Rutgers NJ Recruiting

[Eagleton96]

In another thread I did a little recruiting analysis, basically to satisfy my own curiosity, on how well RU is doing recruiting NJ. It was interesting so here is an updated version.

The method is this, I'm looking at the Rivals NJ top 35 at the kids that had an RU offer. And of those, I'm not including kids like the QB Angeli. He had an offer, but we recruited over him and nobody would substitute Wimsatt for Angeli...so you can't say we lost out on Angeli. So of the kids we wanted and needed, who did we get? I'm also including on the list, as kids who had an offer, the elite kids that maybe we didn't offer because we knew there was no interest and chance, like Trent McGaughey who has offers from Alabama and the like but no RU. I have to assume they were takes if they had interest in RU.

So of the kids that were "takes" so to speak, how did we do in the NJ top 35?

Looking at the Rivals NJ top 10: There were 6 players that we wanted, and of those we got 3. Got: Allan, Fletcher, Igbinosin. Lost: Ballamy, Gould, Miles. Angeli had an RU offer, but I don't think you can say we lost him when we got a higher rated guy who also fits our system better.

Looking at the next 10 (11-20): There were 5 players we wanted (maybe 4) and we got 2 (Monegro and De Croce). Maybe lost on one (Lequint Allen), and two undecided but leaning toward going out of state (McGaughey and Jenkins). I'm not counting Q'Yeir Price as it looks like he had an offer but we recruited over him and the offer was no longer committable. I am counting Trent McGaughey and Justin Jenkins as losses - they have elite offers and we probably didn't offer because it was clear they weren't interested. I included Lequint Allen as a loss, but I'm not sure. He's a DB that committed to Syracuse. DB is still an area of need so I'm not sure if we legitimately lost to Cuse in that battle. But Rivals shows an RU offer.

Looking at 21-35: It looks like there were 4 players that were definitely takes and 1 that is a maybe, and we got 2 of those and another forecasted to RU. The maybe is Kanye Udoh who it shows has an offer, but we may be full at RB. I'm also not sure about Alex Bauman at DE. Shows him having an offer, but not sure how hard we are recruiting him. But I left him in.

So tallying that up, there were 15 in the NJ top 35 that were clear "takes" for RU. Of those we got 7, and 1 is forecasted to RU. Two or three of those 15 I'm not sure we are really recruiting hard now as we have better guys already at their position. So it's more likely that we got 8 out of the top 13 or 14 that we wanted.

In summary, we are cleaning up in NJ recruiting. And given scholarship limitations, and a number of top recruits from out of state, we got the majority of the NJ kids we targeted. Probably around 65%.

Add in the top guy in NY, and the top guy in KY, the #s 10 and 12 in PA, and this class is smoking hot.

 

[HeavenUniv.]

Hopefully our hydration program doesn’t take a step backward. And I am very concerned about our lack of focus in Sweden.

 

[Eagleton96]

Yes, we seem to be getting shut out of the Sweeden Top 25. Certainly a cause for concern.

 

[NewJerseyGuy]

Yes, we seem to be getting shut out of the Sweeden Top 25. Certainly a cause for concern.

Maybe IKEA can lend a hand with the snack bar...

 

[e5fdny]

Is he a B1G East type player?

If the answer is yes, I don’t really care where he comes from. Just get him.

 

[Kbee3]

I've spent years and years waiting for Rutgers to make serious inroads in recruiting New Jersey's best prospects.
However, i think GS has shown us the actual pathway to success for this program. Recruit nationally.
I don't care if a top quarterback is from Kentucky. Or an elite linebacker from Pennsylvania or New York. Or a top receiver from Florida. Get great prospects.
And with GS's skill set and his excellent assistants it looks like we may be on the verge of success in that department. Let's hope.

 

[Dpgru]

When we entered the BIG it was widely believed by many that we did not belong. The “sleeping giant” crowd was somewhat small. Many said that the “do not belong“ tag would remain until we show significant progress on the field. That, IMO, was bypassing the actual first step. That step is recruiting BIG level talent. the transfer portal gave Greg the chance to be competitive earlier than expected but it is a risky way to build a program since most of the transfers have limited eligibility. These last two years have provided RU with “WE DO BELONG” recruiting classes. I know I am not breaking any new ground when I say that bringing back GS was absolutely the right, and probably the only, move that could get this accomplished. Go RU.

 

[Eagleton96]

I've spent years and years waiting for Rutgers to make serious inroads in recruiting New Jersey's best prospects.
However, i think GS has shown us the actual pathway to success for this program. Recruit nationally.
I don't care if a top quarterback is from Kentucky. Or an elite linebacker from Pennsylvania or New York. Or a top receiver from Florida. Get great prospects.
And with GS's skill set and his excellent assistants it looks like we may be on the verge of success in that department. Let's hope.

I respectfully disagree. This class is based on a core of NJ players augmented by some elite talent from our regional recruiting grounds in NY, PA, and Florida. I think you can now add to the mix a few kids every year from the rest of the Big Ten footprint. That's basically the same formula GS 1.0 used, he's just doing it at a higher level. I define this as strong regional recruiting. And if your region is a top national recruiting hotbed, that will take you far.

Wimsatt is the lone exception. There will always be one or two randoms every year. And QB in particular is a position where the limited number of slots means that both QBs and teams will shop a wider area to find a match.

 

[HeavenUniv.]

Schiano probably has contacts in all 50 states after his time with Ohio State and Urban Meyer.

 

[Dpgru]

Knee and Eagleton, IMO, you are both right. It doesn’t matter where we get elite players as long as we get them but NJ is loaded with talent, much of it elite. So, getting NJ elite is important. Look at the 22 class. We have many NJ elites (no’s 1 and 2 qualify). But there are other quality NJ guys we didn’t go after because we got what the staff considers better quality out of state (Wimsatt ie,). So it is the combination that makes the class a great one as opposed to a good one.

 

[WhoRU?]

Greg is following a familiar plan, but it's upgraded. Greg 1.0 recruited out of state (south Florida) to upgrade the level of talent because NJ coaches were skeptical. Once he demonstrated that he could develop players, the NJ coaches were willing to up the level of talent they'd encourage to look at us. Same thing is happening now, except he's picking up where he left off.

 

[e5fdny]

I respectfully disagree. This class is based on a core of NJ players augmented by some elite talent from our regional recruiting grounds in NY, PA, and Florida. I think you can now add to the mix a few kids every year from the rest of the Big Ten footprint. That's basically the same formula GS 1.0 used, he's just doing it at a higher level. I define this as strong regional recruiting. And if your region is a top national recruiting hotbed, that will take you far.

Wimsatt is the lone exception. There will always be one or two randoms every year. And QB in particular is a position where the limited number of slots means that both QBs and teams will shop a wider area to find a match.

None of us are saying NJ isn’t important.

It is and will always be and now as you say in the bolded above it is at a higher level.

And IMO it’s because of the B1G connection. The 1.0 version did really well when dealing with the hand that was dealt, a changing Big East.

But now, with the allure of the B1G + the transfer portal and his recruiting chops along with this current staff…not really worried.

 

[HeavenUniv.]

I just read that Oklahoma got their first player from Nebraska since 1973 !

 

[Kbee3]

I just read that Oklahoma got their first player from Nebraska since 1973 !

I always wondered how good Oklahoma would be if they built a wall around Oklahoma. Or if Nebraska built a wall around Nebraska.

 

[HeavenUniv.]

I wonder how good Oklahoma would be if they didn’t get any Texas kids? Is there enough talent in that state to support three Division 1 programs ?

 

[RUPete]

I think we did well in NJ this year, but I never consider it the be-all, end-all as a portion of athletes and students in general are always going to want a change of scenery. As Kbee posted, we have seen what the pathway to success looks like here and it will never rely solely on NJ. When we started neglecting Florida, then it was time to worry.

 

[jonS]

Yes, we seem to be getting shut out of the Sweeden Top 25. Certainly a cause for concern.

There's always Finland and Norway to expand the state of Rutgers.......

 

[Yeah Baby]

The staff is KILLING it.

 

[Eagleton96]

I think we did well in NJ this year, but I never consider it the be-all, end-all as a portion of athletes and students in general are always going to want a change of scenery. As Kbee posted, we have seen what the pathway to success looks like here and it will never rely solely on NJ. When we started neglecting Florida, then it was time to worry.

I don't think anyone ever said that recruiting success could rest "solely" on NJ. Not even RutgersAl. But I believe that RU will never, or at least in the foreseeable future, be successful without a solid base of NJ kids. And in no way would I describe what we are doing now as "national" recruiting. It's not an either/or kind of thing. We do a little national recruiting, built on a solid base of NJ and regional recruits. Someone, ahem, once coined this The State of Rutgers.

 

[Eagleton96]

I always wondered how good Oklahoma would be if they built a wall around Oklahoma. Or if Nebraska built a wall around Nebraska.

Considering Rivals ranks a Nebraska top 5 (compared with a NJ top 35 or 40), and that neighboring states are pretty sparse with D1 talent also, Nebraska has to recruit regionally and nationally to succeed. That's part of why they fell so fast when they lost momentum...they didn't have a loyal local base to fall back on.

Oklahoma is in a much better position for both local and regional recruiting.

 

[RUPete]

I don't think anyone ever said that recruiting success could rest "solely" on NJ. Not even RutgersAl. But I believe that RU will never, or at least in the foreseeable future, be successful without a solid base of NJ kids. And in no way would I describe what we are doing now as "national" recruiting. It's not an either/or kind of thing. We do a little national recruiting, built on a solid base of NJ and regional recruits. Someone, ahem, once coined this The State of Rutgers.

I guess it depends on what we define as a solid base. When GS first took over, I used to call it the 5-10 rule in NJ. When he got here schools like Cuse were getting more of the top 25 NJ recruits and we were only getting a handful. Once we flipped that equation we started beating their a$$es. It's never going to be everybody, but I agree with you- we need to maintain a solid base.

 

[Eagleton96]

There's always Finland and Norway to expand the state of Rutgers.......

Once upon a time I actually might have clicked on an article talking about how prep football in Scandinavia is improving lol. Thankfully now I couldn't care less.

 

[NewJerseyGuy]

There's always Finland and Norway to expand the state of Rutgers.......

Absolutely...

 

[Eagleton96]

I wonder how good Oklahoma would be if they didn’t get any Texas kids? Is there enough talent in that state to support three Division 1 programs ?

Rivals ranks a top 15 in Oklahoma (as opposed to a top 35-40 in NJ). They rank a top 100 in Texas, but that has to be split among Baylor, Texas A&M, Houston, Texas Tech, Texas, SMU, TCU. Maybe I'm missing someone. Add in Oklahoma, LSU, and Alabama that recruit Texas heavily, and every other school...

 

[Eagleton96]

I guess it depends on what we define as a solid base. When GS first took over, I used to call it the 5-10 rule in NJ. When he got here schools like Cuse were getting more of the top 25 NJ recruits and we were only getting a handful. Once we flipped that equation we started beating their a$$es. It's never going to be everybody, but I agree with you- we need to maintain a solid base.

I think how we define things is at the root of this disagreement. I think Kbee may be reacting to the story that came out where the AD's office told Ash to recruit NJ more heavily. And so Ash put more of his eggs in the NJ basked and it didn't pay off. Greg has definitely expanded the recruiting base, back to what he was doing in Greg 1.0 times. So that's probably what Kbee means. I wouldn't have used the term "recruit nationally" to describe that. So I didn't get what he meant at first.

I think most people can agree that our success is a solid base of NJ, plus cherry picking PA, NY, CT, MD and Florida. And new to the mix is adding a couple Midwest Big Ten country kids, and occasionally a rando from Kentucky or wherever.

 

[e5fdny]

I guess it depends on what we define as a solid base. When GS first took over, I used to call it the 5-10 rule in NJ. When he got here schools like Cuse were getting more of the top 25 NJ recruits and we were only getting a handful. Once we flipped that equation we started beating their a$$es. It's never going to be everybody, but I agree with you- we need to maintain a solid base.

Yes.

But some of those guys from the 1.0 era and even now might work for a Sara or BCU but maybe not what we need for the B1G East.

I think how we define things is at the root of this disagreement. I think Kbee may be reacting to the story that came out where the AD's office told Ash to recruit NJ more heavily. And so Ash put more of his eggs in the NJ basked and it didn't pay off. Greg has definitely expanded the recruiting base, back to what he was doing in Greg 1.0 times. So that's probably what Kbee means. I wouldn't have used the term "recruit nationally" to describe that. So I didn't get what he meant at first.

I think most people can agree that our success is a solid base of NJ, plus cherry picking PA, NY, CT, MD and Florida. And new to the mix is adding a couple Midwest Big Ten country kids, and occasionally a rando from Kentucky or wherever.

That 2nd paragraph…100%

👍

 

[RUPete]

Absolutely...

Don't do this to me...

 

[NewJerseyGuy]

Don't do this to me...

Sorry. I love that picture ... and those pastries look pretty good.

 

[Eagleton96]

Sorry. I love that picture ... and those pastries look pretty good.

Access to pastry should be a criterion in our recruiting playbook.

 

[Mr_Twister]

Provincial recruiting only matters with regards to elite players. Getting a handful of the top 15 players in NJ is no small task for Rutgers. Get the best possible talent. The states Florida, Texas, and Georgia are knee deep in elite players. Given Coach Schiano’s background, Florida should be our best friend.

 

[Eagleton96]

Provincial recruiting only matters with regards to elite players. Getting a handful of the top 15 players in NJ is no small task for Rutgers. Get the best possible talent. The states Florida, Texas, and Georgia are knee deep in elite players. Given Coach Schiano’s background, Florida should be our best friend.

The issue is that elite talent has to want to come to RU. Why would an elite kid from Georgia pass up offers from Alabama, Georgia, and Southern California to come to RU? Once in a while the stars will align. But we need provincial recruits because we have a better shot at them. If GS and RU can't get elite local kids, we aren't going to be able to make up for it by getting kids from Florida and Texas. NJ, eastern PA, NYC and the burbs, will always be our core.

 

[Mr_Twister]

The issue is that elite talent has to want to come to RU. Why would an elite kid from Georgia pass up offers from Alabama, Georgia, and Southern California to come to RU? Once in a while the stars will align. But we need provincial recruits because we have a better shot at them. If GS and RU can't get elite local kids, we aren't going to be able to make up for it by getting kids from Florida and Texas. NJ, eastern PA, NYC and the burbs, will always be our core.

The number of very talented players in Florida and Georgia and Texas far exceeds the number in NJ. Sell Big Ten level of competition, Big Ten Network exposure, NIL opportunities in media hotbed.

 

[Richie O]

In another thread I did a little recruiting analysis, basically to satisfy my own curiosity, on how well RU is doing recruiting NJ. It was interesting so here is an updated version.

The method is this, I'm looking at the Rivals NJ top 35 at the kids that had an RU offer. And of those, I'm not including kids like the QB Angeli. He had an offer, but we recruited over him and nobody would substitute Wimsatt for Angeli...so you can't say we lost out on Angeli. So of the kids we wanted and needed, who did we get? I'm also including on the list, as kids who had an offer, the elite kids that maybe we didn't offer because we knew there was no interest and chance, like Trent McGaughey who has offers from Alabama and the like but no RU. I have to assume they were takes if they had interest in RU.

So of the kids that were "takes" so to speak, how did we do in the NJ top 35?

Looking at the Rivals NJ top 10: There were 6 players that we wanted, and of those we got 3. Got: Allan, Fletcher, Igbinosin. Lost: Ballamy, Gould, Miles. Angeli had an RU offer, but I don't think you can say we lost him when we got a higher rated guy who also fits our system better.

Looking at the next 10 (11-20): There were 5 players we wanted (maybe 4) and we got 2 (Monegro and De Croce). Maybe lost on one (Lequint Allen), and two undecided but leaning toward going out of state (McGaughey and Jenkins). I'm not counting Q'Yeir Price as it looks like he had an offer but we recruited over him and the offer was no longer committable. I am counting Trent McGaughey and Justin Jenkins as losses - they have elite offers and we probably didn't offer because it was clear they weren't interested. I included Lequint Allen as a loss, but I'm not sure. He's a DB that committed to Syracuse. DB is still an area of need so I'm not sure if we legitimately lost to Cuse in that battle. But Rivals shows an RU offer.

Looking at 21-35: It looks like there were 4 players that were definitely takes and 1 that is a maybe, and we got 2 of those and another forecasted to RU. The maybe is Kanye Udoh who it shows has an offer, but we may be full at RB. I'm also not sure about Alex Bauman at DE. Shows him having an offer, but not sure how hard we are recruiting him. But I left him in.

So tallying that up, there were 15 in the NJ top 35 that were clear "takes" for RU. Of those we got 7, and 1 is forecasted to RU. Two or three of those 15 I'm not sure we are really recruiting hard now as we have better guys already at their position. So it's more likely that we got 8 out of the top 13 or 14 that we wanted.

In summary, we are cleaning up in NJ recruiting. And given scholarship limitations, and a number of top recruits from out of state, we got the majority of the NJ kids we targeted. Probably around 65%.

Add in the top guy in NY, and the top guy in KY, the #s 10 and 12 in PA, and this class is smoking hot.

Sign up for premium and you'd have the answers to who was and who is committable at this time 😉

 

[RUTGERS95]

Yes, we seem to be getting shut out of the Sweeden Top 25. Certainly a cause for concern.

well played

still can't believe anyone would hire him after seeing his body of work

 

[mdk01]

The issue is that elite talent has to want to come to RU. Why would an elite kid from Georgia pass up offers from Alabama, Georgia, and Southern California to come to RU? Once in a while the stars will align. But we need provincial recruits because we have a better shot at them. If GS and RU can't get elite local kids, we aren't going to be able to make up for it by getting kids from Florida and Texas. NJ, eastern PA, NYC and the burbs, will always be our core.

Core, yes. But Rutgers is in a somewhat unique position of having a lot of the top local talent going to the Catholics, which give ND and BC a built in advantage. Need to go elsewhere, Florida in particular but all of Big 10 country as well to fill out the roster.

 

[Eagleton96]

Sign up for premium and you'd have the answers to who was and who is committable at this time 😉

I'd consider it. But it tells me that I have to pay a month owed from the previous time I had a subscription, and then pay again, to subscribe. Not a lot of money, but it sticks in my craw so to speak. I'm good.

 

[Eagleton96]

Core, yes. But Rutgers is in a somewhat unique position of having a lot of the top local talent going to the Catholics, which give ND and BC a built in advantage. Need to go elsewhere, Florida in particular but all of Big 10 country as well to fill out the roster.

In 2021, of the NJ Top 35, 3 went to BC and one to ND. Only one of those kids went to a private school. So far in 2022, 3 of the Top 35 pledged to ND or BC, all from private Catholic schools.

I think it takes it's toll. But I think it's more about elitism in those schools than Catholicism. It's a culture that promotes going to big name programs wherever they are. We definitely seem to underperform in recruiting the big North Jersey parochials compared to the public schools.

 

[rutgersdave]

We appear to be doing a better job of getting high level recruits out of state than in the past. I think having a bigger budget allowed us to recruit more OOS.

 

[HeywoodGiant]

I wonder how good Oklahoma would be if they didn’t get any Texas kids? Is there enough talent in that state to support three Division 1 programs ?

Barry Switzer used to talk about it. He said Oklahoma only had a few d1 players in the whole state and he was able to get them. He‘d get most of his players from Texas or California

 

[Richie O]

I'd consider it. But it tells me that I have to pay a month owed from the previous time I had a subscription, and then pay again, to subscribe. Not a lot of money, but it sticks in my craw so to speak. I'm good.

Did you try reaching out to support about this? Use this link and click the rivals contact form here — https://rutgers.rivals.com/news/contact-us-5

They should be able to clear that up.