The kid from Rutgers, who flew under the radar for so long even after becoming the Big Ten's rushing leader last season, shouldn't be on the radar anymore.
Is RU watching Kyle Monangai?
That's what should happen.
This is Ray Rice.
“I love the way he runs!” Coach Rice told The Post. “He runs hard and always seems to fall forward when he makes contact! I'm glad he's with us and remains loyal to Rutgers.”
Is RU watching Kyle Monangai?
This is Isaiah Pacheco.
“Kyle is a young man who works hard for the team,” Pacheco told The Post. “He's a team player and is very strong in the weight room.”
Monangai, a local product of Don Bosco Prep, followed Super Bowl champion Pacheco, who followed Rice, and now they're both following Monangai, and he's following them both to the NFL … thanks to Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano's gamble on a prospect who held just one Power Five offer from UC Berkeley as he returned to resurrect the program.
“I mean, I've been overlooked most of my career,” Monangai told The Post ahead of the Scarlet Knights' season opener Thursday night against Howard at SHI Stadium. “But I don't mind. It's probably mainly because of my height, my build. The typical running back these days just doesn't look like me anymore. … It's been that way since high school and it's been that way since college. We were the leading runner in the Big Ten last year and I think we played well, but people still try to overlook us as a group, as a unit.”
“It's our strong will that motivates us to work harder and be more determined to prove people wrong.”
Monangai stands 5-foot-9, weighs 209 pounds and will display a powerful play that will immediately remind people of Rice.
“For me, it's a joy and an honor just to have my name mentioned in the same sentence as Ray,” Monangai said.
Monangai got to observe Pacheco up close in 2021.
“Just seeing his success motivates me,” Monangai said.
Nobody runs angrier than Pacheco.
“We all see the field a little bit differently, but I think the common thread is toughness and running with anger and power,” Monangai said. “I've got to play with a little bit of anger because I'm not the biggest guy on the field, so I've got to be the guy that attacks more than the other guys.”
Monangai averaged 5.2 yards per carry during his junior season, rushing for 1,262 yards and eight touchdowns, and briefly became a Heisman Trophy candidate after rushing for 163 yards to lead Rutgers (7-6) to a 31-24 victory over Miami (Fla.) in the Pinstripe Bowl.
“I think I'm capable of making those sticky gains of three, four, five yards, but I also think I can get some home run hits,” Monangai said.
The pace of the game has slowed down dramatically for him.
“I think I'm more calm on the field and it gives me the best chance to see something before it happens, and if I can anticipate it, then I can be explosive and use my natural God-given ability,” he said.
God gave him many abilities.
“We were watching an NFL game and he said, 'Mom, when I grow up I can do that,'” Gwendolyn Monangai said.
That doesn't mean Gwendolyn and William Monangai were keen for Kyle and his older brother Kevin, a former running back at Seton Hall Prep and Villanova, to get involved in the sport.
“We think of American football as a gladiatorial sport,” Gwendolyn, from Cameroon, said with a laugh. “We had no qualms about them playing it.”
Rain is a part of life. When Kyle was five years old, Gwendolyn broke her neck in a freak accident while lifting weights at home.
“It was a very difficult time because I didn't know if I would be left paralyzed after the surgery,” she said.
Kyle: “I wasn't sure if she was going to survive.”
Thankfully, she survived. When Kyle was nine, Gwendolyn lost her pharmaceutical sales job.
“My parents had to cut back on some things that they probably wouldn't have wanted to save on, but they knew it was a necessary evil to help us get by,” Kyle said.
Looks like Kyle did a good job.
“From now on, you can spend all the time I want you to have with me and you can take me everywhere,” he told her.
Gwendolyn and William, along with Kevin, 31, and Cathy, 28, will be heading into the opening round with beaming smiles of pride at the number five footballer and man on the scorecard.
“Success hasn't changed him,” Gwendolyn said.
It helped change football at Rutgers University.
