Open season

It’s the calm before the start of bowl season, and that D1 staffs across the country are turning their attention to recruiting. Throw out everything you thought in the fall, because it can and will change in an instant. Regular readers know that I’ll link to info about Rutgers going after recruits committed to other schools (or vice versa) when it’s publicly available, and certainly there’s always a lot more info about that stuff on the various pay sites.

But yeah, a lot of stuff is starting to go down. I mean, in the Big East alone, you see that USF just flipped two Tennessee and Miami verbals (even though there are questions about both). If anyone was wondering why West Virginia DB commit Robert Clark was waivering (beyond the obvious appeal of UF), now we have an answer: Doc Holliday, their ace recruiter in Florida, is about to be named the new HC at Marshall. That’s huge, as Holliday is one of the best in the biz, and brought in their QB of the future in Geno Smith last year. You can expect West Virginia’s recruiting efforts in Florida to take a major hit if Bill Stewart doesn’t find an adequate replacement. Again, Michigan is Michigan, but I don’t think it’s much of a coincidence that Richard Ash just spurned the Mountaineers for the Wolverines. WVU is going to have a very difficult time retaining its other Florida verbals. Luckily for them, it does appear that assistant Chris Beatty won’t be bringing his Tidewater contacts to UVA.

There’s not really all that much to do besides sit back with a bucket of popcorn and watch the carnage that is inevitably about to unfold over the next two months. I wouldn’t necessarily be concerned or elated about any particular class out there, because there’s so much that can change between now and signing day. There’s no point in jumping to any conclusions in any which way. Supposedly some head coaches even like it when players they’re after verbal to other schools, they just savor that much more of a challenge.

12/15 Recruiting Update

Rutgers landed a big in-state target over the weekend with Egg Harbor athlete Tejay Johnson. He would have probably ended up at Cincinnati if Brian Kelly hadn’t have moved on. Johnson is the fastest player in the state this year, and a very important get. If you’re wondering about whether one or two WR commits will end up switching to defense at some point, it’s possible, but that problem will work itself out down the line.

I don’t think that commit will have any impact on Brandon Coleman. His game is much different than the other, speedier WR verbals, and Coleman could even end up at TE. We’ll get word after he comes back from Syracuse in January. You’d think that RU won’t take any more receiver commits from Florida unless they’re willing to play defense.

Oops, I missed this one on Chas Dodd last week.

“He understands blitz concepts, reading defenses and our pass protection as well as any quarterback I’ve had, and I think that’s gonna help him as he goes on to the next level,” Bentley said. “When I was (coaching) in college, I was always having to coach him after the game. We’d watch video, or I’d see pictures and I’d talk to him about his footwork or something like that.”

Dodd was recently snubbed for South Carolina’s Shrine Bowl team.

The Princeton Packet named J.T. Tartacoff its player of the year.

Even though FL RB Casey Turner was reported to have committed on last week’s visit to Rutgers, his dad still plans to have him visit Arkansas in January. Turner and his coach were at Rutgers for the West Virginia weekend.

Meanwhile, on the Mustafa Greene front:

“It was a great experience for my first visit,” said Green. “They are like a family. The players and coaches…they act like one big family.” Green did not commit and says he will wait until signing day to announce his decision. Next up for Green will be NC State. “They visited me last Thursday,” he said. “They want me to come up on an official but I haven’t scheduled it yet.” He also plans to take officials to Georgia, Alabama, and Auburn.

The third choice at RB is probably Devon Wright, who was planning to visit over the weekend, but favors Minnesota. DT Ken Kirksey is down to three schools that aren’t RU. It’s hard to get a read on Jeremy Deering, but it looks like he will visit after all. Especially considering what the St. Pete bowl did to last weekend, That Jan. 22 date is starting to loom big.

The Record named 2011’s Tanner McEvoy to their All-Bergen team. ‘10 commits Jorge Vicioso and Chris Fonti made their All-Passaic team. And hmmm, what’s this about T.J. Clemmings?

He is visiting Pittsburgh this weekend. He visited Rutgers last weekend and has a visit to Ohio State tentatively scheduled for early January.

Speaking of ‘11, ESPN Rise recently had an article about Andrew Campolattano, even though it focused on him as a wrestler.

While recruiting Florida is important, I don’t think that the St. Pete matchup will have much of a direct impact. Either those kids want to stay closer to home, or they want to play in a BCS conference. The info on Foose settling on his final two over other offers is not exactly accurate.

Damn Wannstache; OL Shane Johnson committed to Pitt. CB Cody Riggs committed to Florida, and his teammate LaMarcus Joyner is going to FSU. I’m not sure whether or not the staff was pursuing RB Jakhari Gore, but he committed to Miami. Nor do I know what was up with Hershel Thornton besides him being in the Rivals DB, but he committed to Minnesota.

Watchlist: Jamal Abdur-Rahman, Vince DePaola, Danny Foose, Tony Jones (2), Ish Mack, and Forrest Mason.

12/8 Recruiting Update

First off, a special message from Coach Schiano.

It’s going well. I can’t obviously comment on particular recruits, but we’ve got a great group here and we’re enjoying the time with their families. You know, I’ve never done. We’re not a school quite frankly that does recruiting weekends on game weekends. So there’s a lot of new experiences I’m going though. At 43, you think you’ve seen a lot. You haven’t seen it. So this is good growth experience for me. Unfortunately, the game didn’t go the way we wanted yesterday. The way it ended. But again, you’ve got to get up and get going. And that’s what we did.

We’ve got great energy with these recruits and our players. You know, I’m excited about where we’re going with this bowl game. A lot of our Florida kids get to go back home. I’m sure it will be a great opportunity for their families to get on up to the games. Really looking forward to taking our team to our fifth straight bowl game and all the things that go with it. To a great city. We’ve got a great group of kids. You know I think they value. They don’t take this stuff for granted, and I’m going to go up there now and see them and kind of give them the abreviated plan because quite frankly it’s hard to give them what they don’t know. But I can tell them they better get cracking on their books tonight because it’s coming down faster, maybe faster than they thought academically. But again, I’m excited. It’s really a challenge, the opponent we play. And can’t wait to get going.

The Record had a story on Betim Bujari last week. Wow, linebacker?

Ok, visit weekend number one is in the books. Jacksonville back Casey Turner was a bit under the radar, but he did have a few decent mid-level BCS conference offers, and was starting to get a bit more buzz after a big senior season. Hence, he’s no longer a FIU commit. On paper, he’s one of the best gets in the class up to this point. It remains to be seen what effect this commitment has on Mustafa Greene, who is admittedly a sentimental favorite because of his Brooklyn ties, and was the biggest name at the position mentioning Rutgers for a while. Ideally I’d like two backs, although Rutgers is in the mix for some very good players at the position in 2011. Typically the best athletes on any HS team play RB, so those guys are always a candidate to switch positions too.

Speaking of Greene, he was on campus over the weekend. Other teams like NC State continue to make a push.

Rutgers will be his first official and that will take place this weekend. “I’m looking forward to it,” he said. He says NC State will be his next visit, most likely. Green wants to visit all five of his leaders but has not scheduled any of the next four. He does not have a favorite.

Commit number two came more out of the blue in the form of ex-Hofstra lineman Matt McBride. Looking over the numbers recently, I thought that Rutgers was fairly thin when it came to interior linemen, even with Quartucci enrolling early. McBride fixes that problem. RU had him in camp last year, but didn’t offer. What’s interesting is that he hasn’t played a down yet (redshirting in 2009), but you have to assume that the coaching staff received some good reports. I’m curious to see if we get any other transfers along these lines. SoR thread has a few comments.

12/1 Recruiting Update

The big news of the past week was that Downington, PA lineman Taj Alexander committed to Rutgers. He could end up on either line. OL is the bigger need, but Rutgers doesn’t have any DTs committed in this year’s class.

Visit weekend #1 is coming up, and Kristian Dyer knows exactly what RU recruitniks want for Chrismukwanzaa.

On December 4, Rutgers opens a new recruiting lounge, right in the middle of the student section. The lounge will host the most impressive list of visitors for the year, including the underrated Mustafa Greene and Brandon Coleman, a wideout from Maryland with hands like Stick-Um.

I can’t emphasize the following point enough: there has been a LOT of info on the premium sites regarding visits, that I can’t mention here. I link to what’s freely available, but these links are only scratching the surface of what’s in store. Many prospects will be on campus soon; good ones.

Hamilton lineman Frank Quartucci may enroll early (the article has more). I think this is a good development, as it makes it easier to take another lineman for the class of ‘10, making up for smaller numbers in last year’s class.

Quartucci plans to graduate in January so he can enroll at Rutgers and get an early start on his Scarlet Knights career.

Florida RB Casey Turner is a FIU commit, but still plans to visit this weekend.

A coach from Rutgers called me and asked if I had committed and I told him I had. I haven’t heard from them lately since then. I think some teams have backed off a little bit since I committed. I still have a visit lined up to Rutgers for Dec. 5. I’m looking forward to getting out of Florida for a bit and seeing something different.I still consider myself a soft verbal. It’s up to the other schools, though. It’s their decision whether to keep recruiting me.

RB Devon Wright is another confirmed visitor. Many Daytona Beach area Rutgers targets were on the field in the Mainland/DeLand game. Rutgers is still in contact with Jeremy Deering. Here’s another article on Deering. FL DT Richard Ash will visit Rutgers this weekend, although talk is that he’s about to commit to West Virginia.

So, who exactly is Lackawanna CC safety Herschel Thornton, and why is he suddenly listed as having an offer on Rivals?

For anyone wondering, Bennett Jackson plans to stick with Notre Dame, if the new coach will have him. Don’t fret, as ND ain’t the only carrion around.

CT DT Bjoern Werner is high on Oregon’s list.

PA DB Cullen Christian committed to Michigan. North Brunswick DB Andrew Opoku is finally listed as having an offer on Rivals and Scout, but committed to UConn, which was a bit of a surprise.

Watchlist: Gareef Glashen, Fred Overstreet, Quinton Pompey, and Chris Valenti (thanks to nik12)

There wasn’t all that much in the way of new (public) developments over the past week due to the holiday, so below I want to respond to commentor Section117, regarding his reaction to the Alexander commit last week.

11/24 Recruiting Update

The competition in South Carolina is no match for Chas Dodd and Byrnes.

Most of the news lately is centered around all of the out of state targets coming in for the West Virginia game, although a couple locals will be coming the week after that. Maryland receiver Brandon Coleman will be in the house, and the big question is whether he commits, or takes any other official visits.

“I have the Rutgers visit planned for December 4th,” he said. “I’m trying to get Maryland set up soon. I think Maryland is going to be after the season now.”

Other Maryland targets will be making the trip with Coleman, but athlete Josh Furman (and his totally awesome goggles) won’t be. He’s down to Michigan and VT, and my guess would be VT. Speaking of the Maryland area, the Post just had a feature on the Kouandjio brothers. Rutgers was the newest offer for younger brother Cyrus, but it doesn’t look like Arie is as interested as teammates Lorenzo Waters or (especially) Shane Johnson in becoming Scarlet Knights.

The other big target this year is Florida, which has been friendly to Rutgers in recent years, and assistant Brian Jenkins has been working his tail off to reestablish the Knights down there. The one guy to watch is WR/DB Tim Smith. When a West Virginia site is calling Smith a Rutgers/WVU battle, chances are he could very well land in Piscataway.

“The school that’s on him the most in Rutgers,” Hutchings said, adding that RU recruiters have been to watch Smith play this fall.

Other names to watch include Ace Sanders and Jeremi Wilkes. As always the pay sites will likely have far more information about the many other visitors.

Now, 12/12 is on the backburner somewhat with all the names expected to attend on the fifth, but the following weekend will bring visits from the likes of Tejay Johnson.

Johnson is juggling EHT’s playoff run with the demands of being a college recruit. Nebraska, Cincinnati, Michigan State, Rutgers and Syracuse have offered him scholarships. He has visited Nebraska and Cincinnati and plans to visit Rutgers on Dec. 12.

ZAGSBLOG echoes earlier reports about T.J. Clemmings being down to Pitt, Ohio State, and Florida.

FL DE Giorgio Newberry is a new 2011 offer in the Scout database. In 0ther ‘11 news, St. Peter’s Prep DB Sheldon Royster picked up an offer from West Virginia. Neptune RB Charles Davis will soon start taking a few unofficial visits. West Virginia is one of the teams following PA ATH Terrell Chestnut.

Watchlist: Taj Alexander, Myles Jackson, Tyrone Johnson, Doug Rigg, Artie Rowell, John Shkreli, Nate Smith, and James Timmins.

11/17 Recruiting Update

Yes, I know the board needs work. I’ll get to it eventually, and it doesn’t help that I’ve been having some formattting issues with it.

This doesn’t come as much of a surprise, but Rutgers will honor Sam Bergen’s scholarship.

He was worried about a scholarship offer from Rutgers 20 days before he blew out his anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee on Oct. 30. Rutgers coach Greg Schiano told Bergen within days that his scholarship was safe.

“When this knee happened, I wasn’t sure at first what was going to happen with Rutgers,” said Bergen, who will undergo surgery on his right knee to repair his torn ACL Nov. 24. “They’re really great coaches and a great program. They did the right thing. That makes me like Rutgers even more.”

HS football playoffs are underway throughout the country, and Chas Dodd and Byrnes continue to roll on, to the tune of 257 yards and 3 TDs in a blowout win. Truthfully, I’m more impressed by what Jordan Thomas has been doing. He’s been out of this world. J.T. Tartacoff’s Montgomery squad was bounced against Howell, although he played well.

The latest on South Carolina RB Mustafa Greene is that he’ll be one of many out of state players visiting campus for a big recruiting weekend when West Virginia comes to town on December 5th.

RB Mustafa Green (6-1 200) of Irmo will take an official to Rutgers on December 4 and now plans to visit NC State shortly after. “Those are the two schools recruiting me the hardest right now,” said Green. “I’m also hearing a lot from Illinois and Syracuse.”

other players on campus include Maryland lineman Shane Johnson

Johnson has set official visits with Rutgers for December 4th and Pitt December 11th. He’s looking at USC, Cal, Wake Forest and several others for his final three visits. He has not taken any unofficial visits this season, and he does not have a favorite.

with WR Brandon Coleman and DB Lorenzo Waters in tow, and prospects like Devon Wright, and Jeremi Wilkes from Florida. Wilkes recently said the following:

“I have a visit set up next week for Syracuse (11-20). I will visit Rutgers (12-4) in December. I am setting up a visit for Louisville and I know I will visit Troy and Iowa.”

Thanks to nik12 on SoR for linking to this NY Post story about 2011 prospect Ishaq Williams.

Ishaq Williams is one of the most feared defensive players in New York City. He’s a playmaker on offense. Lincoln coach Shawn O’Connor calls him “a great leader” and next in the line of blue-chip Railsplitters defenders. He’s an A student with scholarship offers from Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Maryland and Rutgers.

Other new 2011 names to watch are Andrew Campolattano from Bound Brook, and Darius Jennings from Maryland, who are now listed as holding offers in the Scout database.

Also, fresh from Kristian Dyer comes an update on 2011 super-prospect Savon Huggins out of St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City, and ESPN has another update on 2011 FL ATH Mike Blakely.

PA ATH Brandon Ifill is holding firm on only visiting Pittsburgh and Maryland. Smart money is on the Panthers there.

Watchlist: Jamal Abdur-Rahman, Ricardo Allen, Kyshoen Jarrett, Tony Jones, Ish Mack, Sean Reaver, Doug Rigg, Ace Sanders, James Timmins, and Will Tye.

10/10 Recruiting Update

I don’t know if there is a connection between Sam Bergen’s injury, and the decision to offer a scholarship to Sayreville LB Dave Milewski, but the timing is interesting, even if he grows into an end. Either way, he’s the latest verbal commitment to Rutgers. NJ.com posted a Milewski highlights package last week. He wasn’t really on the national recruiting radar until recently, so I don’t know enough about Dave to give any further thoughts at the moment.

326 yards and 5 TDs for Chas Dodd on the week.

Jordan Thomas rushed for 155 yards and a TD as Union-Endicott topped Binghamton.

J.T. Tartacoff hauled in a touchdown grab in Montgomery’s loss to Basking Ridge.

State of Rutgers is going premium soon, so you may want to read their recent articles on 2011 prospects Hakeem Flowers, Teddy Bridgewater, and Tanner McEvoy (unlike the first two, a realistic if not likely target) while you can. It’ll be interesting to see how SoR compares with Rivals and Scout once their premium service goes online.

Per the premium sites, 2011 NJ athlete Damiere Byrd picked up a Rutgers offer. Standout shore RB Charles Davis is still high on Rutgers.

“Rutgers is definitely a favorite,” he said. “Basically I’ve been really looking at them and Virginia. With Rutgers, the coaching staff is great from what I know about them. I’ve been around the campus a little bit and it’s very nice. I’ve heard they’re also strong in what I want to go to school for (criminal justice).”

Florida athlete Jeremy Deering injured his collarbone last Friday, and is set to undergo surgery next week. Per the report, one Rutgers assistant was in attendance on the night. DT Richard Ash visited UCLA over the weekend.

The latest update on Maryland DB Lorenzo Waters says he’s open, and has only looked hard at Wake Forest.

Paul Franklin asks whether changing demographics in North Edison are hurting J.P. Stevens football.

Soft Minnesota CB verbal Jabari Price switched to UNC. FL DT Antonio Ford committed to Wake Forest. I’m not happy about TE Jarrett Darmstatter committing to BC. It’s a hard sell when you’re playing two freshmen, and redshirting two more, but I think he’s going to be good. FL CB Keion Payne committed to Miami.

Watchlist: Bill Belton, Devin Fuller, Kevin Hogan, Jonathan Jenkins, T.J. Mutcherson, Gary Nova, Miles Shuler, and Chris Valenti.

11/3 Recruiting Update

Bad news; LB commit Sam Bergen injured his knee.

Chas Dodd passed for 294 yards and 5 TDs in his most recent game.

It was a good week for Jordan Thomas too.

The Courier News named J.T. Tartacoff as one of their top players of the decade.

When will MD WR Brandon Coleman make it to campus for his official visit?

“I have scheduled my first official,” he said. “It’s set to be on the first weekend of December up to Rutgers.”

It’s unclear whether Florida RB Jawan Jamison has an offer, but he sounds high on Rutgers.

“The Rutgers coach called my mom and wants me to come up for a game,” he said. “We are trying to figure out if there is a game I can go to without getting into trouble.” He says Rutgers is telling him he could play as a freshman. “They put Ray Rice in the NFL and, if you look at his stats at Rutgers, they got him the ball over 30 times a game,” said Jamison. “They say they want to use me like that.”

Agh, Mustafa Greene just returned and is injured again.

In additions to updates on 2011 targets Cyrus Kouandijo, Trip Thurman, and Angelo Mangiro, State of Rutgers also has a few comments on ‘10 commit Jorge Vicioso by a teammate.

NJ.com has a video feature up on elite 2011 RB prospect Savon Huggins.

Unfortunately, ‘11 Neptune RB Charles Davis broke his wrist.

Scout is now showing an offer out to Florida athlete Devon Wright, who didn’t make his recent scheduled visit to Minnesota.

FL WR O.J. Ross is a soft verbal to Purdue. FL RB Eduardo Clements committed to Miami.

Watchlist: Martize Barr, Damiere Byrd, Conor Hanratty, Andrew Opoku, Kendall Patterson, Anthony Sarao, and Miles Shuler (informative, more so than what I usually link here).

10/27 Recruiting Update

There has been a lot of good content lately on State of Rutgers; better read all you that can before the paywall goes up. As to not steal their thunder, I’ll just link to a couple of new articles, including one on Casey Turner (apparently a new RB offer out of FL, still waiting for additional confirmation), Terrell Chestnut, Charles Davis, Savon Huggins, and VA S Ronnie Van Dyke (new offer) from the class of 2011, Brian Robinson, Mustafa Greene, and an enlightening article on verbal commit Marcus Thompson.

Jordan Thomas is Mr. Clutch. I don’t see Chas Dodd overtaking Tom Savage, even though he is putting up big numbers in Byrnes’s spread offense. Only 124 yards on the week for Dodd? What a bust. Bad game for J.T. Tartacoff as Westfield blew out Montgomery.

Not much info here, but the Charlotte Observer pegs Mustafa Greene to the Scarlet Knights.

Florida corner Johnnie Simon claims to have received a verbal offer from Rutgers (after mostly focusing on MAC schools up to this point), with a written one still on the way.

“Coach (Brian) Jenkins called me and asked me how I’d like playing cornerback, because they need corners. I told him I’d rather play safety, but I can learn how to play corner too. He said they were sending one (offer) in the mail.”

CB Jabari Price is open, and will take his visits (video). The Scout database is now showing an offer out to 2011 Florida DE B.J. Dubose. Another new 2011 offer is RB Mike Blakely. It’s a longshot, but maybe keep an eye on LB Christian Jones. ATH Tarean Austin favors USF.

In a sad story, a 2011 prospect from Staten Island who was reportedly starting to receive some interest from Rutgers died in a car accident last week.

With a whole lotta commits (and decommits), now Stanford is in the spotlight for its recruiting class this year.

FL RB Gio Bernard committed to Notre Dame. MD OL Robbie Havenstein committed to Wisconsin. For anyone wondering, Malcolm Yowk is off to Delaware, and did not have a commitable offer from Rutgers (or Stanford, for that matter).

Watchlist: Bill Belton, Cole Farrand, Dan Foesel, Antoine Pozniak, Doug Rigg (2), Nate Smith, and Dustin Thomas.

10/20 Recruiting Update

I think that things will start to heat up as we get deeper into the fall. It’s still very early. As I’ve reiterated numerous times, what matters is that the staff makes good evaluations and lands their top targets, and nothing else. Last year was a bit of an aberration in the sense that the Rutgers staff usually around this time of the year intensifies their Florida recruiting, while also evaluating some of the new senior film from prospects that they had been watching in search of late bloomers.

Case in point would be the renewed interest by Florida DT Richard Ash. I hadn’t even heard of Tim Smith before, and he looks like a pretty good prospect too. RB Jakhari Gore is another name, although he seems to be favoring LSU (and a lot of his offers are in question). Athlete Jeremy Deering has scheduled a visit to UNC.

There were nice recent features lately on RU commits Jawaun Wynn and Jordan Thomas. 263 yards, 5 TDs for Chas Dodd in another day at the office.

The whole Malcolm Cater situation is worth monitoring. Link is to the same SoR thread I linked last week, cause that’s the only free discussion I know of on the topic.

Sharrif Floyd isn’t mentioning RU as of late.

Rutgers is out with PA S Brandon Ifill, who’s down to Pitt and MD.

Helicopters offer style and convenience for recruiting players.

The Scout database is now listing 2011 Delaware lineman Trip Thurman as holding a Rutgers offer. Another new one is Good Counsel athlete Vincent Croce (I think the article spelled his name wrong) out of Maryland.

Paul Franklin’s GMC All-Decade team is an interesting read.

Watchlist: Sean Daniels, Quentin Gause, Criston Gill, Kevin Hogan, Ishmil Mack, Ryan Morris, Dillon Romain, Antoine Pozniak, Anthony Sarao, and Darrius Webb.