This is the method to Rutgers’ trick play madness - NJ.com

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There was the Raritan River Almost-Miracle, the big man lateral for a touchdown, the Johnny Langan package and too many misdirections and reverses to keep count of. We are almost certainly forgetting a few others, too.

Rutgers did not hesitate to run a gadget play or five last season, and the creativity helped the Scarlet Knights turn in their best offensive season in years. And offensive coordinator Sean Gleeson made it clear the parade of trick plays was not a one-off during a strange pandemic season. He plans to use them going forward. But he won’t be fussing over them when he does.

“I try not to refer to them as trick plays. They’re just football plays,” he said. “They still award you points if you score a touchdown on a trick play like if you score on a handoff. We’re trying to put points on the scoreboard.”

There is a method to the madness. Rutgers goes week-to-week with trick plays just as it would tailor plays for specific game situations against different opponents.

“I am a pretty organized guy and I have done a lot of work as to how much offense we should bring into a game. That is trick play-related as well,” Gleeson said.

“We’re always going to have those things on the call sheet. I think those are staples just the same as you carry a third-and-medium play or a certain number of goal line plays. We don’t ever want to have too much or too little of something, because I think it relates to the burden that is on your players as they head into a game.

“You don’t want them studying like mad men and then not using the thing you’re learning about or practicing. We try to take a balanced call sheet onto the game. That’s years of research I’ve done into what should be contained in those game plans. But tricks are no exception to that.”

And yes, there are some trick plays still left in the playbook.

“We’ll come up with some good ideas,” Gleeson said. “We always have good ideas.”

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James Kratch may be reached at jkratch@njadvancemedia.com.

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