Fat Cat Top Five
Top Five Most Winnable Games in 2018
5.) Indiana
4.) Illinois
3.) Buffalo
2.) Kansas
1.) Texas State
Bobby’s Crystal Ball
Rutgers wrestling will get a sweep this weekend
Coaching Search Update
Rutgers is back in the hunt for another assistant coach and this time, it will be a wide receivers coach to take over for Jafar Williams. Don’t expect this coaching search to be as long as the previous search for a defensive line coach, which featured a very long list of candidates who interviewed for the position. The current coaching search should wrap up rather quickly as a prime candidate has already been targeted.
Recruiting Tidbits
QB Ryan Hilinski (Lutheran, Calif.)
The first QB target of the John McNulty era has been identified in Hilinski. He is a true pro-style quarterback who is more of a pocket passer. Hilinski will do some running, although he is the type of quarterback who is more of a fit with the pro-style system McNulty ran at Rutgers during his last stint as OC. The new official visit rule will work in RU's advantage in this one as that could get Hilinski out on campus in April. In the past, travel issues hurt RU early on when trying to recruit players from faraway states. However, an official visit could be looming.
DE Fadil Diggs (Woodrow Wilson – N.J.)
The South Jersey sophomore figures to be one of the top regional prospects in the class of 2020. He is already up to six offers while a host of SEC schools have started to recruit him. Ole Miss and Tennessee are a couple of the schools showing interest. Head coach Chris Ash stopped by Wilson this week as Diggs has become a priority recruit for Rutgers in the class of 2020.
“We are going to head up to Rutgers a lot,” Diggs said. “That is another school I like. They have been on me a lot.”
TE Nick Gallo (Council Rock South – Pa.)
The tight end is one of the top prospects in the entire state of Pennsylvania's class of 2019. He is up to double digit offers, and offered his thoughts on the Scarlet Knights.
“Rutgers did offer me. I like the school. I was up there for a game last season. I like that is close to home too.”
Gallo is not looking to rush his recruitment and is content on taking his time. He also looks to be very comfortable in the camp setting and could wind up parlaying a strong spring into a four-star ranking and even longer list of offers.
DT/OL Wisdom Quarshie (St. Joe’s Hammonton)
Quarshie is currently Rivals.com’s No.22 ranked player in New Jersey in the class of 2019. He was at Rutgers junior day this past weekend and had an individual meeting with head coach Chris Ash. He left that meeting without an offer, although he is one to keep an eye as he plays a position of immediate need. Quarshie is being recruited by Rutgers as a defensive tackle and the 6-foot-2, 300-pounder would provide some much-needed size on the d-line.
“They made me feel really comfortable at Rutgers,” Quarshie said. “They made my whole family feel comfortable, they thanked me for coming up and showed me a lot of love.”
ATH Jon Haynes (North Penn – Pa.)
Playing way out in the distant suburbs of Philadelphia, the junior athlete is still flying under the radar. He was scheduled to head up to the RU junior day but did not make it. However, the coaching staff has been keeping tabs on him for quite a while.
“They were one of the first schools to start recruiting me, ever since my freshman year,” Haynes said of Rutgers. “I visited up there too, so they have been interested.”
Haynes is also fielding interest from Maryland, Boston College and Temple.
QB Kyle McCord (St. Joe’s Prep – Pa.)
Get used to hearing his name as McCord is going to be one of the top quarterbacks in the class of 2021. Yesterday, he pulled in a pair of offers from Temple and Boston College to go along with a previous one from Central Michigan. McCord’s father, Derek, was a backup quarterback at Rutgers in the late eighties/early nineties. The 6-foot-3 McCord has a very strong arm and is also extremely accurate.
Signing Day Solo
Signing day has quickly changed as Rutgers will not have a player signing a national letter of intent on American soil. Swedish DE Robin Jutwreten is slated to be the only prospect signing. Rutgers is scheduled to hold a press conference that day and the spring enrollees will be made available to the media.
Future Out-of-Conference Opponents
With yesterday’s announcement of a home and home series against Syracuse, Rutgers is looking forward to some more favorable out of conference matchups that will be billed as regional battles. Here is a look at how the out-of-conference schedule will play out over the next few years.
2018
09/01 - Texas State
09/15 - at Kansas
09/22 – Buffalo
2019
08/31 - UMass
09/21 - Boston College
10/26 - Liberty
2020
09/12 - Syracuse
09/19 - at Temple
2021
09/04 - Temple
09/11 - at Syracuse
2022
09/03 - at Boston College
09/17 - at Temple
2023
09/09 - Temple
09/16 - Virginia Tech
09/30 – Ohio
Wrestling Tidbits
This weekend, No.18 Rutgers will face another pair of tough tests on the road as the Scarlet Knights will tangle with No.17 Northwestern tonight with a start time of 8 p.m. The matchups look favorable for Rutgers in this one as the Scarlet Knights should win the first three bouts of the night. Nick Suriano will face No.10-ranked Sebastian Rivera, but should be able to sustain his unblemished record. The problem matches for RU will be at 149 pounds when No.12-ranked Elezear DeLuca squares off against No.5 Ryan Deakin. After that, there is just one more ranked Northwestern wrestler as 174-pounder Johnny Sebastian is No.17 in the nation and will face unranked Joe Grello of Rutgers, who has been wrestling well as of late.
Then, on Sunday, Rutgers will face No.14 Illinois with a start time of 2 p.m. After narrowly missing a win over No.1-ranked Penn State 165-pounder Vincenzo Josephlast week, RU senior Richie Lewis will face off against No.2 ranked Isaiah Martinez. This should also be a close one with some favorable matchups for Rutgers.
Hoops Tidbits
Rutgers is facing a daunting task on Saturday against No.3-ranked Purdue at home. The Scarlet Knights are coming off a 31-point loss to Illinois and will have to face the Boilermakers without guard Mike Williams and forward Eugene Omoruyi, who are both sidelined with injuries. A sold-out RAC will need to help Rutgers more than ever as the Scarlet Knights will head into the game severely undermanned. Rutgers faced Purdue in early January and wound up on the short end of an 82-51 loss. Williams and Omoruyi both played in that game and Williams was one of only two Knights to score in double digits as he ended with 10 points. Tip-off is 4 p.m. at The RAC.
Top Five Most Winnable Games in 2018
5.) Indiana
4.) Illinois
3.) Buffalo
2.) Kansas
1.) Texas State
Bobby’s Crystal Ball
Rutgers wrestling will get a sweep this weekend
Coaching Search Update
Rutgers is back in the hunt for another assistant coach and this time, it will be a wide receivers coach to take over for Jafar Williams. Don’t expect this coaching search to be as long as the previous search for a defensive line coach, which featured a very long list of candidates who interviewed for the position. The current coaching search should wrap up rather quickly as a prime candidate has already been targeted.
Recruiting Tidbits
QB Ryan Hilinski (Lutheran, Calif.)
The first QB target of the John McNulty era has been identified in Hilinski. He is a true pro-style quarterback who is more of a pocket passer. Hilinski will do some running, although he is the type of quarterback who is more of a fit with the pro-style system McNulty ran at Rutgers during his last stint as OC. The new official visit rule will work in RU's advantage in this one as that could get Hilinski out on campus in April. In the past, travel issues hurt RU early on when trying to recruit players from faraway states. However, an official visit could be looming.
DE Fadil Diggs (Woodrow Wilson – N.J.)
The South Jersey sophomore figures to be one of the top regional prospects in the class of 2020. He is already up to six offers while a host of SEC schools have started to recruit him. Ole Miss and Tennessee are a couple of the schools showing interest. Head coach Chris Ash stopped by Wilson this week as Diggs has become a priority recruit for Rutgers in the class of 2020.
“We are going to head up to Rutgers a lot,” Diggs said. “That is another school I like. They have been on me a lot.”
TE Nick Gallo (Council Rock South – Pa.)
The tight end is one of the top prospects in the entire state of Pennsylvania's class of 2019. He is up to double digit offers, and offered his thoughts on the Scarlet Knights.
“Rutgers did offer me. I like the school. I was up there for a game last season. I like that is close to home too.”
Gallo is not looking to rush his recruitment and is content on taking his time. He also looks to be very comfortable in the camp setting and could wind up parlaying a strong spring into a four-star ranking and even longer list of offers.
DT/OL Wisdom Quarshie (St. Joe’s Hammonton)
Quarshie is currently Rivals.com’s No.22 ranked player in New Jersey in the class of 2019. He was at Rutgers junior day this past weekend and had an individual meeting with head coach Chris Ash. He left that meeting without an offer, although he is one to keep an eye as he plays a position of immediate need. Quarshie is being recruited by Rutgers as a defensive tackle and the 6-foot-2, 300-pounder would provide some much-needed size on the d-line.
“They made me feel really comfortable at Rutgers,” Quarshie said. “They made my whole family feel comfortable, they thanked me for coming up and showed me a lot of love.”
ATH Jon Haynes (North Penn – Pa.)
Playing way out in the distant suburbs of Philadelphia, the junior athlete is still flying under the radar. He was scheduled to head up to the RU junior day but did not make it. However, the coaching staff has been keeping tabs on him for quite a while.
“They were one of the first schools to start recruiting me, ever since my freshman year,” Haynes said of Rutgers. “I visited up there too, so they have been interested.”
Haynes is also fielding interest from Maryland, Boston College and Temple.
QB Kyle McCord (St. Joe’s Prep – Pa.)
Get used to hearing his name as McCord is going to be one of the top quarterbacks in the class of 2021. Yesterday, he pulled in a pair of offers from Temple and Boston College to go along with a previous one from Central Michigan. McCord’s father, Derek, was a backup quarterback at Rutgers in the late eighties/early nineties. The 6-foot-3 McCord has a very strong arm and is also extremely accurate.
Signing Day Solo
Signing day has quickly changed as Rutgers will not have a player signing a national letter of intent on American soil. Swedish DE Robin Jutwreten is slated to be the only prospect signing. Rutgers is scheduled to hold a press conference that day and the spring enrollees will be made available to the media.
Future Out-of-Conference Opponents
With yesterday’s announcement of a home and home series against Syracuse, Rutgers is looking forward to some more favorable out of conference matchups that will be billed as regional battles. Here is a look at how the out-of-conference schedule will play out over the next few years.
2018
09/01 - Texas State
09/15 - at Kansas
09/22 – Buffalo
2019
08/31 - UMass
09/21 - Boston College
10/26 - Liberty
2020
09/12 - Syracuse
09/19 - at Temple
2021
09/04 - Temple
09/11 - at Syracuse
2022
09/03 - at Boston College
09/17 - at Temple
2023
09/09 - Temple
09/16 - Virginia Tech
09/30 – Ohio
Wrestling Tidbits
This weekend, No.18 Rutgers will face another pair of tough tests on the road as the Scarlet Knights will tangle with No.17 Northwestern tonight with a start time of 8 p.m. The matchups look favorable for Rutgers in this one as the Scarlet Knights should win the first three bouts of the night. Nick Suriano will face No.10-ranked Sebastian Rivera, but should be able to sustain his unblemished record. The problem matches for RU will be at 149 pounds when No.12-ranked Elezear DeLuca squares off against No.5 Ryan Deakin. After that, there is just one more ranked Northwestern wrestler as 174-pounder Johnny Sebastian is No.17 in the nation and will face unranked Joe Grello of Rutgers, who has been wrestling well as of late.
Then, on Sunday, Rutgers will face No.14 Illinois with a start time of 2 p.m. After narrowly missing a win over No.1-ranked Penn State 165-pounder Vincenzo Josephlast week, RU senior Richie Lewis will face off against No.2 ranked Isaiah Martinez. This should also be a close one with some favorable matchups for Rutgers.
Hoops Tidbits
Rutgers is facing a daunting task on Saturday against No.3-ranked Purdue at home. The Scarlet Knights are coming off a 31-point loss to Illinois and will have to face the Boilermakers without guard Mike Williams and forward Eugene Omoruyi, who are both sidelined with injuries. A sold-out RAC will need to help Rutgers more than ever as the Scarlet Knights will head into the game severely undermanned. Rutgers faced Purdue in early January and wound up on the short end of an 82-51 loss. Williams and Omoruyi both played in that game and Williams was one of only two Knights to score in double digits as he ended with 10 points. Tip-off is 4 p.m. at The RAC.
