As always, the link is to scarletknights.com. Assorted (extremely rushed) thoughts:
- Previously announced in some form (but not by the athletic department) transfers are CB Abdul Smith (Temple), RT Richard Muldrow (Richmond), C Matt Hardison (Delaware), walk-on TE Tony Trahan (Texas Tech), walk-on WR Carl Harris (Southern Illinois).
- "New" transfers/departures are WR Julian Hayes, WR Eddie Poole, and LB Morgan Carter. It's odd to see the latter two players transfer this early into their college careers, but neither had received any mentions during spring practice. Poole missed time last year due to a cooking accident, and now he conveniently follows former RU receivers coach Brian Jenkins back to the state of Florida.
- Of the incoming recruiting class, OL Rob Forst has decided not to play football in college, and three recruits did not qualify in WR/ATH Tejay Johnson, DE Djwany Mera, and DT Ken Kirksey. The latter two had been rumored for a while, but it's a blow to lose arguably the best incoming receiver prospect in Johnson. Fortunately Rutgers still has five other potential receivers in the class. Now the three are supposedly heading to prep school. Hope that works out better than when other non-qualifiers (Rashad White, Markus White) opted for Junior College and never made it back to campus. Not having Mera and Kirksey exacerbates the need to recruit DL this year.
- My scholarship count with the transfers/non-qualifiers, counting Barbieri (who Paul Franklin said was on scholarship several weeks back) is 81. If it's that low then no transfers were probably pushed out. Does that mean any remaining ships for this year go to walk-ons? Are they being saved for January?
There are thirteen known scholarship seniors on the roster. Right now Rutgers has twelve commits for the 2011 class, and my guess for the final number is around 22. With Schiano saying that Ruiz is back in play as a contributor, that just goes to show how you can't write anyone off too early. Will anyone else show improvement during fall camp?
Freshman roster numbers - #83 Wynn, #55 Bujari, #17 Coleman, #18 Deering, #78 Alexander, #19 Dodd, #62 Fonti, #5 Glashen, #39 Jamison, #22 Knight, #31 Milewski, #58 Overstreet, #57 Quartucci, #82 Tartacoff, #29 Thomas, #48 Thompson, #33 Turner, #79 Vicioso, #21 Waters. Milewski and Bergen are listed at LB.
Of the new walk-ons, previously known were QB Tyler Bellia, FB Michael Burton, K Nick DeLouisa, DL Joe Falato, LS Rob Horrell, LB James Kim, OL Bryan Leoni, and LB Shane Meisner. The official roster is limited to 105 until the season starts, so other names should be released then. I like Burton's chances to contribute the best if only because Rutgers is thin at FB.
New listed walk-ons are OL Hugh Ahern, QB Jason Friday, and LB Justin Mills.
The official roster has a typo in Lorenzo Waters's name. Fabian Ruiz is still listed at DE (he's back at TE), and Marcus Cooper at WR (he moved to DB in spring practice), so it's unclear whether that's intentional or not. The media guide has Cooper at DB but Ruiz at DL.
Number changes (almost certainly incomplete) from spring prospectus - Keith Stroud went from #83 to #15, Marcus Cooper #84 to #12, Phil Lewis #16 to #80, Junior Solice (now listed on the roster at DE) #33 to #54.
Major weight changes (almost certainly incomplete) from the spring prospectus - Isaac Holmes went from 290 lbs to 277 (Schiano loves his DL slim), Antwan Lowery from 325 to 302, Jamal Wilson 320 to 307, D.C. Jefferson 245 to 258, Malcolm Bush 230 to 243, Paul Carrezola 250 to 235, Jamil Merrell 220 to 250, Evan Lampert 260 to 249, and Duron Harmon 190 to 198. Did Carrezola and Lampert really lose weight? Edit: missed Eric LeGrand going from 260 to 275, which is a significant change.
Two hefty disclaimers there: official rosters are frequently inaccurate, and I don't know if the spring roster on the site was the same as the prospectus because Google cache isn't cooperating.
