Tale of the UW-Rutgers Tailback Tape

Jonah Coleman and Kyle Monangai are near mirror images.

Jonah Coleman breaks a tackle against Northwestern. / Skylar Lin Visuals

PISCATAWAY, New Jersey -- Jonah Coleman, meet Kyle Monangai.

He's your tailback brother from a different huddle. He's a spitting image of you, right down to the yards per carry. However, we question that he can match your ability to leap over defensive backs so effortlessly in a single bound.

Friday night's nationally televised UW-Rutgers game at SHI Stadium -- kicking off at 5 p.m. PT on FOX -- seems to pair up two evenly matched teams, both considered middle of the pack in the Big Ten Conference race. Trouble-makers, rather than contenders.

In looking for an edge, this one could be decided by who has the better ball-carrying performance in what could be a wet and windy football setting.

Yet these ball carriers are so similar in size, speed and stats, to pick one it has to come on a hunch, like betting the ponies at Meadowlands Park.

Husky coach Jedd Fisch has called Monangai one of the best backs in the country -- this after earlier labeling Coleman as one of the elite.

As far as football acrobatics go, Coleman doesn't really trumpet that circus-like ability, while his Rutgers counterpart has shown no inclination to go airborne while running the ball.

"I'm not really a hurdler," Coleman said of his Northwestern hurdle over a defensive back with his head down. "We needed some life at the time, so I just did it."

Breaking these players down, Monangai is a 5-foot-9, 209-pound senior from Roseland, New Jersey. At 5-foot-9 and 229 pounds, Coleman, a junior from Stockton, California, is a few more biscuits bigger.

Monangai comes off a 1,263-yard rushing season in 2023 in which he led all Big Ten backs, outrushing Michigan's Blake Corum by 17 yards while playing two fewer games.. Coleman comes off an 892-yard effort last year in which he topped Arizona in rushing.

Kyle Monangai carries the ball against Howard in Rutgers' season opener. / Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

The Rutgers back currently has run 72 times for 457 yards and 5 touchdowns in three outings. Coleman has 56 carries for 373 yards and 4 scores in four games.

Monangai averages 152.3 yards per game, Coleman 93.2 an outing.

The Scarlet Knights runner averages 6.3 yards per tote, Coleman 6.6.

Monangai has a long run of 62 yards this season, Coleman a long of 64.

Where they differ is catching the football.

Monangai has just 2 receptions for 3 yards as an afterthought in Rutgers passing attack. Coleman counts 12 catches for 101 yards and is considered vital to the Husky air game.

On the surface, there's really not much difference between these guys. Yet whoever is the better back on Friday night in the Jersey countryside in less than ideal conditions easily could determine the winner.

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