What did Rutgers Football players say at the 2025 Big Ten Media Days?
Rutgers Football headed out to Las Vegas this week for the 2025 Big Ten Media Days in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Scarlet Knights’ three player representatives – quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis, linebacker Dariel Djabome, and wide receiver Ian Strong – joined the Big Ten Network studio with Dave Revsine to discuss the 2024 season and the upcoming 2025 campaign.
Here is what the trio had to say.
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Big Ten Media Days with Dave Revsine on the Big Ten Network
Revsine: Four Big Ten wins, as I mentioned, a season ago. It’s the most Rutgers has ever had. I know you’re looking to get more and not satisfied, but just give us a sense of the vibe right now around Rutgers Football?
Djabome: I just feel like this season, with all the changes, whether it’s the coaching staff, the players, I just feel like everybody is on the same page. Then working on what can we improve to be the best we can be. So I have a great feeling for this upcoming season.
Kaliakmanis: Yeah, I know I feel like the season left a bad taste in our mouths. We want to be better.
DR: Why? Because of how it ended it in the bowl game?
AK: It’s never enough. Standard’s the standard, and the standard is high at Rutgers, and we feel like we just have to be better. We’ve been working really hard this offseason, getting together – all of us – and just working and being the best that we could possibly be.
Strong: I’ll just add on. I’ll say, I think the players are extremely eager. Everyone’s hard-working in the summer, and I think we’re ready for training camp.
DR: I want you guys to give people some insight into Coach [Greg] Schiano. He has done things that no one’s ever done at Rutgers. More than half of Rutgers’ wins against ranked teams all-time have been when Greg Schiano was the head coach.
So Ian, I can start with you, but I want to hear from all of you. Give me a sense for why he is the right guy for Rutgers. Why has he been able to kind of unlock the potential in this program where others were not able to?
IS: I think, coming in as a freshman, he harps on developmental. I think if you really buy into Coach Schiano’s culture, I think it suits you to become a very good player.
AK: Yeah, I have to agree with Ian on that one. It’s the culture. When I transferred here, I completely bought into his culture, and it changed me not only as a football player but as a person.
DR: What about the culture? Give us an insight when people talk about culture. What are you talking about? Give us a specific.
AK: Yeah, well, I’ll give you chop. Chop is the focus and mental toughness to hit that spot over and over and over again. It’s very hard to do, to go every day, and give it everything you’ve got and not let up. I learned that here. I learned the focus and the mental toughness to keep going, and going, and going.
DD: To add on to that, like they said, the culture is everything. And what I like about Coach Schiano is that he holds everybody accountable. Whether you’re a coach, a player, it doesn’t matter. He’s going to hold the standard to what the standard is, and then he’s going to hold it up, and then he’s going to make sure that the whole program holds the standard.
DR: And of course, it’s not just the head coach. I mean, we’re talking about assistant coaches and all the way down to all the support staff. I want to talk about one assistant coach in particular: Kirk Ciarrocca.
A guy that you had a connection with, and you come into Rutgers, and it just felt like you hit a sweet spot again with him last year. Your numbers went up significantly. What is it about Kirk Ciarrocca that you guys seem to be on the same page?
AK: It’s our communication. Honestly, when we communicate, we’re honest with each other. Whether that’s in the film room, whether that’s on the field, I’m always asking questions, because I want to pick his brain. He’s so knowledgeable about the game. So when we’re in the film room, I’m asking questions. When we’re on the field, I’m asking questions. I think that’s what helped me become on the same page as him.
DR: Ian, what kind of growth that you see in Athan last year?
IS: I think confidence. I think his confidence skyrocketed during the season, and confidence is everything on the field.
DR: You’re a known commodity at wide receiver. Coming back is KJ Duff as well, but I think there’s some new faces here in the wide receiver room. Bring people up to date on some of the players they need to know about who have stood out in the spring and in the offseason.
IS: I think DT [Sheffield]. He’s new to the room, but he took that leadership role, bringing the young guys along. KJ Duff, of course, he played, Ben Black, we’re just trying to get the young guys there to get ready for the season.
DR: What about the running backs? Kyle Monangai was such a huge part of what you guys did. I feel like it must have been a sense of comfort to know that he was there beside you or behind you – depending on the formation – to be able to hand it off to him.
So the fact that he’s gone, tell us about the running back room. It feels – at least to an outsider – like a little bit more running back by committee this year. Is that a fair assessment?
AK: Yeah, I mean Kyle was special. Kyle was really special. I’ve had the pleasure of playing with a lot of great running backs in college. I have to say our running back room is like it never lost a beat. We got CJ [Campbell Jr.]. We got Benji [Ja’shon Benjamin]. We got Antwan [Raymond]. These guys could really play, and you saw a peek of it in the bowl game with the two younger backs. I mean, they could really play.
And that’s every position. We’ve lost some people at different positions, but we’ve had guys that had to get a lot of experience. A lot of younger guys that were thrown into the fire, so we’re ready, man. We’re ready to go.
DR: Dariel, I want people to get to know you a little bit. Coach Schiano touched on this in his podium comments today, but help people understand a little bit of your journey. You’re from Canada. Your family is from Cameroon, and you were lightly recruited, I guess might be the best way to put it.
You’re on a tour of US colleges, with some of your high school teammates from Canada, had nowhere to sleep, and had to sleep in a car in a parking lot in July to go to Rutgers camp. I can’t imagine you had a great night of sleep. Would that be a fair assessment?
DD: Oh no.
DR: And then you really showed out that day. Take people through your journey, and help them understand what it took to get from a lightly recruited Canadian player to someone who’s here in Las Vegas representing his team.
DD: First and foremost, just being an international student, it’s hard to get exposure. We have a lot of hidden talents in Canada, and I’m sure, like everywhere else in the world, but it’s just the exposure. We have a lot of huge exposure.
For me, I went to the Buffalo camp. That’s where I met Coach [Corey] Hetherman and Coach [Bob] Fraser and they had told me, “Perform pretty well, we would like you to come to our camp.” I’m like, “I can’t. I’m on a camp tour with my teammates, I can’t just individually go to your camp.” A month later, they reach out to me again. They’re like, “We really want you to come to our camp.” I’m like, “Coach, they really want me to come to their camp.” I didn’t know what Rutgers was, to be honest.
That same weekend, we go to the UMass camp. I had a pretty good camp; they had no offer. The next day, it was the Rutgers camp. I arrived, it’s nighttime, I text the coach, I’m like, “I’m here,” but I didn’t have anywhere to stay. I didn’t have the funds to afford any hotel or nothing. So we were four in the car.
I remember the car. It was a Kia Sport, a great Kia Sport. A bunch of big football players just in the Kia Sport sleeping. I remember it was so uncomfortable, I woke up maybe twice at night. But then, the very next day, I had a camp, kind of like a private camp. I think I nailed it, and then Coach Schiano offered me on the spot.
It was crazy. He told me to stay on the OV [Official Visit] the same day. I thought I was going back to Montreal! But then they told me, “Nah, you’re staying,” and then they flew out my dad, my big bro, and then we went to New York City. It was a great vibe, great environment, and then the next day, I go back. Coach Schiano was, like, trying to rush me to commit, and so I’m like, “Nah, I gotta talk to my mom first.” So I talked to my mom, and then the very next day I committed.
DR: That’s an amazing story. Speaking of family, your brother is on the team, Dino [Kaliakmanis], now he’s a wide receiver. He does not have a career catch yet. How important is it to you to change that this year?
AK: It’s just a blessing to have a brother that I could practice with every single day. And maybe it isn’t at wide receiver, but Dino has a huge role on special teams here, and special teams is probably the most important part about football.
My brother has a big role in that, and he’s grateful and blessed for the opportunity. He’s gonna go kill it. If he gets a shot at wide receiver, he’ll be ready, because my brother’s the type of guy that’s gonna be ready, but he has a huge role on special teams, and he’s doing really well.
DR: How meaningful is it for you to be able to share this experience with him?
AK: Oh, it’s incredible, because my brother shouldn’t be in the place that he’s in. My brother grew up with CAPD disorder, which is Central Auditory Processing Disorder. It took him a little longer to process more than others growing up, but the stuff that he’s overcame, and the fact that he’s here today, it’s inspiring for me. I look up to him, and it’s a blessing from God. That’s all I can say about it.
DR: That’s a wonderful story. We were talking about KJ Duff, your high school teammate. I mean, obviously, it’s different – a brother versus a high school teammate – but for you guys both to have kind of showed out together here in the last year. What has that meant to you?
IS: I’m just gonna start with recruiting, I didn’t wanna force him to come here, I wanted to let him make his own decision. I wasn’t too hard on him to come in here, but after he committed, I was glad he committed.
A few months later, he moved into my apartment building, so we were able to hang out all the time. He’s always laid up in my couch when I come home. I mean, you have an actual brother on the team, but I feel like I have a brother on the team, too.
DR: You were recruited primarily as a safety and then moved to wide receiver. You played both in high school, so I think you probably have some pretty good insight into the defense.
I know the defense wasn’t necessarily where you guys wanted it to be, and it wasn’t at the top standard of what we’ve seen from some great Greg Schiano defenses through the years. What have you seen in terms of progress on that side of the ball from spring, and moving into the summer?
IS: I think the defense has a different culture, so I think they have to be glued differently. People like DJ getting the defense together, extra walk-throughs, extra film time. That’s stuff that we do on offense, so I feel like that will benefit the team.
DR: Robb Smith, defensive coordinator. What should we know about his defense?
DD: His defense is solid. It’s a complex defense, but I feel like as soon as everybody really buys into it, and then, like Ian mentioned, get some extra film together, maybe trying to understand why it is, all the conceptuality of the defense, and understanding why you do what you do. We’re going to be in good shape this year.
DR: How would you guys describe what you’ve seen going up against this defense?
AK: Yeah, like you said, it’s complex. It’s a bunch of different looks, but they’re working really hard and they’re showing a lot of problems, that can create problems for offenses. Coach Smith has done an incredible job and so has Coach [Schiano], but I’d have to say, they’re just doing really well. The players have really bought into it. Getting a new coaching staff, sometimes you’re unsure, but man, they’re ready to go.
DR: Ian, I’m gonna give you the final word. How do you describe success for Rutgers Football this year? What would be a successful year?
IS: I just want everyone to come out of training camp healthy so we can start the season.
