From reading what’s out there on the ACC side, it looked like the most likely scenario for the Meineke Bowl was Rutgers vs. Miami, and that’s what Keith Sargeant is reporting now, and that the contingency plan is Birmingham again. Whew…It was a mistake for projector to be so literal and project Rutgers to Toronto. The Big East has shown in the past that they’ll step in here, which is ultimately why USF could be staying home against UCF.

Tim Brown has more at stake than just his prospects for making the jump to the pros next year.

Kudos to Steven Williamson, who set the record straight on Rutgers student athletes.

Carter, a linebacker for the Scarlet Knights, can do two things that seem unfathomably difficult to someone like me:
1) He is a linebacker for the Knights.
2) He’s going to be a doctor.
Carter said the following in an interview before committing to the University to play football:
“My mom always asks me, ‘If you get injured tomorrow and can never play football again, is the school you pick still the same place you want to be for college?’ I take that to heart. I’m looking towards majoring in pre-med; I might do biology, bioengineering or organic chemistry, something in that area. I’d like to get into the medical field, so I’ll need a background in a variety of places so I do well on my MCATs.”

Vote Kenny Britt for NFL Rookie of the Week. Kudos to posters on Rivals for finding Haslam and DMC on the Shrine Game roster list. Still a chance DMC could go to the Senior Bowl. There was also a thread about Kevin Malast possibly making it on the Chicago PS, but I haven’t been able to find anything about that. Joe Porter had a visit with the Vikings yesterday, but no tryout.

Understandably, Ray Rice is popular column fodder this week. LeonardBlog status: updated.

Joe Susan isn’t the only candidate for the next Princeton head coach. I’m not speculating about potential replacements yet because that would be way too premature.

Jon Rothstein from MSG has a new interview up with Coach Hill.

Piph Prince is adjusting to life as a pro in Turkey.

Rutgers Stadium announcer Joe Nolan celebrates his thirtieth year on the air.

That’s all for now…I have a lot more that I want to get to this week, if time permits.

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.

He commented,

Please … do you really believe that RU did that much more homework on a kid with his size than any other D-1 program? There are no secrets in PA or NJ.

There are no secrets at Don Bosco or St. Peter’s Prep, but Rutgers found Steve Beauharnais at a small school, before he transferred to St. Joe’s and was the best defender in Bergen County last year. Similarly, I don’t care at all that Betim Bujari and J.T. Tartacoff don’t have any other offers. Both committed very early and were certain to receive more. They’re pretty solid bets for this class, as are Marcus Thompson and Jawaun Wynn. Bergen too, if he’s healthy. Of the current commits, the guy I’m most excited about though is Jordan Thomas, who combines the total package of a scouting pedigree and a ridiculously productive seniro season.

With Alexander, he’s a complete mystery due to supposedly growing 50 lbs and 5 inches in the past year. Given how the Philly Inquirer lavished praise on him in that article I linked last week, he presumably has had a big senior season, and the staff are the ones watching his film and seeing his games in person. I don’t know if commits like Alexander or Milewski will be good or bad, there’s very little to go on either way. There’s nothing at all to go on besides their supposed big senior seasons. With linemen in general, you have to take into account that the bust rate on even the top prospects is very, very high.

Now, where this argument may fit is with Chas Dodd. Even though he continues to pile up gaudy statistics, it’s telling that nearly every FBS school east of the Mississippi River has film of South Carolina powerhouse Byrnes, and Rutgers remains his only FBS offer. Dodd’s numbers certainly owe a lot to his ridiculous supporting cast (nearly every opponent is overmatched), and pass-friendly spread scheme. Now, he could turn into Chase Daniel, but for every success like that, there are many reaches that don’t pan out. Lots of big name prospects will bust too.

Me, I don’t really like quarterbacks with Dodd’s skillset as potential starters; I prefer the more traditional pocket QBs like Joe Brennan, even though there’s a case for wanting a backup that brings a change of pace to the offense. There is always a place for a kid who can scramble a little and has good accuracy. Now, the staff could have had Brennan if they wanted, and chose Dodd, so that does have to impact any evaluations here. They’re not always right, but do have a fairly decent track record. I would have chosen Brennan for the above reason, and because he was a bigger name, and a local, I think he would have done a better job of enticing other local prospects this year.

Either way, between a down year for quarterbacks, and the widespread (and correct) belief that Tom Savage has a stranglehold on the Rutgers starting job, it probably wasn’t realistic to nab that good of a prospect behind him this year, although we could have used one with the depth issues at the position. Next year though, Rutgers definitely needs to recruit one if not several big arms who have a shot at being the quarterback of the future after Savage heads out the door. That’s why I follow recruiting; not to obsess over stars and rankings, but it is important to know who exactly is coming down the pike.

When it comes to any fan disappointment with this year’s class, it’s absolutely ridiculous to judge it until the staff actually starts to bring some prospects on campus for official visits, especially with some recruiting weekends coming up soon. Many good names are still left on the board, and more are coming into the picture on a daily basis. Plus, you never know what’ll happen with decommitments and such, and there’s bound to be some turnover resulting from the coaching carousel.

As nice it would be to bring in the cream of the crop, Rutgers hasn’t gotten very many of those guys at any point in its history. What’s truly essential is to land those bread and butter, middle of the road guys. It wasn’t very long ago that those players were spurning RU and heading out of state. Fans were a little spoiled by last year, which combined having a blue chip QB in Savage to help recruit all the other prospects, and a bountiful crop in New Jersey.

Between limited ships, and the down ‘10 class, I never expected to do as well this year, although RU has missed on a few players that I thought would be Knights (which happens every year, as do pleasant surprises). Still, it’s early. Also, I want to make clear that despite my obvious interest in the topic of recruiting, it’s important to remember that it’s only part of the equation. That’s why Charlie Weis is out of a job today. The coaching staff makes the final call about which players to go after, which is evidenced by the fact that they haven’t even offered so many of the supposed top local players according to Rivals and Scout. For this year to be a success, the coaching staff needs to fill assorted future roster needs (especially on the OL, RB, and WR), and land a good portion of players that they had identified as top targets and important gets.

This Saturday’s home finale is Senior Day, and that means the last ever game at Rutgers Stadium for the following seniors:

Billy Anderson (walk-on)
Blair Bines
Ryan Blaszczyk
Pat Brown (walk-on)
Tim Brown
Jack Corcoran
Andrew DePaola (walk-on)
Ryan D’Imperio
Kevin Haslam
George Johnson
Zaire Kitchen
Jabu Lovelace
Devin McCourty (whoops, left him off at first)
Damaso Munoz
Dom Natale

There’s also the matter of fourth year juniors who may not be invited back for another season on scholarship (note: I’ve given up guessing on walk-ons like Dumont and Barbieri because I have no idea whether they’re on ship or not). Kordell Young will certainly attempt another comeback, and Teddy Dellaganna, Shamar Graves, Julian Hayes, Charlie Noonan, and probably Sorie Bayoh, Edmond Laryea, and Hoagie Morales will return for another season.

Bayoh has played a little, although he’ll probably be passed on the depth chart by several underclassmen next year. As to Laryea and Morales, it’s hard to say because Rutgers used the fullback so little as is this year, and Corcoran gets most of those snaps. Have to think that one of not both will return though. That leaves offensive linemen Marlon Romulus and Mo Lange as the most likely bets not to return for a fifth year. Either could be a second-string guard though, so who knows. Please be aware that this is 100% speculation, and it’s very difficult to get accurate information about the second and third strings on the depth chart.

Anyway, I’d like to single out Blaze, Haslam, Lovelace, DMC, and Munoz (technically Natale too, but he was a transfer in) as the last remaining members of the 2005 recruiting class. What’s so notable about this group (including Ray Rice, Tiquan Underwood, Jason McCourty, Glenroy Lee, Kevin Malast, Pete Tverdov, Darnell Stapleton, and Gary Watts who are no longer on the team) is that they were the last Rutgers football class to place their trust in the program when it was just a promise, more than a decade removed from their last winning record. For these remaining fifth year seniors, all they’ve known at Rutgers has been winning, which is quite a remarkable accomplishment.

It’s just one of those flukey things that the ‘05 class turned out to have so many big contributors. In fact, at the time it was considered a disaster and a major setback for the program. ‘05 was believed to be one of the best years for New Jersey talent in some time. Greg Schiano and staff had high hopes coming off their promising ‘03 campaign, and set their sites on keeping some of the state’s top talent at home. A disasterous 4-7 season led to a class that was universally panned, but turned out fantastic in retrospect.

On Saturday, the five remaining ‘05 signees deserve their own special round of applause. Everyone should also take a moment and thank their lucky stars that the likes of Rice, Stapleton, and Tverdov and others believed in Rutgers football when it was not very easy to see or imagine daylight. They showed remarkable courage, and their determination paid off in the end.

Keith Sargeant had a very informative post yesterday about RU’s bowl prospects. Basically, the Meineke Bowl wants nothing, at all, to do with Pittsburgh (if they lose to Cincinnati), echoing their comments from last year. Something clearly has to give with the other bowls. Rutgers beat USF and UConn this year, but unfortunately the International Bowl picks first even though all three teams would rather go to St. Pete or Birmingham. Based on the belief that UConn won’t go to Toronto again (although they could go to Detroit), and that USF won’t be sent to cold weather, many projections floating around the net have Rutgers heading back to Toronto. I don’t see how Rutgers would stand for that though. It’s quite a stalemate, which is all the more reason to play well on Saturday.

I am a bit confused about one part of it though. The Meineke Bowl may indeed want Miami, but will they have the opportunity to take the Canes? They may not, because the Peach and Champs Sports bowls get their pick of the ACC before Meineke, and Miami to the Orlando-based Champs Bowl seems to be a natural fit.

Complicating matters is that even though nearly everyone in Morgantown and Blacksburg believed over the past week that West Virginia and VT would end up playing in Charlotte or Jacksonville, it now looks like the Peach Bowl wants the Hokies.

Now, that doesn’t matter in the sense that West Virginia is a near certainty to go to the Gator Bowl because of their fan support, even if it means jumping a one-loss Cincinnati team. However, the ACC lineup could portend trouble for RU’s chances to land in Charlotte. For instance, suppose UNC ends up playing in that game again. Not only would a Rutgers/UNC game be unappealing considering that the two teams played last year, and are set to meet again in 2010, but UNC would sell enough tickets to the game that Pittsburgh’s reputation for anemic fan support may not matter. Miami and Clemson are good fits for Rutgers though, and it looks like either UNC or Miami will get the bid.

One further complication that I don’t understand: could a 6-6 FSU team jump BC and their worst-in-FBS travelling contingent for the Meineke bid, once again exiling the Eagles to San Francisco? I didn’t think it was possible because of NCAA regulations about 6-6 teams having to wait behind winning teams, but the Charlotte Observer does not think so.

I wrote that last night, but now comes word that the Gator Bowl has designs on inviting Florida State, even though it would seem to be precluded by their contract. It’s not like we already didn’t know that some very sketchy and unethical people run that bowl, and hopefully they’ll be shut down like the Sun Bowl was last year.

Fans of the Rutgers football and basketball teams may not necessarily be paying attention to the new coaching vacation in the men’s soccer program, following the resignation of Bob Reasso, but they should be. For one thing, this hire will be the first hint at how the new athletic director Tim Pernetti will operate.

Reasso had an awful lot of success early in his tenure (does the name Alexi Lalas ring a bell?), but the soccer program had fallen into mediocrity in recent seasons. That shouldn’t have happened; as with many sports, New Jersey is a hot bed for high school soccer, and too many of the top local players have been leaving the state in recent years. I know that there has been a lot of alumni discontent about the state of the men’s soccer and lacrosse programs. There’s sure to be a lot of speculation out there regarding the exact circumstances of what exactly went down with Reasso’s departure.

For better or worse, Greg Schiano has pretty much established the blueprint for future hires at Rutgers University. New Jersey is parochial; the Rutgers community wants, no, demands a local. When a Hall of Famer like C. Vivian Stringer isn’t available, that is. The strategy hasn’t worked out with Fred Hill, but it seems to be so far with Scott Goodale and the wrestling team.

Reasso’s critics have long coveted St. John’s coach Dave Masur, a New Jersey native and Rutgers alum, so it’s of little surprise that Dylan Butler of the NY Post immediately fingered Masur as the prime candidate. There has been plenty of debate over the years about whether he could be lured back to Piscataway. We saw with Chris Hill in last year’s A.D. search that Rutgers alumni may not necessarily always want to return to the banks. The backup candidate is presumably Monmouth coach Robert McCourt. Butler does also mention several other candidates.

Stephen Edelson from Gannett echoes that hierarchy. Methinks that if sources are willing to tell him that Masur is on the top of the wishlist, presumably Tim must think that there’s a strong possibility of pulling this off.

I don’t follow soccer, but I will be closely following further developments with an eye on how the athletic department operates going forward. My intuition is that we can overhaul one program a year. Last year was wrestling, now it’s soccer, and year by year, Pernetti is going to try and put his stamp on the other underperforming programs, righting the ship and putting them on the path towards excellence.

Boy, it sure does seem like Ray saves his best for games against the city of Pittsburgh. Between Rice’s standout performance on Sunday night football, and Kenny Britt’s incredible game-winning reception, yesterday was a very good day for Rutgers alumni in the NFL. Watching Foster and Brackett win with the Colts, and Brian Leonard with the Bengals was an added bonus. Tim Pernetti and Greg Schiano couldn’t have scripted it any better themselves.

What’s really interesting about Rice’s NFL success is how he’s doing it. From college, we all remember the crazy little kid who played like he was Brandon Jacobs or Earl Campbell. It’s no wonder that Rice fell to the second round of the 2008 draft, based off concerns about his lack of size, limited top-end speed, and overuse in college. The naysayers questioned whether his running style would even be effective in the NFL, or how much longevity he’d have in a league where backs are disposable to begin with.

Well, we started to get a hint of the direction Rice was headed with his play as a junior two years ago, where Rice started to emerge as a receiving threat. Last year in Baltimore, he actually started to draw comparisons to Brian Westbrook, which had to give anyone who remembered Ray from on the banks a double take. What do you know, it turns out that Rice has started to emerge as an all-purpose threat out of the backfield as a runner AND a receiver, third in the NFL in total yards from scrimmage.

There’s one important distinction to draw though between Rice and other recent receiving threats like Westbrook or Tiki Barber. What truly made Rice so special as a runner (which I pointed out several weeks back with my argument as to why he wasn’t very similar to Dion Lewis) more than anything else was Rice’s consistent ability to keep the chains moving. It’s not enough to just pile up raw statistics, as success in the NFL is correlated to factors like converting first downs. Willis McGahee may keep poaching Rice’s touchdown opportunities, but he’s clearly one of the most valuable young stars in the NFL. Between his stellar play, unquestioned work ethic, and humble personality, there really isn’t anything negative to say about Rice.

I mean, when Ray Lewis of all people is giving endorsements after the game like

You know I tell you what, I’ll tell you the craziest thing about everything is we feed off each other so much. You know, me and him, we have a special special bond and I tell every time we are about to do something in the game we just touch each other and just give each other energy. When I’m out there he’s in my head, and when he’s out there I’m in his head. Man and this guy from college, man, the respect, man, I always had for him it doesn’t get no better. The most humblest guy I ever met in my life, man, and to see his spirit, to see him play, no just athlete gonna make those plays. It takes heart, it takes will, and and man, I can’t praise him enough. It’s just overwhelming to be on a team with this young man.

Well, there you have it. Couldn’t have said it better myself.

edit: some killer quotes from Peter King’s MMQB column this morning. Schiano should be bombarding every recruit on the East Coast with these.

“Every day, my coach, Greg Schiano, and my offensive coordinator, John McNulty, would be on me about my focus. I’d drop one, and they’d be like, ‘Focus! Focus!’ That’s what I kept thinking about when I knew the ball might come to me. “

Jarrett Brown, West Virginia’s senior starting quarterback, has had an up and down season. He torched East Carolina, and followed that game up by throwing 4 interceptions at Auburn. After Brown was hurt against Marshall, it was up to Noel Devine to save the day against UConn, and then the offense slogged through uninspiring performances against USF and Louisville. Given that Pat White may be the most beloved player in Mountaineer history, it may have been asking too much for anyone to fill his shoes.

Rutgers fans have reason to fear Brown though. With White out, Brown started at QB in an absolutely gut-wrenching overtime loss in Morgantown at the end of the 2006 regular season. It was no 80-7, but that loss arguably stung more, with Rutgers not only failing to secure a conference title during its best season in decades, but eventually relegated (once again) to a second-tier bowl against an overmatched opponent. I’m going to put the frustration angle aside for now, because it’s sure to come up more during the week.

Here’s a thought that may sound heretical, but I do have a very specific reasoning for it, so hear me out. There’s no debate that White was an incredible player, and was far superior to Brown. However, for that one specific game, I would have rather played White. The Rutgers defense traditionally has had a lot of speed under Greg Schiano, and they’ve had a decent amount of experience defending the different flavors of option/spread-option. In 2006, the one achilles heel of the defense was in the secondary. Rutgers ranked 69th in defensive pass effiency, despite finishing fifth in sacks and tackles for loss, and 17th in total rushing defense (surrendering less than three yards per carry, a good number albeit undoubtedly scouted by specific schemes and personnel).

Now, Steve Slaton ran for his customary 112 yards and 2 touchdowns, but that wasn’t honestly that bad considering that he averaged 7 yards per carry on the year, and put up comic book numbers against the rest of the schedule. USF (another defense emphasizing speed) was the only team that fared better against the elite Mountaineer rushing attack, and they always have West Virginia’s number, just like Rutgers always beats USF, and West Virginia always beats us. Rochambeau.

Now, as amazing an overall player as Pat White was, I didn’t think much of him as a passer. He had a lot of screens to backs, and had a big arm for the deep ball, but didn’t have much accuracy on the intermediate stuff. Purely in terms of passing, Brown is better. West Virginia had only 305 pass attempts last year, and they’re already at 308 with two games remaining. Brown’s overall line on the night (1 TD, 1 INT, completed less than 50% of his passes) wasn’t that impressive, but he did throw for 8.4 yards per attempt. That indicates many long completions, and I recall a lot of them coming on third and longs. I’m not saying that Brown is anywhere near as good as White (although he is a decent player), or that Rutgers would have necessarily won that game against White. I will always be curious as to how things would have unfolded though.

The Titans shouldn’t have let Kenny Britt stew on the bench behind their mediocre veteran receivers for two months, while the team stumbled on the way to an 0-6 start.

Greg Auman reported last week that the St. Pete Bowl was likely to invite Rutgers or UConn (barring the outcomes of next week’s games). Technically, the International (Toronto) and PapaJohn’s.com (Birmingham) bowls have first dibs before St. Pete, but my understanding is that, in practice, the Big East office works with the three to set up the best logistical matchups (a point echoed by Auman). Hence, they don’t want to send a team to the same game two years in a row, and want to avoid sending a team like USF all the way to Canada.

I think that Rutgers is likely to get the nod over UConn for several reasons if it came down to those two teams. Rutgers won the head to head matchup (although, UConn may very well be the better team this year…), they’re a bigger name, hail from a bigger media market, and have a better travelling reputation. Now, on Wednesday, an Orlando Sentinel blogger reported that UConn was unlikely to accept any bid to the St. Pete bowl if it was offered, as it conflicts with their finals schedule. Does that mean they’re ticketed for Toronto (or a trade with Detroit?) However, Dec. 19th falls right in the middle of the Rutgers finals too. I have to think that Rutgers would absolutely not turn St. Pete considering the other options, although this is one more reason to try to win next week, because the bowl in Charlotte is on the 26th.

Yes, I am completely discounting the possibility of a Notre Dame win over Stanford, which could further throw a wrench into things.