Committed Players
Gary Nova's staying home. Here's former Bosco OC (and current Bergen Catholic coach) Nunzio Campanile on the Bosco offense from a SpreadOffense.com interview to give an idea of what Nova's been doing at Bosco.
We will use no-huddle to give us a jumpstart or change the pace. We always want to fly in and out of the huddle if we do use one. We have a different thought about balance then many other teams. We never gameplan to be a 50/50 team. Rather, we want to be flexible enough to take what the defense gives us. On every play we have the ability to get into the play that best fits the look that the defense gives. We want to run the ball, but we never want to be too stubborn.
Edit: here's a video interview with MSG's Steve Levy for Cablevision subscribers.
Is John Aiken enrolling early? As you may recall from a couple months back, he's dealt with so much adversity already. I had heard about the knee injury, but not about him transferring to Dillard. You have to assume things look good if Schiano is visiting him in-home though.
Miles Shuler has to adjust to WR after playing QB in high school.
Quentin Gause has a very special message to internet writers who think he isn't a firm commitment.
Tyler Kroft made the Pennsylvania Big 33 team.
Uncommitted Players
There's another dead period from last Sunday to this Thursday, so that should slow down things a bit until the home stretch over the last two weeks of January.
Woo, NJ OL Josue Matias eliminated Miami! Or not.
OL Josue Matias of Union City, NJ changed his January 14th visit from South Carolina to Miami. He has visited North Carolina, Wisconsin and Florida State and is scheduled to visit Rutgers on the 21st.
The South Carolina story is that they finally realized "oh crap, we have way too many commitments" and dropped Matias, despite his awesomeness. It's good that Matias is going to take his visit AND momentarily preferred Rutgers to Miami. Now to make up some ground once he steps foot on campus.
No offer yet, but things are heating up with non-offeree NJ OG/DT Marquise Wright.
Sheldon Royster is announcing after his UNC visit.
Rutgers lags for NJ ATH Tanner McEvoy, but he won't publicly eliminate them yet.
He recently eliminated Michigan from his list but is still considering Rutgers. "I wouldn't say that they (Rutgers) are completely out with me," said McEvoy after admitting he is unsure if he will take his official visit there on January 28th.
Oh well, NJ WR Bill Belton isn't interested.
"Rutgers came by today, but none of the schools that I'm really focused on have been in," he said. "I believe Cincinnati is coming in on Thursday. Pitt's staff is at Rutgers now, not all of them, but Coach Hafley and Coach Cignetti are at Rutgers now. They were basically just telling me about Coach Schiano and that whole deal.
"At this point, I'm not too sure about them. I haven't given it much thought, but I've just been focusing on those three schools."
UNC and GT, fine, but if Max Issaka is talking up UCF then he's probably not coming to Rutgers for whatever reason. On that same note - WVU, Miami, and BC make sense for Terrell Chestnut, but Villanova?
NJ TE Jack Tabb is picking tomorrow between UNC, Iowa, and Arkansas. Or Friday, with UM and RU hats on the table even though they came in fourth and fifth.
Anyone else find it weird that PA OG/DT Brandon Clemons's finalists a bit odd? Think this was mentioned last week, but RU's out with PA DE Branden Jackson.
Miami offered FL OG Kaleb Johnson. Greg Schiano visited FL DE Ramik Wilson last week along with teammate WR Andre Davis. Allegedly Rutgers offered Maryland commit Makinton Dorleant, a CB out of Florida. No mentions from FL DT Elkino Watson. RU offered '12 FL DE Earl Moore. Wait, RU is still involved with FL OL Errin Joe (also has brief Issaka mention)?
'12 Bosco DB Elijah Shumate already has 13 offers. Add '12 MD DT Ryan Watson to the offer board too, along with '12 NY DT Jarron Jones. '12 PA TE Colin Thompson may go to RU's Junior Day. '12 PA DE Noah Spence picked up a USC offer.
ESPN's Gene Wojciechowski collected a bunch of random anonymous recruit quotes.
Can Rutgers benefit from all the regional football instability?
Randy Edsall actually hired a good Pittsburgh recruiter in DL coach Greg Gattuso, which will also have the effect of forcing out Dave Sollazo. Sollazo used to hurt RU badly before Ralph Friedgen became a lame duck. MD's also rumored to be hiring Dave Walker (the RB whisperer!), he recruits Ohio IIRC.
NJ TE/DE Shilique Calhoun committed to MSU. FL DE Ramik Wilson committed to UGA. MD OL Donovan Smith committed to PSU. FL DB Wayne Lyons committed to Stanford, with no coach even. FL CB Jabari Gorman committed to UF. FL DE Ricardo Williams committed to Miami.
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.
Paul Canevari, Nico D’Angelo, Lorenzo Fisher , Shayne Jones, Jamal Merritt (2), Michael Nicklas, Brendan Nosovitch, Elijah St. Hilaire, and Josh Wade.