Please submit questions

The authors of The Bulldog Bounce (Fresno State blog) and TarHeelFan (UNC) have both graciously agreed to do brief Q&As for Bleed Scarlet (likewise, I will answer a few of their questions).

If all goes to plan, I will post the answers from The Bulldog Bounce next week. Please respond in the comments of this entry with questions for both blogs. Alternatively, you can submit questions to me by email (upper lefthand corner), or post them on one of the various Rutgers forums on the internet, and maybe I’ll come across it.

8/19 Recruiting Update

Elizabeth RB and erstwhile Rutgers target Ray Graham (brother of ‘08 recruit Khaseem Green) committed to Pittsburgh on Saturday. Graham is a tremendous player, but Rutgers had not been recruiting him strongly due to grade concerns. Graham attended practice last Wednesday I believe, and claimed to have received an offer from Rutgers then. That claim has not been verified, and it is unknown whether the supposed offer had additional conditions applied to it. My personal belief is that, if Graham holds a committable offer, his recruiting process is far from over. Mike Farrell quoted Graham as saying that he’s done, but again, Mike Farrell.

In other RB news, here’s an update on Lamar Miller:

Miller mentioned Rutgers may be another school to get an official visit. He also let SoFLAfootball know of one school that will not get an official visit.

Miller is a terrific running back prospect, but has serious grade issues and may not qualify.

Irvington athlete Joshua Evans is saying a whole lot of nothing.

Three-star athlete Joshua Evans hasn’t taken any visits recently. The 6-foot-2, 185-pounder plans to start looking into official visits in the near future.

“I haven’t gone anywhere yet, everything is equal,” he stated. “Everyone is showing me a lot of love.

“I haven’t begun to narrow my list. I like all the schools and am happy to be in this situation. I have 29 offers and I’m looking at all of them.”

When will Evans look into officials?

“Eventually, probably around next month or a couple months from now I’ll look at what schools I want to visit,” he said. “I’ll be looking for what every player wants, the depth chart, who is coming back, who I’ll be battling with to see if I’ll see the field. I want to become part of a family.”

A traitor among us

Every Rutgers fan simply must read Rick Malwitz’s piece from THNT today.

While Zoffinger sees his job as carefully minding the books, others see a different agenda.

Some say Zoffinger would still like Mulcahy’s job.

Zoffinger denied that he wanted the job in 1997, until he was shown a copy of the story published in the Home News Tribune the day former director of athletics Fred Gruninger stepped down.

“I would attribute that statement to not closing doors,” Zoffinger said last week.

That does not explain half of Zoffinger’s malfeasance.

The negotiations between the football teams and the state widened a wedge between Zoffinger and Codey.

“In my 34 years in politics, I never met a more dishonest person than George Zoffinger,” said Codey.

Codey said negotiations meant to be private were leaked to the media. Codey said he confronted Zoffinger, who admitted leaking information. “George swore he wouldn’t do it again. Then, he’d do it again,” said Codey.

“Codey’s an idiot, and you can print that,” said Zoffinger.

Leaking information you say. Dick Codey is likely to be elected as the next Governor of New Jersey, and is one of the few politicians in the state with positive approval ratings.

In 2004, during the period between McGreevey’s announcement he was leaving office and the date he officially resigned, the governor nominated Zoffinger to serve on the Rutgers board of governors.

The nomination was opposed by a group of students suggesting Zoffinger’s role as chairman of the board at DEVCO would conflict with Rutgers’ interests.

Zoffinger said he recuses himself from all activities on the Rutgers board dealing with DEVCO, and noted that he championed the students when he was the only one to vote against the recent 8.5 percent tuition hike.

“George works the media. He knows when he casts the only negative vote he becomes the story,” said Ron Giaconia, who served on the Board of Governors until his term expired in 2007.

If only we had listened to those students then.

It was reported by the Star-Ledger of Newark that there was an agreement between Mulcahy and Schiano that would not require Schiano to pay a $500,000 buyout, should he seek a head coaching job elsewhere.

Mulcahy and a person familiar with the language of Schiano’s contract say no such agreement exists.

Zoffinger isn’t convinced. “There is a signed agreement somewhere, and they haven’t found it,” he said.

That “person familiar with the language of Schiano’s contract” being Schiano himself as a press conference. Let there be no remaining doubt: as suspected, Zoffinger leaked the unfinished draft clause. If nobodies on the internet can put two and two together, there’s no doubt that Schiano, Mulcahy, and McCormick have and want to get this clown out of their hair as soon as possible. It’s doubly wrong of Zoffinger to keep raising this issue when he’s proven to be dead wrong.

And Zoffinger does not believe Schiano will remain at Rutgers when 84-year-old Penn State head coach Joe Paterno retires. “Greg Schiano, in my opinion, will go to Penn State in a heartbeat,” said Zoffinger.

I had refrained from citing Zoffinger’s status as a Penn State booster in the past as evidence of misconduct. However, it’s hard to see that not playing a role in this quote, which is equal parts trying to twist a knife into the heart of every Rutgers fan. Undoubtedly, Zoffinger is probably responsible for a large amount of the unfounded buzz on this topic.

Yikes

Our relative health couldn’t last forever.

Kevin Haslam, Rutgers’ starting left guard, went down early in practice with an ankle injury. While Greg Schiano said he didn’t know the severity of the injury, the Rutgers coach acknowledged that it was the same ankle that Haslam had surgically repaired in April.

“It’s his ankle,” Schiano said, only adding, “we’ll see” when asked if it’s an injury of lasting concern.

Haslam, who played in all 13 games last fall, starting six at right guard, was having a solid summer by all accounts. The 6-foot-7, 290-pound junior appeared firmly entrenched as the replacement for two-year starter Mike Fladell.

While redshirt sophomore Howard Barbieri manned the position after Haslam went down, Schiano said it was premature to get into who would move in if Haslam is out for an extended period.

“If he’s out,” Schiano said, “we’ll make some decisions.”

Rutgers had already shuffled its second-team line, essentially having left guard Matt Hardison and center Marlon Romulus trade positions.

“I think Rumulus not having to have the ball in his hands, I think he’s a better guard than center,” Schiano said. “We’ll see if that’s true.”

In other news, Robinson was active in practice yesterday. Dennis Campbell returned as well. Most of the depth chart appears set:

While the majority of Rutgers’ starting spots on offense and defense appear set, Schiano said right guard and strong safety are two positions he’ll be keeping a close eye on in the scrimmage. “”I want to see how (Caleb) Ruch plays, see how he does,” Schiano said of Rutgers’ current starter at right guard. Zaire Kitchen and Joe Lefeged, meanwhile, will battle it out at safety.

I did a Q&A last week for Saturday Sound Offs. It was posted yesterday. The one thing I regret at this point is not mentioning Bines as part of the DT rotation.