Committed players:
Commits nine and ten on the year are athlete Chevelle Buie and lineman Marquis Lucas, both out of Florida.
Uncommitted players:
NJ RB Savon Huggins has pared down his list to ten.
"I really like the coaches and players there and I get along well with everyone. I have been there a few times and got to spend an entire day there, probably my longest one-day visit of any school, where I got to get a good feel for everything. I am close with Tom Savage and especially Mohamed Sanu, I speak to him almost every day. I just have a good feel for the program, it’s my home state school and it doesn’t hurt that it’s close to home."
Savon's St. Peter's Prep team won the Rutgers 7 on 7 tournament largely due to standout performances by Huggins and Sheldon Royster.
NJ WR Miles Shuler visited the Rutgers camp last week in order to get a first hand experience of P.J. Fleck's coaching. Shuler mentions his junior teammate Ryan Brodie's new verbal offer in that video.
Long Branch isn't too far from Jackson and Neptune, so it makes sense that Shuler, Huggins, and Charles Davis are all close friends who talk about playing together in college.
Yeah, former Union City HC/current SPP assistant Joe Rotondi is as pro-Rutgers as it gets.
Former Union City Head Coach Rotundi is now a part of the Saint Peter’s staff and the Marauders couldn’t be happier to have him. Senior lineman Josue Matias of Union City dominated last year and this is the man credited with leading him to that level.
Rotundi voiced the possibilities to Offensive Line Coach Anthony Locricchio and I about having Keith Lumpkin alongside him.
"I wish I had had Matias and Lumpkin on the same line at Prep," said Rotundi. "Imagine if they occupied the right side of Rutgers’s line."
Don't forget that Prep also has a Rutgers alumnus on staff in Bill Wilkes.
The latest on NJ ATH/QB Tanner McEvoy. If McEvoy's serious about playing QB, then he needs to accelerate his timetable, because quarterbacks need to commit earlier in order to help recruit the other members of a team's class.
McEvoy has around 20 offers right now... He will narrow that list to five by the start of his season and those will be his official visits. Those visits won't take place until after his season because his games are played on Saturday afternoon. McEvoy was a receiver last season and is moving to quarterback. South Carolina was one of the first schools to commit an offer to him strictly as a quarterback and other schools, which originally viewed him as a receiver, have followed suit. McEvoy will not make his decision until after the season.
Speaking of Lumpkin, there's a fun new update where he names Rutgers to his top ten.
He hasn’t been too busy of late as it relates to recruiting but he did take a trip to Rutgers not too long ago. He enjoyed everything the Scarlet Knights presented.
“It was just a visit and just a time to see the school again,” he said of his trip to Rutgers. “I talked to the coaches and got a feel for the players. I enjoyed it. Everything was good. I got to talk to some of the players and I enjoyed that.”
NJ WR Damiere Byrd is down to a final seven.
"Cincinnati, Florida, Iowa, Pitt, Rutgers, South Carolina and West Virginia," Byrd said Wednesday night.
NJ TE Jack Tabb's mother is originally from Arkansas. Scott Stump has a really good Tabb profile this week, mostly focusing on how he's moved around so much in a military family with a brief nod to the idea of playing with the other '11 Shore stars in college.
PA CB Terrell Chestnut could commit next month.
NY WR Brandon "Bam" Reddish's Fort Hamilton squad will have a new coach this fall.
Fellow Brooklynite NY DE Ishaq Williams is fresh off a visit to PSU. I didn't know his parents were Syracuse alumni.
DC DT Kevin McReynolds has a "soft" top 14, which includes Rutgers.
"The list includes Oregon, Arkansas, North Carolina, UCLA, Mississippi State, Auburn, Texas Tech, Ohio State, Illinois, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, East Carolina, Maryland and Kansas State."
Supposedly he was on campus last week.
DE OL Trip Thurman named his top 3 over the weekend. He's almost certainly bound for Florida.
PA DE Jordan Kerner received a PSU offer, and now favors PSU over Iowa. PA DT Delvon Simmons is visiting UNC.
FL LB Tony Steward favors Clemson. FL OL/DL Giorgio Newberry enjoyed his recent visit to Rutgers.
GA OL Quincy McKinney is merely one prospect on a loaded roster.
VA OL Landon Turner is poised to decide between VT and UNC. I think Pitt-Rutgers to this point has been wayyy overrated for the 2011 class, but that's nothing compared to the current VT fan meltdown over UNC.
BlueWhiteIllustrated's Phil Grosz is accusing Pitt of negative recruiting after Paramus Catholic DT Marquise Wright chose Pitt over PSU. I don't really buy it, mainly because Grosz isn't considered very reliable even by Penn State fans. What's going on this year is that they have various internal issues (Joe Paterno's illness, some older staff members) that caused them to fall behind early in recruiting.
Speaking of the 7 on 7 shootout, Andy Staples has a new column about the growing impact of those travel tournaments, which allow schools to skirt NCAA rules.
NJ DL Connor Wujciak committed to BC over RU and Pitt. Wow, I really thought he'd go to Notre Dame. PA OL Andrew Zeller committed to Maryland. OH TE Ray Hamilton committed to Iowa. VA DE Rob Burns committed to UVA. DC CB Vance Roberts committed to West Virginia. DC OT Jamar Lewter committed to UNC.
Watchlist: This is a section of this site's weekly recruiting posts featuring links to players that Rutgers may or may not be showing interest in, but has not yet offered.
Ronald "Duke" Baines, Mike Bimonte, John Boston, Ashton Broyld, Javard Gaines, Chris Hutton, Myles Jackson, Kyshoen Jarrett, and Ruhann Peele.