clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Charting Rutgers Recruiting: Where we stand today - pre-season camp edition

Everyone is gearing up for pre-season camp. And the commits will likely slow down as both the high schoolers and Rutgers prepare for the fall.

By rvc73
rvc73

We are just days away from the start of pre-season camp.  Big Ten Media Days are underway in Chicago.  The summer is hot and so is the recruiting.

Shortly after we published last month's ranking post, Chris Ash & Co. went on a tear, getting commitments from an incredible number of quality players.

Between June 26 and June 28.....boom!

Tyshon Fog

Tyler Hayek

Johnathan Lovett

Shameen Jones

Olakunle Fatukasi

Jaohne Duggan

The number of recruits was impressive.  It was exciting and exhausting as Scott Logan and Griffin Whitmer and Aaron and everybody here was getting blisters keeping up with the plethora of commits. And it certainly bumped Rutgers up in the recruiting rankings as we'll show.

But numbers are one thing, quality - blue chip/4 & 5 star quality - is something else.

And as good as Rutgers is, as well as Ash is gaining traction with recruits, we - and the rest of the college football world - are still playing catch up.   Insanely, there is a possibility that Ohio State's 2017 class could be all blue chippers.

Those points, however, should not deter us from being very excited and very happy about what is going on around these parts.

Gerry DiNardo

BTN's Gerry DiNardo has his weekly updates out and Rutgers and the two B1G divisions stack up thusly:

The East is the beast

The B1G East still dominates the rankings among conference teams,  Ohio State is still No. 1 in the nation according to all three services.  And Michigan is still in the top ten, averaging a 5.3 ranking.  Penn State has slipped a bit and Maryland is generally holding steady.

7/25/16 Scout 247 Rivals Average
Ohio State 1 1 1 1.0
Michigan 6 6 4 5.3
Michigan State 12 20 20 17.3
RUTGERS 20 19 15 18.0
Maryland 23 22 24 23.0
Penn State 25 31 34 30.0
Indiana 61 69 67 65.7
22.9


Rutgers continues to look better nationally and within the Big Ten.  The big question - still - is the number of stars Rutgers is collecting.  So far, Rutgers' strength is in its quantity.

And in the Big Ten

Social Media impact

One of the things that all of us have noticed is the extensive and fun use of social media by the football staff.  And there really has to be an impact on the recruits themselves, as pointed out by former WRSU and WCTC play-by-play guy, Danny Breslauer:

Sorry, Aaron, I couldn't help myself

Stay classy, Rutgers.  Stay classy, Bob.

Stick it, In_iana.

The Hoosiers have an average three-service ranking of 65.7, more than 40 spots behind Rutgers and behind powerhouses Vanderbilt, Toledo, and Kansas.  KANSAS!

Nine commits.  Nine? Does anyone even want to go to In_iana?

D1 Programs behind Rutgers

As we did previously, these are the schools immediately behind Rutgers in the respective rankings.  As RU moves up, the neighborhood looks a bit more "elite".

7/25/16 Scout 247 Sports Rivals
Rutgers 20 19 15

Northwestern Michigan State South Carolina

Iowa South Carolina Iowa

Maryland Maryland Florida

Nebraska Northwestern North Carolina

Penn State Duke Michigan State

As a point of reference, when we first did this in May, the list of schools behind Rutgers looked like this:

As of 5/23 Scout 247 Sports Rivals
RUTGERS 32 25 37

Stanford Iowa St Florida

Va Tech Tennessee Arkansas

Iowa St Va Tech Wash St

So Carolina Cent. Mich Cal

Wash St Texas A&M Duke