Football is about family for William & Mary linebacker Josh Rutter. The 6-foot-3, 230-pound junior is just as well known around The Tribe program for making plays on the field as he is for the crowd he draws off of it.
“My family, my aunt and uncle, and with their girls it?s about 15 of my family members that have season tickets,” Rutter said. “Against Towson, I will be having a bunch more come in like my grandparents, and aunt and uncle. I?m expecting about 40 people to come. The Rutter group will be in full effect. It?s a blast.”
Rutter is a graduate of Francis Scott Key High School in Carroll County and the game against a local team like Towson will be sure to draw a crowd down to Williamsburg, Va. this afternoon for the teams? 1 p.m. kickoff.
Rutter leads the team with 39 tackles and two fumble recoveries and is second on the team with a sack. These numbers are even more impressive considering he is coming back from knee surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament that kept him sidelined for the final eight games of last season.
“It was kind of a fluke play,” Rutter said of the hit that injured him in the third game of the season against Virginia Military Institute last year. “I took a shot from the side and landed awkward and my knee planted and body twisted.”
The injury was especially tough for Rutter who was coming off of a freshman season that saw him record 109 total tackles and recover two fumbles. At the time of the injury, he was on pace to finish with around 110 tackles. But Rutter has used his rehab time to improve his knowledge of the game, as he knew he would be a coach on the field for a young defense that has allowed opponents to average more than 356 yards per game.
“He was a guy we looked at the first time he stepped on campus as being a very good player,” linebacker coach Scott Boone said. “If you put his mental determination with his physical ability, that?s a good recipe for success right there.”
