RU signee Djwany Mera has a wrestling background, which undoubtedly made him a more attractive prospect in Coach Schiano’s eyes.

Several future Rutgers walk-ons stepped by last week’s chat on State of Rutgers.

Moving onto 2011, the premium sites are reporting more new offers by the day, and that pace should continue for the time being. New reported offers (or ones that I hadn’t yet noticed until now) include Bosco QB Gary Nova, Florida WR Bo Brand, Union City OL Josue Matias, St. Peter’s OL Keith Lumpkin, Scranton OL Kevin Reihner, Florida OL Jordan Prestwood, Sayreville DT Daryl Stephenson, NY DL Kieran Borcich, Florida LB Tony Steward, and MD ATH Jamal Merritt. Add Orlando QB Jeff Driskel to the list too.

There was a linemen camp at the Rutgers bubble yesterday, and Rivals has a few details on the event. Several RU targets like Trip Thurman were mentioned in that.

Absecon Holy Spirit linebacker Anthony Sarao is expected to be one of the top prospects in the state next year, continuing in the tradition of past alumni like Marcus Witherspoon.

“I’m really kind of done with combines,” he said. “I’m waiting ‘til the summer, and then I’ll go to a couple of camps and get out as much as I can.

“I want to verbally commit before my season if I can, just to get it out of the way. I would at least like to have it narrowed to five schools or three schools … something like that.”

The one shoe yet to drop with next year’s class is Penn State, who traditionally get off to a slower start than other programs. This article on their future recruiting plans has some interesting tidbits on how many scholarships PSU is prepared to accept, along with info on prospects like TE Ben Koyack and ATH Terrell Chestnut out of PA. As usual, they’ll be going after many of the same players as Rutgers.

Lineman Anthony Mangiro, running back Savon Huggins and safety Sheldon Royster – all from New Jersey – probably won’t have to wait long to receive their official offers; Huggins and Royster are teammates at St. Peter’s Prep. The same can be said for Bishop McDevitt tailback Jameel Poteat.

SPP Coach Rich Hansen appeared on Tom Lemming’s show with several of his juniors like Royster and Huggins on Signing Day.

The other competition in the East aren’t sitting on their thumbs either. The Wannstache has been getting around.

Last week, University of Pittsburgh head football coach Dave Wannstedt visited northeast Pennsylvania.

He met with Scranton Prep lineman Kevin Reihner and Delaware Valley lineman Brandon Clemons, who both have already been extended scholarship offers from the Big East school.

Remember that Junior Day video from a few weeks back? There’s another one up on YouTube, which appears to be from someone with ties to the Shuler family. That same user has other vids up, including a Charles Davis highlight package, and one from BC’s Junior Day.

Rutgers is one of several programs involved early with Virginia prospect Dominique Terrell. Clemson commit Cortez Davis is still open, and considering several offers including Rutgers. Hakeem Flowers doesn’t seem to be mentioning RU.

The Orlando Sentinel has an early 2011 ranking of the top 100 prospects in Florida, and the top 60 in central Florida.

Bergen Catholic HC Fred Stengel is stepping down.

As has been mentioned here before, Bill Connelly from Football Outsiders has been looking into the efficacy of recruiting rankings lately, following up on his initial foray on the subject in last year’s FO Almanac. He had an article about signing day on ESPN Insider last week, which I haven’t read. He covers similar ground in this Washington Post podcast segment, which I need to listen to soon. I did ask Bill last week about that OU study that I always bring up, and he wasn’t yet aware of it at that time.

Watchlist: Garrett Clark, William Connelly, Kyshoen Jarrett (worth reading), Drew Loughery, and Antoine Young.

FYI, I’m still working on my ‘10 class recap, but time’s limited right now. Will post that as soon as it’s finished and readable. No, I’m not sitting on any updates about the coaching vacancies or anything else. One of the names I speculated about for Tight Ends, Bob Price, is apparently shifting to an administrative role at UVA. I noticed that article because their new QB coach, Bill Lazor, used to be with the Seahawks, and probably was Mike Teel’s advocate in Seattle.

Unfortunately, wrestling’s showdown with the powerhouse Lehigh program over the weekend was postponed because of the big storm. The up and down season for the women’s taem continues with a win over USF in Tampa. Which you’d know, if you had been keeping track with Brittany Ray’s blog. Don’t really care much about the men losing to Louisville by double digits. If the smoke monster imitating Fred Hill wants to keep its job, beating Georgetown on Sunday would be a start.

The Schianocopter should watch its back, because a booster just donated a private plane to the USF program. Internet bloggers are searching for it on Flight Aware as you read this sentence.

Things are slow right now, so of course the boards aren’t happy about Phil Mushnick complaining that Rutgers signed as many prospects from Florida as New Jersey in the NY Post. Well, at least the NY press is paying attention to RU football. If any other good can come from that, it’s that Graystork came out of hibernation to post another invective. I said good day sir!

Yesterday, Jack Corcoran posted the second entry in his draft blog – focusing on his postseason training and Sunday’s Super Bowl. Steve Politi posted a Q&A with Brandon Renkart before the game on Saturday. From JoeBucsFan, here’s a picture of Eric Foster captivating media row in Miami with his bad singing.

Football season may be over, but that just means that spring training’s right around the corner. Todd Frazier loves Bruce Springsteen and Manny Ramirez, and of course wants to make the Reds this year.

Former Rutgers HC Doug Graber retired from Stan Parrish’s staff at Ball State.

NJN has video up of their interview with Pres. McCormick that aired on Sunday. Didn’t get a chance to view that one as I normally would, but I hope to soon.

Changes may be afoot with several of the senior postseason all-star games. Texas vs. the Nation is looking for a new home next year, and the Shrine Game may be kaput entirely. Maybe that’s just posturing, or it’ll be replaced by another game, but scouts and prospects both really need these showcases. The Texas game was able to gain a foothold right away with the demise of the Hula Bowl several years back.

The New Jersey Assembly will soon consider a legislative proposal to legalize sports gambling in New Jersey. As the article notes, the bill can only take effect with a favorable ruling from the federal Supreme Court on Sen. Ray Lesniak’s lawsuit. Betting would probably be a net positive for the state’s perilous fiscal situation, but any proposal is sure to anger the NCAA and other organizations.

On a somewhat related note, the Star-Ledger is suing the NJSEA to release contract documents.

If there’s one thing you can count on from UConn’s Randy Edsall, is that he’ll use his bully pulpit at every and all opportunities to smother the  hysteria surrounding the college football recruiting process with a wet blanket. That was the case once again last week at Edsall’s signing day presser.

“It’s all very stupid, in my opinion,” he said. “For anyone to go out and rank classes, and to evaluate thousands and thousands and thousands of kids that are 17 and 18 years old, and think they’re going to watch all this film and put a ranking on them, it’s propaganda. And it’s one of the things that’s ruining the game, in my opinion.”

“It’s ruining kids. I just hope some people come to their senses soon and does something about the recruiting process because we’re in this to help young people and this process isn’t helping young people. It’s hurting them.”

Oh Randy. Can’t it be that maybe Rivals and Scout and ESPN do go overboard, and are flawed in many aspects, but that doesn’t justify throwing out the baby with the bathwater?

UConn’s had a lot of success as of late, and the scouting services had never even heard of the majority of their commits. It’s a testament to the coaching staff’s talent evaluation, and their ability to develop athletes once they arrive on campus. Year after year UConn’s dismissed, and they keep proving their critics wrong, and keep sending players to the NFL. It’s easy to understand the chip on their shoulder; Rutgers sees that too to a lesser extent. Like I told Kevin from the UConn blog a few months back, they’re the Amish, and we’re Mennonites, arguing over whether it’s ok to use a gas-powered tractor (or as happens in this case, a helicopter) while the rest of college football is exploding in a rapture of vice. In this analogy Joe Paterno is Martin Luther, since they’re about the same age anyway.

Given all of that, why should everyone around the UConn program pay heed at all to what the recruiting services have to say? Around the country, fans are certain programs are evaluating coaching staffs by how well their classes are subjectively rated by these sites, instead of how those players end up performing on the field. That’s probably the only reason why Ron Zook still has a job, right? Edsall, Schiano, and other good coaches want the players that they think give them the best chance to be successful. It’s certainly a benefit when the media praises their efforts, Conversely, when a program’s under criticism for poor recruiting, that can create a lot of undue pressure.

That’s not the end of it. Edsall proceeds to rail against poor support for the Husky athletic programs in Southwestern Connecticut.

“We are better received, in my opinion, outside the state of Connecticut than what we are within the state of Connecticut, in certain pockets. That’s tough to say, but you’ve got to say it because it’s true.”

Rutgers fans can empathize in a way, but can also find much to mock here. Edsall cites UConn’s claim to be 2007 Big East co-champions, which is technically true, but silly and worthy of derision. More importantly, that part of Connecticut doesn’t have as much interest in UConn for a very good reason. Connecticut is like New Jersey in the sense that the southwestern part of the state is in the New York City sphere of influence, and is dominated by affluent suburbs. Move a little north and east up to Red Sox country, and it’s more blue collar, and that’s the UConn heartland.

Now, don’t get me wrong, the Whalers were awesome, but any statewide team is going to be a tough sell. You don’t exactly see Brodeur jerseys lining the street in Moorestown. UConn has only slightly more claim on Fairfield County than Syracuse does over New York City. Arguing for statewide unity is absurd when invoking completely disparate regions with little in the way of common interests. The reason Rutgers makes claim to South Jersey isn’t necessarily because both are within New Jersey’s borders. RU has dominion over that area because it’s literally the closest major conference football program to the entire Philadelphia metro region.

Storrs, Connecticut is separated from Greenwich (one of several extremely wealthy towns near the Westchester, NY border) by 109 miles. The distance from Piscataway to Greenwich is 65. So really, it’s actually Coach Schiano who should be getting hammered about Penn State cherrypicking stars out of Stamford. Time to gas up the choper.

The fine folks at Scarlet Nation generally do a bang up job, but the national Rivals.com recruiting service has fallen victim to a weird quirk as of late; one that I noticed a few weeks back when the Rutgers class was ranked shockingly low, despite not looking all that bad. To best illustrate this point, let’s use Wisconsin’s class as an example.  Take a look at who the Badgers signed; it’s not USC, but pretty decent group, right? Scout has it ranked at 33rd. Rivals? No lie, it’s #86. Now, I’ll just use one example here to keep this brief. Ken State is ranked 5 spots higher than Wisconsin on Rivals. They have fewer commits, and a much smaller average star rating. It’s incoherent to suggest that most, if not all Kent State commits wouldn’t immediately flip to Wisconsin if they received an offer from the Badgers.

And yet Kent State is somehow higher, to cite only one of countless ludicrous examples from this year’s rankings. Over the past few days, what purports to to be an explanation of the Rivals team ranking formula has been floating around, and I STILL can’t figure out how Kent State is higher than Wisconsin. The latter’s class is better in any conceivable way. From what I can tell, it looks like the formula is overwhelmingly skewed towards the high end, and seems to group anyone who’s not a top prospect rather close together, even if there may be a fairly big difference between an average major conference prospect, and one who signs with a mid-major.

Point is, something is very, very wrong with the formula when it’s producing some rather absurd results, and it’s badly hurting the site’s credibility. That’s an issue that goes beyond any individual criticism of player evaluations. When someone like Mike Farrell said Rutgers was on the verge of signing its worst class in eight years (even with major targets still on the board, like a Coleman who everyone but Farrell expected to land at Rutgers), that’s demonstrably insane. On occasion, provocative findings, results, or statements can be useful in furthering discussion or future insights. Or, they’re so profoundly bonkers that the very process used in their creation simply must be unsound; the classic reductio ad absurdum argument.

It’s a blow to see last year’s defensive line coach, Gary Emanuel, depart for Purdue. While Emanuel’s tenure on the banks wasn’t as long as Joe Susan’s, this loss could be just as big. He was far more important as a position coach, although he didn’t matter that much for recruiting purposes (I’d just as much rather have Trivers on the road in Maryland).

Why would Emanuel leave? It could be any of the following:

• Familiarity/fondness for Purdue, having spent eight years there.
• Promotion to co-defensive coordinator, a path that was blocked for him staying put.
• (Maybe) By the promotion, a higher salary.
• Less taxing hours.

Any, if not all of those could have been factors, but it still stings losing an important assistant to a program that hasn’t been doing all that well of late in the Big Ten. Sometimes these things just happen though. Purdue wasn’t looking for a new DL coach before Texas A&M hired theirs. Florida just lost their new defensive coordinator after only a few weeks.

Keith Sargeant mentioned assistant DL coach John Harakal as a potential replacement. Here are a few other names to consider.

Cary Godette – The former Rutgers DL coach was excellent here the first time around, before leaving to recover from some health problems. He later resurfaced with our old pal Mario at FIU. It’s important to note that minus Jenkins and Emanuel, Rutgers is down two African American coaches. Not that it necessarily matters with Godette, who’s superbly qualified.

Randy Melvin – Surprise! Another former Rutgers assistant is sitting right down the road at Temple. He originally left for the Browns, only to get sacked with the rest of Romeo Crennel’s staff last year.

Dave Sollazzo – While not entirely realistic, this name is very intriguing. He’s Ralph Friedgan’s Susan, and ordinarily couldn’t be swayed to leave the Fridge under any circumstances. However, Ralph’s probably out the door next year, and who knows what’ll happen with their coaching situation after that. Is it possible that Sollazzo could be temped by the pull of additional stability? This hire would kill two birds with one stone, as he could be installed as recruiting coordinator. Sollazzo has fought Rutgers on our home turf for years, and really had a lot of pull before their program started heading into the tank.

Derrick Jackson – Doug Marrone canned the former Syracuse coach (and GRob holdover) after one year, and that is how we found Trivers. He’s a native of Long Valley, although it’s impossible to gague his ability as a recruiter from his time at Syracuse. Just joined the Akron staff. For what it’s worth, their defensive line did seem to play well last year.

Jim Panagos – UCF’s DL coach. Recruits the Northeast for them; originally from Long Island and Mayland alumnus.

Dave Cohen – The former Hofstra HC is likely looking for work.

John Palermo – Former Wisconsin assistant was an excellent New Jersey recruiter for years. Retired I think after burning out at Miami several years back.

Greg Mark – Former Miami coach (and South Jersey native) was rumored to be named after Melvin left I believe. Has been out of coaching for several years.

Jim Jeffcoat – Also was a candidate several years back. Originally from Matawan. Now DL coach at Houston, and supposedly turn down an opportunity to go with his son Jackson to Oklahoma as a package deal.

Those are the names that come to mind now. For the two remaining staff openings, it’s vital that one hire be a strong New Jersey recruiter. At least one should be an African American. Those are the only two important criteria that come to mind at the moment.

Update: a poster on Rivals says that John Palermo had just been the DL coach for the Washington Redskins, and that Cohen is the new DC at Western Michigan. I admit it, I had absolutely no idea that Palermo was with the Skins. I wrote a post about him and other assistants who recruited the NJ area two years ago, and at that point the last available information was that he was out of coaching. I absolutely did write the post in haste, and am more than willing to admit that sometimes my posts have errors.

Update 2: The same poster IvyLeagueFootball, continues to beat me up on Rivals for some reason. I did in no way take my post about Ed Foley “verbatim” from what he wrote. I absolute did read all the posts on the message boards about Susan leaving. My first instincts however were absolutely Verducci and to look at local staffs like Temple, and I definitely would have seized on Ed Foley as a candidate even if no one had mentioned him. My analysis was 100% my own. I’m not sure why Ivy, who has some connection to the Tom Savage camp, is going after me so hard on these points.

How did I find this story on NBC’s Indianapolis TV affiliate website, when no one else is mentioning it anywhere else? It’s only from that one source, with not so much of a mention anywhere else, so it was hard deciding whether to link this. That’ll probably help blow the story up, and I’ll very happy to be wrong if this is a hoax.

A Colts player will not face charges over a sex assault allegation.Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said criminal charges would not be filed against Eric Foster, a defensive tackle for the Indianapolis Colts.

An employee at the University Place Hotel alleged that Foster assaulted her the night before the AFC playoff game, where the Colts were staying. Police filed a report, but the prosecutor found no evidence to support the claims made by the employee.

I can only hope that Eric’s exoneration indicates his innocence.

Everyone has their wild Foster stories, but he’s always so affable, and teammates and fans admire his relentless play. Eric’s arguably one of the most admired and beloved Scarlet Knights of all time I thought the worst we’d hear about Eric this week would be his bad dance moves. As far as I can tell Indianapolis doesn’t have an incident report of the allegations online.

Well, that just about overshadowed my already written news post, the rest of which you can read below.

First up, some 2010 scheduling updates. I don’t recall if these have been announced before, but the Norfolk State game is either Sep. 2nd or 4th, UNC is on the 25th, and Army has been previously announced as 10/16.

Brian Leonard is promoting his upcoming charity bowling event in New York City, and SNY had an interview about a month back covering that and other topics (they supposedly had good signing day coverage too, although I wasn’t home in time to catch it). Coach Schiano and Ray Rice will be there along with other Scarlet Knight alumni, and apparently WFAN has been running promos for the event. Speaking of which, WFAN also recently aired interviews with Eric Foster and Ray Rice (on Francesa’s show, no less). Stunning, considering that RU usually gets nothing but disparaging comments from that station (in part to tweak Chris Carlin). Like seemingly everyone who follows Rutgers, Ray is pulling for the Colts.

Jeff Fisher says that Kenny Britt’s offseason problems will soon be a thing of the past.

Signing day leftovers: Jordan Thomas, Michael Burton, Fooch video with Coach Schiano, Schiano on Rivals Radio.

Bret Bielema’s comments yesterday will raise a few eyebrows in New Jersey.

“Nobody has to remind anybody in this room the success that coach Alvarez’s staff had,” Bielema said of recruiting New Jersey. “Coach has been prodding me, and we’re definitely going to explore that even more now.”

Former UW secondary coach Kerry Cooks recruited Tamakloe because of his connections to the D.C. area. Even though Cooks left for Notre Dame, Bielema would like to mine the D.C. area.

Bielema has yet to name Cooks’ replacement but said when he does he will restructure the staff’s recruiting areas to include New Jersey and D.C.

Their pulls this year were more of a fluke than anything else considering the circumstances of Brennan’s recruitment. Wisconsin does not have any coaches with ties to the region, and just completed their staff with a new hire from Iowa State. Of course, they also generated a lot of ill will here by pulling Nate Nurse’s scholarship.

From what I’ve seen, George Johnson continues to get positive mentions down in Texas. Devin McCourty met with the Chiefs at the Senior Bowl.

Apparently News 12 ran a story about some professors complaining about the proposed RAC expansion plans. Didn’t see it, so won’t comment further.

Maybe now we know what’s up with all of those Kevin Boyle rumors that Adam Zagoria keeps tweeting about?

Xanadu may have one last chance…minus the name and ugly exterior. That’s on the heels of the news that the Christie administration is stepping in to the Nets’ plans to move to Newark next year. The one underlying theme in both stories is that Christie is creating a new advisory commission for sports and gaming, which will include former Rutgers A.D. and NJSEA head Bob Mulcahy. Yes, Mulcahy now has a significant say over the future of both Rutgers Stadium and Xanadu, among other facilities.

The Rutgers football staff finished off their late flurry of activity with two new verbal commits on signing day. The first, Jacksonville RB Casey Turner, re-affirmed his commitment to Rutgers with an assist from divine intervention. Coach Schiano’s strong faith pays off once again.

“I prayed about it a lot and God told me to make the right choice,” Turner said Wednesday morning at a school-gathering for him and three teammates who also accepted and signed scholarship offers. “My intuition kept saying Rutgers, Rutgers, Rutgers.

“If football didn’t work out there, I’d have a great degree from there. It’s a program on the rise that I hope can win a national championship. I’ll study some kind of business technology or communication, something like that.”

It can be hard saying no to Butch Davis, but God has to be the ultimate recruiting coordinator, no? I think Turner is a fair bit better than the other Jacksonville-native back in the class, Jawan Jamison, so this is a very positive development.

Then, the Scarlet Knight continued to hit Northeast Florida hard with the addition of Ken Kirksey (and his reputed eligibility concerns). The trouble is with these big linemen is that they’re just so few of them; the true blue chippers at the position like a Sharrif Floyd or Will Campbell or few and far between. That’s why teams have to roll the dice on dogs like Richard Ash to see if they pan out. Recruiting and developing QBs and DTs is always a major challenge. Kirksey on his decision:

“All the schools had something I liked, things that were different and some things that were alike. It was crazy,” Kirksey said. “When I took my official visit to Rutgers I felt that family that I have here with this team. Coach (Greg) Schiano, he tells you real things. He’s telling me he will stick with me to the end.”

With 24 signees, will there be enough ships available?. No scholarship estimates had projected anywhere close to that number. The staff does always hold a few in their back pocket. There are questions about a handful of these prospects qualifying, and it’s unknown at this point which, if any, players will no longer count against the 85 limit because of injury.

There’s also the matter of signing what’s believed to be six wide receivers in the class. Positional switches are one possibility, but there doesn’t appear to be any room in the backfield (even with a thin depth chart of returning starters), and limited room in the secondary. Brandon Coleman (something you don’t see very often – a Maryland coach called Coleman the one who got away) certainly has the height to get a look at tight end, and it’d make sense to give another signee such as Jeremy Deering an opportunity to replace Sanu in the Wildcat package next year.

I’ll have more thoughts soon, after I have a chance to watch the presser video, but here are some other links of interest. Holding off on the non-signing day stuff for today. Meanwhile, sit and wonder where exactly that weird post on Scarlet Scuttlebutt went down the memory hole

Chas Dodd (zuh?)

“I’ve heard Chas telling me they will play South Carolina in 2011. I’ve heard Torian tell Marcus they would beat them. It’s just that camaraderie they have with each other, but they will compete against each other,” he said. “Words can’t describe what they mean to this program and (have) done for this program. Hopefully now they are reaping the benefits from it.”

Fred Overstreet

“I told the coaches at Rutgers, ‘You’re getting a gem,” Fenton said. “I’ll put my reputation as a football coach on the line on that they’re getting a great football player and a great person. … That’s how sure I am.”

Gareef Glashen

“I fell in love with Rutgers when I went up there,” Glashen said. “I was most impressed with the fact that they graduate almost all of their athletes.”

Lorenzo Waters

“It feels like heaven on Earth,” commented Teresa Waters, whose son Lorenzo signed to play and study at Rutgers.

Tejay Johnson

He compared himself to 6-2, 215-pound Rutgers standout Mohamed Sanu, who played multiple positions this past year, including quarterback in the Wildcat, wide receiver and running back.

“I’m smaller than him, but faster,” Johnson said by phone.

Dave Milewski and Jawaun Wynn

Jordan Thomas

Chris Fonti (video)

Oh, hey, a basketball win over St. John’s? Talent was always there, but confidence hasn’t been. The only logical conclusion is that Fred Hill is secretly dead and has been replaced by the smoke monster. Don’t go about getting any big ideas now. As much as I think Rutgers doesn’t want to buy out Hill, these last two games shouldn’t change anything. By all means though, any additional success at this point is just gravy, so enjoy it. Would be nice if Hamady and Rosario can keep it up.

Hooray, wrestling is ranked 23rd.

Today’s news will be dominated by signing day, with live video coverage on SK.com. The Record is saying that Lodi LB Joe Falato will sign a LOI today and play DE in college.

As mentioned yesterday, Casey Turner’s final call is still up in the air.

Turner is saying he’s still considering Rutgers and will announce his final choice on Wednesday.

He’s singing a different tune though.

“Rutgers did send a letter-of-intent to my school, but I’m 100 percent North Carolina. When I sign, it will be a burden off my back.”

The other known names to watch are Cater and Kirksey.

Brandon Coleman: tap dancing, etc…Susan and Jenkins leaving were no big deal to him. Rashad Knight is coming into Rutgers as a corner. Jeremy Deering is at receiver (video).

Adam Zagoria has a video interview up with Betim Bujari. Should have more stuff up on his site today. Sam Bergen is still rehabbing his ACL injury. Luicci says Pitt made a late run at Taj Alexander; if true, that’s understandable given how hard it is to find defensive linemen. PSU and ND going after Bujari is interesting/reassuring.

How can anyone be mad at Keith Sargeant for his article yesterday? Farrell and Lichtenfels are just hacks, and now they’re starting to backtrack of course. Good comment from Dohn, who actually knows what he’s talking about, at the end of that about the value of taking an official visit. They’re so important.

Kinda have mixed emotions about the whole 96 team NCAA tournament rumors. Rutgers is one team that would greatly benefit from that. Despite the logistical infeasibility, I’ve always been a fan of the proposed “jailbreak” scenario in which the NIT champion would earn a bid to say the Sweet 16 after running through the whole gauntlet.

A decade ago, Tim Tebow’s brother chose a FCS school over Rutgers.

Why do recruits chose Rutgers? It’s nice to hang your hat on 15 student-athletes making the Big East’s All-Academic team.

Mike Vorkunov has the first entry in Kevin Haslam’s running draft diary. Jack Corcoran is also running one of his own. Could only find one mention of George Johnson.

Those Pitt to the Big Ten rumors? Total bunk.

Via Pat Hanlon from the Giants, here’s a picture of Ray Rice and Shaun O’Hara at the Pro Bowl.

First off, Rutgers football had a big day in recruiting (basically rendering the Farrell and Lichtenfels comments discussed below moot). Adding strong Rutgers leans Brandon Coleman and Rashad Knight shouldn’t surprise anyone (congrats to Kristian Dyer on the scoops), but getting Jeremy Deering over FSU at his presser just now is definitely a shocker. Makes you wonder what tomorrow has in store, for better or worse.

• Overall, it’s a decent class. My two areas of concern are at QB and the offensive line. Chas Dodd could develop into a decent backup and change of pace option, but Rutgers is thin at the position right now. They were hit by the double edged sword of Tom Savage scaring away competition, and a down year for quarterbacks nationally and locally. The same kinda goes for OL recruiting, where Rutgers had no choice but to take numbers for depth purposes. Bujari’s good; the others are question marks who could go either way. Some will develop and some won’t.
• I really like the class of receivers we’re bringing in, with all of them potential impact players. Tejay Johnson was the best receiver in New Jersey over the past year year. Jordan Thomas combines a good offer pedigree and a terrific senior season at RB. Now he’ll just have to adjust in his switch over to receiver. I’ll have some more thoughts up on the other signees tomorrow once they’re all signed.
• There’s not really cause for concern, even though recruiting did take a step back from 2009. That was largely a function of a very down year for in-state recruiting (Rutgers offered very few of the players that Rivals and Scout considered to be the best in New Jersey). True, the staff did miss out on a handful of prospects I thought they’d land, but no big difference makers. The (very) good news is that the 2011 class in New Jersey is absolutely loaded, and Rutgers looks to be in great early position there. They’re being aggressive once again, and their targets are reciprocating the interest. RU is set to do very well next year, although quarterback recruiting remains the biggest question mark.
• Well, I was going to do a post about the 2010 Rivals NJ rankings, but JCB pretty much beat me to the punch with a thoroughly definitive take. The bottom line? Rutgers only wanted eleven of who Rivals called the thirty best players in state (Scout’s list is equally as bad). While the writers at Scarlet Nation, Scarlet Report, and State of Rutgers know what they’re talking about, the likes of Mike Farrell and Bob Lichtenfels are pretty much full of it in all respects. They can go back to cheerleading for Boston College and Pitt respectively. Are you really going to trust their judgment over the staff, and knock Rutgers for not going after certain players instead of chasing star ratings?
• The big news in the East this year was that, as was evidenced by early buzz, Penn State absolutely cleaned up – blowing its regional competition like Rutgers, Pitt, and Maryland completely out of the water. They had an absolutely banner class. If there’s anything marring signing day for the Nittany Lions, is that they still have some trouble competing with other programs that are hotter on a national level. First it was USC, then Notre Dame, and now it’s Florida preventing PSU from truly having a perfect class. Speaking of which, Florida’s ‘10 class may very well be the best of any program in any year, at least in the past decade.

• Huh….
  • Look at the Garden State. Fully one-quarter of the Nittany Lions’ recruits in the shank of the 1980s came from New Jersey. Two decades later, it was a third of that. It is a precipitous drop, one that has been steady over a longer period of time.

Penn State received 24% of their recruits from New Jersey in the 1980s, 13% in the 90s, and 7.8% in the preceeding decade. You don’t say.

• Lane Kiffin’s departure from USC to Tennessee is obvious on the surface. USC > Tennessee in every conceivable aspect. But for all of the hype, Kiffin and his multi-million dollar staff weren’t honestly doing all that well in Knoxville. They continued to strike out with blue chip QB prospects, and the Volunteer class was an island of misfit toys, filled to the brim with JUCO washouts and academic/behavioral miscreants (along with a handful of true gets). Urban Meyer and Nick Saban were eating Kiffin’s lunch. Tennessee has a weaker natural recruiting base as compared to its SEC rivals, and looks to be in very real near-term decline, with a stark inability to attract top-tier recruits or head coaches.

It’d be overly flattering to even call the Kiffin era at USC a flash in the pan, which falsely implies some modicum of substance equivalent to a pets.com level operation. All they essentially accomplished was in turning their athletic department into a not-so-subtle prostitution service. It takes a special brand of filth to make the likes of other SEC programs blush.

• Hey, did anyone see that crazy rumor about Sharrif Floyd supposedly saying that Urban Meyer promised that he’d die for Floyd around the web? It was so enticing precisely because it was so outlandish. (pay attention, anyone believing ridiculous message board rumors about Big Ten expansion this week). Problem was though that it wasn’t true, or at least that’s Floyd’s story. That’s what anyone would say in that position, but Sharrif really is such a great kid who’s very easy to root for, so I believe him.

Signing day’s tomorrow, and there’s an awful lot going on besides the Cater stuff mentioned here yesterday. More to come shortly…

Over the weekend Rutgers added OL Robert Forst (Art’s younger brother), who previously had been committed to Delaware. Can’t imagine Dan Foose is too happy about that. Does this mean that Vicioso won’t qualify?

Florida DL Djwany Mera chose Rutgers over Illinois. He visited over the weekend along with several other prospects. DB Gareef Glashen flipped from Syracuse to Rutgers. I linked to an article a while back about Glashen planning to visit, but tried not to make a big deal out of it because I’ve just about had it to here with Syracuse as is, 99% of RU fans don’t care.

Finally, there was a surprise yesterday with the addition of pass rusher Fred Overstreet. I’m familiar with the name, but hadn’t heard him linked to Rutgers at all until now.

He just returned from an official visit to Rutgers this past weekend.

It’s a happy ending to what turned into a frustrating month for Overstreet. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound Overstreet also owned Division I offers from Purdue, Minnesota and Syracuse. The Orange’s offer fell through when Syracuse assistant Stan Drayton, who has been recruiting Overstreet, left for Florida in early January. Fenton said the other two schools were pressuring Overstreet to commit early and subsequently pulled their offers when he didn’t.

Those updates are on the heels of the week’s developments. RB Casey Turner decommitted from Rutgers for UNC. His dad was trying to push Turner to Arkansas in December, but that was a surprise considering UNC added blue chipper Gio Bernard earlier in the day. It’s just our luck that Rutgers now has a thin depth chart following Brooks’s transfer, but in its recruiting manages to run into two schools even worse off at RB. Turner said that UNC is his final decision, although you have to wonder what all that talk about visiting UCF is about. By the way, this may be related to the fact that Brandon Gainer ended up going to UCF as a package deal after all.

That was a blow because it came out the same day that the Cater situation really started to get weird, and right after Mustafa Greene committed to N.C. State. That was a close call that came down the wire. Greene’s was interested in playing in front of his family in Brooklyn, but he could very well start as a true freshman with the Wolfpack. Turner was very underrated, and I loved Greene’s physical running style too, even though it does make him somewhat injury prone.

So without those two, the fallback option at RB was Jawan Jamison, who quickly chose Rutgers over Wake Forest when the staff was ready to accept his verbal. He was high on Wake’s board, and South Carolina liked him as a fallback if they didn’t sign Marcus Lattimore. Decent prospect with as good a chance as anyone else, and provides some needed depth at the position as Rutgers primes to go after bigger local names in 2011.

“The coaches tell me that I remind them of Ray Rice,” Jamison said. “We’re built almost exactly the same. They actually think I’m further along than he was then, because of my ability to catch the ball out of the backfield. Seeing what he did at Rutgers definitely increased my interest in the school.”

At Rivals, Mike Farrell’s track record has been so poo of late that his predictions are basically a kiss of death. As far as Brandon Coleman goes, weeks back Farrell produced glowing quotes from Brandon about Syracuse, and he eliminated them days later. Now Farrell’s at it again calling Coleman to Maryland.

Coleman is down to Maryland and Rutgers with the Terps now pulling ahead. Rutgers losing its wide receivers coach and now its recruiting coordinator has swung this in Maryland’s direction.

That would be awfully strange, considering how Ralph Friedgen will probably be out of a job in a year, and would have already been fired if his buyout wasn’t too high. The funny thing is that Brandon seems to be saying as such, definitively leaning towards one school.

“Well, sometimes [I] don’t tell the whole thing [to reporters],” Coleman said. “You don’t always want everything out there just yet. So I tell it to my family, tell to my high school coach what can go out and what needs to stay inside the family.”

Let’s move back to Florida, where the Jamison and Mera verbals show that RU is trying to make up ground as Wednesday approaches. There’s the matter of Rashad Knight, who’s on the record as having Rutgers and Michigan as his two finalists.

“Rutgers is just a real nice place. It’s up to date. I love the dorms and facilities. The education is good. I mean it’s just a great place. While I was there they took me to New York City. That was cool. I think I fit in well with their defense. They are losing two corners so that leaves some spots to compete for playing time.”

And we’re actually getting closer than I ever anticipated with Jeremy Deering, having made his final two with FSU. UF could actually still be in the mix though, now that Demar Dorsey decommitted for FSU.

FL DT Ken Kirksey was another weekend visitor, and he actually named Rutgers as a leader before his visit to New Jersey. His favorites list is a red flag though.

This was a very strange thing to read last week.

Susan said he has recruits who committed to Rutgers contact him about attending Bucknell instead.

Does he mean recruited walk-ons or something? Non-qualifiers? Susan goes on to say that he was just riding in the Schianocopter with Coach and they’re buds and all, so he couldn’t really have meant anything that malicious. Now, speaking of our glorious winged chariot:

Absegami has two big recruits in running back Ben Martin and offensive lineman Steve Schwartz. Schiano went to Spirit for linebacker Anthony Sarao.

“Coach Schiano did a thorough job and asked a number of questions,” Holy Spirit coach Charlie Roman said. “It’s certainly a huge gesture. You wouldn’t get a head coach coming down unless they thought very highly of the prospect.”

It was fun to read all the various tweets during the week when random people spotted the helicopter. That’s how I first heard about the offer to PA LB Kevin Snyder. The guy who posted the Junior Day video also has one up with the copter. Anothern new ‘11 offer is PA lineman Brandon Clemons. Also, Florida OL/DL Giorgio Newberry is coming to New Jersey for a linemen camp this week. NJ.com has comments and video up about the entire state senior class, although some of their info on offers is shaky. Bound Brook’s Andrew Campolattano is the best wrestler in the state. Schiano loves his wrestlers; the best wrestlers on the football team could probably be a ranked wrestling program on their own if that was at all feasible.

Ewww, I don’t want Savon Huggins and Ishaq Williams anywhere near Tom Lemmings.

Along with the Greene commit, Turner, and Gainer, Ace Sanders committed to South Carolina as had been heavily rumored.

Watchlist: Michael Burton, Jamie Byrd/Hakeeme Ishmar, Joe Falato, Cole Marcoux, Kevin Monangai, and Dillon Romain.