Crocodile tears

SL

The Star-Ledger today announced a large-scale buyout to all non-union workers with the goal of reducing the staff by at least 200 employees.

Publisher George E. Arwady said if 200 employees don’t agree to the buyout and if the paper cannot reach agreements with unions representing drivers and mailers meant to reduce costs, the paper will be sold. He said the deadline for reaching both of those targets was Oct. 1.

The offer comes at a time when the newspaper industry is reeling from plunging advertising revenues linked to a troubled economy and sea changes in the way information is disseminated.

The offer was announced to grim-faced employees by Arwady at the paper’s headquarters in Newark. He characterized the paper as being “on life support” and urged employees to consider the offer for the good of fellow employees.

“This is a matter of simple survival,” he said.

I think the NYT blogger is a Cincy fan or something, because he won’t stop talking them up.

They also had an article on the commissioner search, which has been the subject of several other articles, like the Projo piece I linked. Not much new:

The best list I could scrape together includes the senior associate commissioner John Marinatto, the associate commissioner Nick Carparelli, the associate commissioner Dan Gavitt, Louisville Athletic Director Tom Jurich and Connecticut Athletic Director Jeff Hathaway. Don’t be surprised if a dark horse emerges, though. Marinatto would be considered the favorite, but there’s a lot of golf left to play.

No, no, a thousand times no to another Providence College crony.

The story that should not be

Firstly, I would like to remind any readers to read this 2006 Star-Ledger story about the Nelligan Sports deal.

Ben Doody takes Rutgers to task for not being more upfront about the arrangement, but strongly emphasizes that this story is largely a bunch of hot air.

Some more details are trickling out.

The university’s Board of Governors ordered an internal audit of the Nelligan contract in April, the university says.

The independent review requested by McCormick is the second one announced this week. On Monday, the state comptroller launched an inquiry into the financial details of a $102 million expansion of Rutgers Stadium that is under way.

Rutgers’ public affairs office on Wednesday released a five-page paper explaining its history with Nelligan, a Little Falls-based firm that also works for the University of Louisville, Colorado State University and several other college sports programs.

The contract was not put out to bid partly because Rutgers’ football team was so lousy in the late 1990s that sports marketing firms did not seem interested in competing for the contract, the university said.

Nelligan has helped the university in several ways, including lining up corporate sponsors, increasing media exposure and even paying for new scoreboards. Over eight years, the company has helped the school get $22 million in sponsorship money, Rutgers says. The company’s contract has been extended to 2017.

The university said that in 2000, the school’s lawyers found that it did not violate a state conflict of interest law for the university to do business with a firm employing Mulcahy’s son, though it may cause the appearance of a conflict.

The university and T.J. Nelligan, the founder and chairman of the sports marketing company, also said that Mulcahy had nothing to do with his son’s employment there and that the younger Mulcahy did not work on the Rutgers account. The younger Mulcahy left Nelligan in 2002.

T.J. Nelligan on Wednesday said the Star-Ledger seems to be looking for a scandal where none exists. “The story of us creating more partnerships and creating more revenue is the best story that Rutgers has,” he said. “I make no apologies for the great success our company and our people have had at Rutgers.”

Gov. Jon S. Corzine said he did not know if there was anything illegal about Schiano’s contract, but he is troubled that parts of it were not made public from the start.

“I think they made a mistake by not making all elements of the contract, or at least the compensation package, public,” he said Wednesday. “Everybody would have been better served.”

Emphasizing the point about Nelligan.

As for the 2000 Nelligan deal, it’s not as if Rutgers had marketing companies knocking down the door. When Nelligan was losing other Big East clients, Mulcahy certainly didn’t grant any favors. He squeezed Nelligan for two stadium scoreboards worth $700,000.

Finally, posters at NJO are pushing back against the Star Ledger.

• Greg Schiano is the honorary coach of the Special Olympics
• Because of Nelligan Sports Marketing’s fundraising efforts, Rutgers’ revenues have skyrocketed over the last several years, and these revenues have saved NJ taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years!
• Thanks to Coach Schiano, the team itself and Nelligan Sports Marketing, Rutgers University and its football team have enjoyed increases in donations, applications, product sales, as well as unprecedented National TV exposure and a huge increase in its total revenue.
• Over the last few years, Rutgers has enjoyed probably its best recruiting years in the history of the school.
• NSM doesn’t get paid by Rutgers; it gets paid a percentage of the revenue they raise. This is a true “pay for performance” deal, something to which most corporate CEOs and other businesses should pay attention!
• Nelligan Sports Marketing paid almost a million dollars of its own money to buy Rutgers Stadium a world class state-of-the-art scoreboard that replaced a high school grade scoreboard.
• Coach Schiano’s contract, and its many clauses that were designed to KEEP him here in NJ, is no different than other such contracts in college football, or anywhere else in the business world for that matter. It is not inappropriate. It is totally appropriate!

Settling in

A few leftovers from the end of BE media day.

Zags with the obligatory Teel profile. Quite rightly, it mainly focuses on the impact of his thumb injury last year. Of course, he probably should have mentioned that Teel was hurt during garbage time when many of our fans were incensed that the starters were still in the game.

There were Saturday nights last year when Mike Teel’s right thumb throbbed so much, the pain was overwhelming.

“For a period of four weeks, it was a nine out of 10, 10 out of 10,” Teel said at Big East media day on Tuesday. “That’s the way it goes. It’s football, it’s a physical game. You’re going to get beat up. You’re going to get hurt. There’s a difference between being injured and being hurt. If you’re injured you can’t play, if you’re hurt you play through the pain and do what you have to do.”

Teel, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound senior from Oakland, N.J., initially injured his thumb when he banged it on another player’s helmet last Sept. 15 against Norfolk State. By the fifth game of the year, it had progressed into a hairline fracture, a severe jam and a sprained tendon.

“He’s a tough kid,” Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano said. “I feel bad, I’d talk to him [at] 10:30, 11 o’clock on a Saturday night after a game and his hand was throbbing. I would stay in contact with him and his dad and I look at these guys like my own kids. I keep trying to say if it were my son, what would I do? And the answer was if he wanted to do it, I’d let him to do it.”

Despite the injury, Teel threw a school-record 20 touchdowns and had 3,147 passing yards — the second-best single-season mark in school history — while leading the Scarlet Knights to their second straight bowl victory. He had six games with at least 300 passing yards and now stands within range of several all-time Rutgers passing records.

Schiano said the biggest obstacle for his quarterback last season was his inability to practice because of the injury. In any given week, Teel couldn’t work against the opponent’s defense and coverage schemes.

“When you’re in the grind of the season and you need time off, you don’t get it,” Teel said. “For me, it taught me a lot about how to be mentally tough, how not to go to practice all week and then go out and play in the game. To learn to take mental reps, to watch extra film, to prepare yourself as if you were practicing.”

Stewart Mandel tabs Rutgers as a potential surprise team in 2008.

Three That Could End Up In The Top 15

1) Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights fell back off the map following a “disappointing” (as of 2005) 8-5 season, but it would not surprise me if Greg Schiano’s squad returns to its 11-2 heights of a year earlier. The talent level in Piscataway has only gotten better now that Schiano can sell recruits on more than just blind faith. The passing game should be lethal with QB Mike Teel and receivers Tiquan Underwood and Kenny Britt returning, and the defense, which took a step back last year, will include nine upperclass starters.

Schiano is playing coy as to the RB rotation.

“Certainly it’s always nice to go in with that,” Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano said. “But rarely do you walk into a year, in which every position is experienced. The thing that I’m excited about is the talent and the competition that will exist as a position where we are trying to replace one of the best players ever to play at Rutgers.”

Schiano told reporters this morning at Big East Media Day that he thinks that each one of the four players has a chance to make an impact in the race for the position. Young, a junior, has the most experience of the bunch (14 games played), but is coming off of a knee injury which cut short his season last year. The plan was to involve Young in the offense more last season, along with Rice, however that was not able to happen.

Martinek, only a sophomore is not short on credentials either. In high school, he became New Jersey’s all-time leading rusher, amassing 7,589 yards. However, he did not see any game action last year. Robinson, a sophomore, has carried the ball only 36 times in his career, having mostly seen time as a punt and kick returner.

Brooks, however, intrigues Schiano the most. At 6-1, 245 pounds, he is the biggest of all of the backs, a physical runner, which Rutgers hasn’t had.

“The thing that’s kind of neat is Jourdan gives us a different kind of back in the mix,” Schiano said. “If he can continue to develop, regardless of who’s getting the lion’s share — if it’s him or someone else — I think there’s going to be a place for that big back.”

Still, replacing Rice will not be an easy task. The school’s all-time leading rusher bypassed his senior season to enter the NFL Draft and was taken in the second round by the Baltimore Ravens.

But Schiano is excited to see what he can develop now that he’s gone.

“Those four guys are very qualified running backs,” he said. “If somebody take it and just leaps out in front, then they’ll get the lion’s share of the carries. If not, then we’ll spread it around.”

He also reflected on Courtney Greene deciding to stay for his senior season.

Mark Richt has some familiar sources of inspiration.

More than anything else, Richt preached the value of persistence. He saw value in a motivational ploy Rutgers coach Greg Schiano used last season, comparing each opponent to a tree that needed to be chopped down.

“I kind of stole it from Rutgers,” Richt said. “No matter what happens, you have to keep chopping wood. There’s going to be things that don’t go your way. When things get rough, you just have to keep chopping and know that something good is going to happen if you don’t give in.”

Who’s going to replace Mike Tranghese?

At the league’s annual football media day yesterday at the Viking Hotel, coaches and administrators praised Tranghese’s leadership and made it clear that finding a strong replacement when he leaves in June is a major concern. The conference has put together a committee of six school presidents (Georgetown, Marquette, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Rutgers and South Florida) who are charged with hiring a new leader.

Tranghese is clearly a proponent of seeing an administrator with Big East roots succeed him. A leading candidate could be the Big East’s senior associate commissioner, ex-Providence College athletic director John Marinatto, or perhaps a key athletic director like UConn’s Jeff Hathaway or Louisville’s Tom Jurich. Asked if it might be better for a person to be hired from outside the league, Tranghese said, “That person is going to have to convince our presidents of that.”

Let’s play word association:

Here’s the breakdown from my One-Word Wonders feature from Tuesday’s Big East media days, where I asked the eight head coaches six questions that they had to answer with one word.

Describe the Big East:
Edsall – Balanced
Kelly – Balanced
Kragthorpe – Competitive
Leavitt – Strong
Robinson – Competitive
Schiano – Competitive
Stewart – Tough
Wannstedt – Competitive

Describe your team:
Edsall – Competitive
Kelly – Stronger
Kragthorpe – Hungry
Leavitt – Strong
Robinson – Competitive
Schiano – Good
Stewart – Chemistry
Wannstedt – Hungry

Describe USF QB Matt Grothe:
Edsall – Athletic
Kelly – Headache
Kragthorpe – Playmaker
Leavitt – Strong
Robinson – Competitive
Schiano – Tough
Stewart – Winner
Wannstedt – Playmaker

Describe USF DE George Selvie:
Edsall – Fast
Kelly – Athletic
Kragthorpe – Disruptor
Leavitt – Strong
Robinson – Get-off
Schiano – Fast
Stewart – Playmaker
Wannstedt – Difference-maker

Do you favor a plus-one national playoff?
Edsall – No
Kelly – Yes
Kragthorpe – No
Leavitt – Don’t know
Robinson – Yes
Schiano – Yes
Stewart – No
Wannstedt – Yes

Do you favor a ninth football member?
Edsall – Yes
Kelly – No
Kragthorpe – Who?
Leavitt – Perhaps
Robinson – No opinion
Schiano – Defer
Stewart – Yes
Wannstedt – Yes

Pittblather found a nice blurb by Brett McMurphy to tuck away and revisit later in the year.

Big East AP voters: As mentioned last week, I will have a vote in this year’s Associated Press football poll. Of the 65 national voters, at least five will have ties to Big East schools.

The others: Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette; Mitch Vingle of The Charleston (WVa.) Gazette; Kent Taylor of WAVE Ch. 3 in Louisville, Ky. and John Silver of the Journal Inquirer in Connecuticut.

The state of Florida has two other voters besides myself: Robbie Andreu (Gainesville Sun) and Jim Lamar (Tallahassee Democrat).

The preseason AP poll will be released Aug. 16.

Actually, I understand that Fittipaldo covers PSU football and Pitt basketball.

Pro daze

Every day, the same message is coming out of Baltimore.

Maybe starting running back Willis McGahee is sick, or hurt, but it seems that rookie Ray Rice has taken more repetitions with the first team during the last two days than McGahee.

Rice is taking some ribbing from a former conference foe.

Nakamura also inherited a sense of humor from his family.

Prior to playing against Rutgers and future Ravens rookie running back Ray Rice, his brother had a T-shirt emblazoned with the words: “Nakamura Eats Rice.”

Nakamura wound up tackling Rice on a key fourth down.

“Being Japanese, we eat rice,” Nakamura said. “We’ve joked about it a couple of times.”

Quinn Pitcock’s unexpected retirement might create an opportunity or two in Indianapolis.

Pitcock, 24, has not commented publicly, and numerous attempts to reach him were unsuccessful.

He was expected to play a significant role in the tackle rotation behind Ed Johnson and Keyunta Dawson, who have worked as the starters in training camp. Raheem Brock, a 27-game starter at tackle the past two seasons, has been moved to left end in the base defense and apparently will remain there even with Pitcock’s decision.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys on the (defensive) line that can play and are going to help us this year,” Brock said.

The Colts could use someone to follow in Johnson’s footsteps. He was an undrafted rookie in 2007 who was inserted into the starting lineup in training camp when a knee injury sidelined veteran Anthony “Booger” McFarland. Johnson wound up starting all 17 games and anchoring a run defense that ranked No. 15 in the league, giving up 106.9 yards per game.

The cast of prospects ranges from Darrell Reid, who primarily has been a special teams player, to Eric Foster, an undrafted rookie out of Rutgers.

“I’ve definitely got an opportunity to play and show what I’ve got and what I bring to the table,” Foster said.

Number nineteen?

Perhaps.

Senior safety Terrance Taylor orally committed to Rutgers University. Taylor (6-0, 175) has scholarship offers from UCF, South Florida and FIU.

Taylor, who has been timed at 4.6 seconds in the 40-yard dash and has a 31-inch vertical leap according to Scout.com, helped the Bulldogs advance to the Class 2A state semifinals last season.

As this was reported late last night, it hasn’t yet been confirmed by anyone else. Assuming Taylor sticks at DB, he might be taking the ship of one of the three players who is not making it to campus this year. Rutgers had still been recruiting several DBs lately, in spite of a scholarship crunch. It was widely assumed that the team is looking for another linebacker and several linemen though, in addition to a running back.

The Rutgers Effect, pt. 3

Counting our chickens before they hatch.

Where would the class of 2008 have went if they did not choose Rutgers?

Around the Big East

UConn beatwriters are aghast, aghast, that their 2007 season was widely seen as flukey. Lots of good stuff here though.

Another Big East media day is in the books. I can’t imagine there’s a conference in the country that comes close to matching the two days we get here in Newport, R.I. Fantastic event, as always.

I’m holed up in the business center of the plush Hotel Viking, where $400 gets you one night in a room but Internet access on the hotel computer costs .80-per minute. I know that only because the couple sitting beside me still haven’t stopped complaining about it. I have my own laptop, the ethernet is free for me and I’m not offering to share simply because they’re really annoying.

Some news and notes from the morning:

• UConn was picked sixth in the preseason poll. Oddly, no one was all that surprised. I mean, the league’s co-champ, who doesn’t lose all that much in personnel (19 starters are back, including the QB, both RBs and most of the defense), is predicted to finish behind three teams it beat last fall? Polls don’t mean anything, but you can bet Randy Edsall will use that as motivation in some manner. “The poll is how the media perceives us. I guess they don’t think we’re very good. We’ll have to go out and play with a chip on our shoulder.”
• Mike Tranghese dispelled the recent New York Post story on the Big East looking at Army and Navy for football. He said the conference had discussions two years ago, but haven’t spoken since. “We had discussions two years ago, the service academies didn’t feel it was in their best interest, and we dropped it,” Tranghese said. “Now this story appears, and it sounds as if it’s happening now, but that’s not so.”
• Tranghese said as of now, there’s no teams the Big East would consider a viable option to become a member for football. He says programs have contacted him about joining, but all have been dismissed for various reasons. “Having a ninth member would solve scheduling issues,” Tranghese said. “But the (member) presidents aren’t going to vote for another team simply to solve a scheduling issue.”
• Tranghese is scheduled to retire soon, but plans to remain active in some way with the league. He says a big reason why he’s retiring is the travel schedule. “I’m not a good flyer as it is,” he said. “The less time I’m in the air, the better.”
• Brandon Dillon will be at the Huskies first practice Friday, providing some depth on the defensive line. Marcus Campbell was back over the summer, and will also be practicing. Edsall said he’s got a meeting scheduled for Wednesday in which he’s expecting to lose one, as-of-now unnamed player. The good news is that spot will be filled Friday by one of the team’s walk-ons, five of whom are unable to begin practicing until classes begin because UConn is over the 105-man limit.
• From a personality standpoint, new West Virginia coach Bill Stewart is about as far from Rich Rodriguez as it gets. That’s no coincidence. West Virginia wants to distance itself from Rich-Rod, who rivals A-Rod on the prima donna scale. Stewart seems like the friendly country neighbor who’s always working on his roof or cooking hot dogs in the new barbecue pit. Actually, he kind of looks and sounds like Lou Holtz, without the speech impediment.
• South Florida Jim Leavitt wasn’t exactly the life of the party (that was Stewart), but he was close. Yep, the same Leavitt who has conducted conference calls in grunts and non sequiturs was reeling in the yuks from the group of media members around his table. He may have a future in stand-up comedy. OK, I overstated that. But he’s funnier than Dane Cook. That’s not that hard, either. But you get the picture.
• Louisville coach Steve Kragthorpe explained “noodling”, a popular pastime amongst the Cardinals football players. In a nutshell, it’s catching catfish with your bare hands. Catfish tend to burrow into the mud. A noodler finds the hold and pulls the fish out, hoping not to get bit. Seems to take the fun out of fishing. Oh, Louisville, picked to finish either first or second the last three years, was predicted seventh in the preseason poll.
• Ben Mauk is still appealing the NCAA’s decision not to grant him another season of eligibility at Cincinnati. But coach Brian Kelly is set to go with Dustin Grutza at QB. Kelly is still angling to build a program that has been successful on the field yet struggling to gain a foothold in other, off-field areas. The practice facility is substandard, the fan base is improving and a year ago Kelly used media day as a pulpit to express his disdain for the lack of attention his team received in Cincinnati. Kelly, you may remember, refused to speak with a New England-based free-lance writer hired by the Cincinnati Enquirer because the paper declined to send a reporter to cover the event. “We used the opportunity not to take a shot at the media, but to let the city of Cincinnati know we had a BCS football team,” Kelly said. “If they can support the Bengals and Reds, they can support a BCS football program. Since then, we sold out three times last fall for the first time in the history of the school. Cincinnati has shown it will support college football. My job is to put out a good football team.”

Assorted bits

Scroll to the 10:35 mark to see Schiano’s video comments on the BE conference call.

Eric Foster is getting Rice-level praise from Colts beatwriters.

QUESTION: Which players this year do you see as the next Ed Johnson, an unheralded rookie gem? – from Steve Saunders, Bismarck, ND
ANSWER: Good question, but way too early to speculate. It’s really hard to pay strong attention to the young players this early in training camp when you’re trying to keep tabs on the front-line guys. But I get the impression the team is pretty high on Eric Foster, an undrafted rookie defensive tackle out of Rutgers. Wouldn’t that be a nice story? Remember another undrafted rookie the Colts signed from Rutgers? Answers to the name Gary Brackett.

Speaking of Rice

Running back Willis McGahee (left knee) was limited in practice, taking some snaps early and then watching for the remainder of practice.

Rookie running back Ray Rice is demonstrating a knack for hiding behind his blockers then dashing upfield for big yardage.

Baltimore’s OL has been taking some hits however.

Tiquan Underwood was one of several players to be interviewed by the SL yesterday.

The Bergen Record has some more information on the status of Rashad White.

Rashad White’s road to Rutgers is taking a detour through Pennsylvania.

White, who signed his National Letter of Intent to Rutgers in February after rushing for 5,044 yards and 43 touchdowns in his Teaneck career, will instead be at Lackawanna College, a junior college in Scranton, Pa., when the football season begins in September.

White could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

“He’s got to be extremely disappointed having committed to a place like Rutgers,” said former Teaneck coach Dennis Heck. “But in the long run, he will be there.”

White and fellow Rutgers recruits Malcolm Johnson of Florida and Kevin Egan of Connecticut are not listed among the 2008 recruits in the Rutgers media guide and are not expected to report on Monday when camp is set to open. White’s academics had been a question mark for most of the spring.

“He knew pretty much at the end of the school year what he would be doing,” Heck said.

“Footballwise, I think this will just give him the opportunity to get bigger and stronger,” Heck said of the 5-11, 175-pounder. “You get Rashad coming out of Lackawanna as a 195-pound tailback. Those two years can only help him.”

Media day roundup

Facing a firestorm of criticism, University President Richard McCormick announced plans to appoint a sports committee. It’s currently unknown how much much power they will actually have.

Rutgers President Richard McCormick has vowed greater “transparency” and complete cooperation with the state probe. A report by the State Commission of Investigation in 2006 found the university’s finances to be confusing and opaque.

McCormick said he will ask the committee to “probe deeply” into the operations of the athletic division, which is headed by Robert Mulcahy – a longtime political player in the state.

McCormick also announced the chairs of the committee that will lead the review: Rutgers University President Alfred C. Koeppe, an alumnus who heads the Newark Alliance, is the former president and chief operating officer of Public Service Electric and Gas Co., and a former chair of the New Jersey Higher Education Commission; and Albert R. Gamper Jr., also an alumnus, who is the former chairman of the Rutgers Board of Governors and retired chairman of the board of CIT Group Inc.

Critics were quick to note that Gamper is the current chair of the governing board’s athletic committee and headed the full board during much of the athletic spending now in question.

Kevin Malast and Tiquan Underwood were the first players to commit to Rutgers in the class of ‘05.

Brandon Renkart and Ronnie Girault have signed with the New York Jets.

Linebacker Brandon Renkart and safety Ron Girault will have a chance to make the Jets, signing with the team today.

The former Scarlet Knights’ duo will have to make two roster cutdowns — NFL teams must have no more than 75 active players by Aug. 26 and the final 53-man limit by Aug. 30.

A year ago, Renkart had 67 tackles and 2.5 sacks, and Girault had 55 tackles.

Ray Rice continues to dazzle in Ravens camp.

Top three rookies in training camp so far have been running back Ray Rice, linebacker Tavares Gooden and safety Haruki Nakamura.

Rice finds holes and has good acceleration. He might be small, but he runs with both authority and power. Gooden is physical and plays with a lot of energy. He definitely has a passion for football.

Nakamura just makes plays. He is always around the football. He needs to be more physical, but that will come with time as he adds more confidence.

Greg Schiano gave a detailed interview to Keith Sargent. Snippets:

The Justin Francis situation, has there been a resolution to that?

“What I did when this all went down is I decided that Justin, regardless of what happens will be suspended for the season from competition. From that point on, I needed to wait until the legal system plays out. And I did, but from early on Justin and I talked and he was very forthright with me and I just made a decision that this is what needed to be done.

“So in the interim, at some point in his career he was going to need to have his shoulder fixed. So before we knew what we going to happened, he got his shoulder fixed. So he’ll be with us, but he won’t be eligible to compete by my edict.”

Among the incoming freshmen, Rashad White, Malcolm Johnson and Kevin Eagan. Are they no longer with the team?

“No, there’s certain guys that when you’re recruiting them, you know they might not be able to meet all the qualifications. What’s transpired is Rashad, the plan is for him to go to junior college and come back to Rutgers in two years. And the plan with Malcolm is to go to
prep school, and hopefully come to Rutgers sooner than that.

“Kevin Eagan’s a different story. That one was a surprise. Kevin called up when it was time to come to summer school, and just had a change of heart. He just didn’t want to play Division I football, which was disappointing because I think Kevin could’ve been a really good player. But it’s better now than later.

“So two of them, by the end of the academic year I knew it was going to be the case that they were going to do the alternative path.”

SK.com has released its season preview.

The obligatory Teel profile.

CardChronicle previews the top 25 defenders in the Big East.

Fooch has an interview up with Schiano.

BE day recruiting

Florida LB Phil Walker expects an offer soon

Beyond Northern Illinois, Walker said he has offers from Kansas State, Central Michigan, Western Michigan, Middle Tennessee State and Miami (Ohio).

He also expects an offer from Rutgers soon.

”I am pretty sure I am going to get a Rutgers offer because the coaches have called my coach to send my transcript,” Walker said.

Rutgers it not a finalist for Maryland DB Travis Hawkins.

The 5-foot-10, 180-pound Hawkins has narrowed his choices though. Maryland, Georgia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Tennessee, Michigan and Oregon are the seven schools Hawkins will choose from.

Florida WR Rodney Smith had a Rutgers offer, but chose to commit to FSU.

Smith (6-6, 206), the No. 9 prospect in Dade and a four-star prospect by Rivals.com, has over 30 offers including UM, UF, South Florida, Boston College, Tennessee, Wake Forest, South Carolina and Rutgers. He said he will still take official visits to Tennessee, FSU, USF, Boston College and Auburn this fall.

Similarly, Rishard Anderson is now a Deacon.

Walker said that Anderson’s decision came down to Wake Forest and Rutgers of the Big East.

“I think Rutgers was probably right in there with Wake, in terms of what his choices would have been,” Walker said.

New York OT Oday Aboushi recently visited.

Brooklyn (N.Y.) Xaverian offensive tackle Oday Aboushi had the opportunity to take an unofficial visit to Rutgers last week and he came away impressed.

The 6-foot-6, 300-pound lineman liked what he saw at Rutgers but didn’t make a decision. There are still a few other schools in the hunt.

“I haven’t done anything other than the Rutgers unofficial last Monday,” Aboushi recalled. “It was just an unofficial visit. I got to meet the academic staff and a lot of new people there. It was good.

“I think that’s about it (for the summer). I’m not really sure. I might visit another school but I don’t know of anything yet.”

Aboushi recently came out with a list of five favorites. Who made the list?

“My top five would probably be Iowa, Maryland, Rutgers, Virginia and probably Michigan.

“Of my three offers—Iowa, Maryland and Rutgers—I realy like all three schools. Rutgers is a great place to be. Actually all of them would be. I probably want to make my decision sometime before the season starts. Maybe in September sometime.”

Georgia TE Will Middleton is interested in Rutgers, but is that interest mutual?

Kell tight end Will Middleton has backed off his verbal commitment to South Carolina and now considers Rutgers, Indiana and Louisville his top three.

The 6-foot-5, 230-pound senior committed to the Gamecocks in early May, then de-committed in mid-June, deciding to look at other schools.

“I just made my decision too soon,” Middleton said. “I’d really just like have more time to think about my options. There’s a lot to think about when you’re looking at these schools.”

RU apparently is not a finalist for Florida receiver Stedman Bailey.

Bailey currently has 11 scholarship offers, but lists South Carolina and South Florida as his leaders.

“South Carolina is in the SEC, the toughest conference, and they spread the ball around being that it is Steve Spurrier, and he’s a legend,” Bailey said. “South Florida is not too far from home. They show a lot of love.”

Bailey said he might make his decision during the season.

Hoboken lineman Isaac Holmes has Rutgers in his top 3.

“It’s really between Rutgers, Maryland and Pittsburgh right now,” Isaac Holmes said. Holmes didn’t attend any summer camps, but has already visited Rutgers and Maryland. “I’ve always liked Rutgers. They are the home school and they’ve been showing me a lot of love. The coaches are great and they are showing me a lot of interest. They keep in touch all the time and I get mail and stuff…”

Isaac Holmes, the 6-foot-3, 290 pound three-star defensive tackle from Hoboken, N.J., now has around 26 scholarship offers, but says that three stand out.
“It’s really between Rutgers, Maryland and Pittsburgh right now,” Holmes said.

Rounding out his top five are Florida and Oklahoma, all of which have offered.

Holmes didn’t attend any camps during this summer, but has already visited Rutgers and Maryland. “I’ve always liked Rutgers,” he said. “They are the home school and they’ve been showing me a lot of love.

“The coaches are great and they are showing me a lot of interest,” Holmes said. “They keep in touch all the time and I get mail and stuff from them everyday, plus they don’t just ask about me but take time to know about my family too.”

 

“Right now I’m leaning towards committing early,” he said. “I’d like to be able to enjoy my senior season. I’ll see how August goes and see if I can take a few more visits and decide.

“My family wants me to wait it out a bit,” he said. “But I don’t plan on waiting too long.”

Holmes says he wants to major in criminal justice and reports a 3.2 core GPA and an 1140 SAT.

DT Curtis Porter is now a Miami Huricane.

ESPN 150 Watch List prospect Curtis Porter, a 335-pound defensive lineman, has committed to Miami-Florida and head coach Randy Shannon.
Porter picked the Hurricanes over Florida, Florida State, Clemson and Rutgers. He also holds offers from Michigan, Tennessee, Colorado, Duke and East Carolina.

Hmm. Good news with Antwan Lowery? I don’t put much stock into this report, but here it is.

Defensive end Antwan Lowery (6-4, 315) of Miami has a top four of Clemson, Miami, Rutgers and Florida, and he plans to spend one of his official visits at Clemson.