense, defense and kicking game.
He's the best player on our team. When your hardest-working player is your best player, it's an easy one to point to."
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Both sides know the margin can get thin quickly when the football is protected, and ball security has been a clear theme for this one. Indiana has its own personnel questions to monitor after Cignetti addressed the slow start in the last game and gave updates on Turbo Richard and Rolijah Hardy, while Rutgers gets the chance to test itself against one of the nations hottest teams in front of its home crowd. For the Scarlet Knights, it is the kind of measuring-stick game that can tell them plenty about where they stand early in the season. [Read more 🡒]