Committed Players
OL Marquis Lucas has played well this year.
DT Daryl Stephenson teams with his little brother Delon for Sayreville.
All eyes for now are on ATH Chevelle Buie and his mysterious suspension. Details are starting to trickle out.
The district isn't saying why Buie was suspended, but someone close to the family told WFTV he had skipped school, again.
Uncommitted Players
Coach Schiano mentioned that he was going out recruiting this week at his last press conference. Better get to work on poaching Pitt's commits, which should already be underway. Hey, everyone who posted angry Facebook wall messages a few months back, this is (one of ten thousand reasons) why you don't do that. As for the idea of hiring Jeff Hafley: Rutgers clearly needs a NJ recruiter to replace Susan. Hafley would be an upgrade in that respect, although he gets too much credit at times. He'd be a good fit as recruiting coordinator, but the thought of him coaching RU defensive backs is horrifying.
Anyway, it's visit time!
Scheduled to take visits this weekend are St. Peter's Prep running back Savon Huggins (Wisconsin), Union City lineman Josue Matias (Florida), St. Peter's Prep safety Sheldon Royster (Rutgers), Bergen Catholic quarterback Tanner McEvoy (South Carolina). All four have Rutgers and North Carolina among their finalists.
One guess on the NJ HS player of the year:
Huggins has not committed to college, but has narrowed his list to seven. He has made official visits to Notre Dame and North Carolina and has scheduled visits to Wisconsin and Rutgers. His fifth official will be to USC, Tennessee or Auburn.
McEvoy has a clear top four, with the RU staff visiting him this week.
McEvoy has officials planned to South Carolina (December 10), Michigan (January 7), North Carolina (January 14) and Rutgers (January 21), and those four schools have separated themselves from the pack of late.
NJ S Sheldon Royster canceled his visit to Miami. Coach Hewitt visited him last week. He should be wary about South Carolina not being in contact, considering how they already have 25 verbals and all. SEC teams are now limited to signing 28 players, and South Carolina is still having players take visits. Say it with me: oversigning kills.
There's some mixed info out there on NJ TE Jack Tabb. He's supposedly set on four visits and still considering RU and BC, but other reports have both out of consideration.
2012 NJ ATH Devon Fuller may be a TCU legacy, but Rutgers has the early lead.
JUCO OT Fou Fonoti visited Michigan State last weekend. JUCO C Dallas Hendrikson is visiting Washington State.
PA DE Branden Jackson is undecided on a fifth visit.
Lots of teams are going after 2012 PA DE Noah Spence.
FL DE Chad Hannah is visiting RU this weekend. 2012 FL DE Tyriq McCord says he has a verbal offer from RU. FL DT Elkino Watson is visiting Florida.
Why is Penn State accepting verbals from MAC-level recruits?
In response to the Cam Newton scandal, the NCAA may need to revamp their football recruiting rules.
VA OT Jay Whitmire committed to UVA. With Randy Shannon out at Miami, MA CB Albert Louis-Jean decommitted, along with ATH Teddy Bridgewater and some other names. FL S Corian Hamilton committed to USF. OT Jamar Lewter switched from UNC to Marshall because he isn't going to qualify. That explains their interest in Matias, but is another rough blow considering that the Tar Heels just lost Everett Golson to Notre Dame.
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, Vincent Brown, Ashton Broyld, Tyler Butler, Zenel Demhasaj, Lorenzo Fisher, Christon Gill, Kalyph Hardy, JP Holtz, Kevin Monangai, Eric McMullen, and Julian Pinnix-Odrick.