Dontea Ayres Commits to Rutgers

Dontea Ayres, a running back from Wicomico HS in Salisbury, Maryland, became the third 2013 prospect to give a verbal commitment to Rutgers, yesterday. He is from the same high school as safety Wayne Warren, and he ran for 1471 yards last season. Unlike the previous two commits, Ayers is a fairly well known, highly recruited prospect, and not a potential diamond in the rough.

Measurables: 5'9'' 205 4.48 (height, weight, 40 time)

Stars: 

Rivals	Scout	ESPN	247
3 star RB	3 stars, #80 RB	3 stars, 77 overall rating, #39 RB, #10 in MD	3 stars, 84 overall rating, #65 RB, #25 in MD

Consensus 3 star prospect

Offer Sheet: Ayres had offers from Duke, Navy, North Carolina State, Northwestern, and West Virginia, in addition to Rutgers, who offered him in early April. Stanford, Maryland and Wisconsin have also shown interest in him.

Scouting Report: Ayres is your proverbial "bowling ball" type runner, possessing a very thick build and low center of gravity. He is able to keep his legs driving through contact and he runs with a low pad level, so he has tremendous power and breaks a ton of tackles. He takes short, choppy steps, giving him outstanding balance. In the open field, he has deceptive speed and good lateral movement. He always secures the ball high and tight, and I couldn't get a good read on him in the passing game from what I saw. He can also put on quit a show in the weight room, which you can see in the video below.

Video:

Other: While visiting spring practice at Rutgers, Kyle Flood reportedly told him that he was the #1 RB on their recruiting board. 

My Take: Ayres is a very powerful runner and he gives Rutgers a dimension at running back they have been lacking the last few seasons. Maryland is a small, state, but has a lot of talent (similar to NJ), so it's good to see the coaching staff make early inroads there. This is also the first semi-high profile recruit landed by them and their first recruiting battle victory.