Rutgers has assembled a pretty good 2013 recruiting class up to this point in Kyle Flood and his staff's first full recruiting cycle, with just about two months to go before signing day. Rivals has the class rated 29th nationally, and ESPN has them 34th. New Jersey is very deep in in-state talent this year, but Rutgers has missed out on most of the top tier guys, and their ranking is based more on quantity than quality. There are still some top players on the board though, and some players who may be on the verge of decommitting, so there's still a lot of room for improvement.
As far as uncommitted players go, Al-Quadin Muhammad is the consensus top remaining player in the state of New Jersey. The defensive end from Don Bosco was Rivals' number 6 rated player in New Jersey coming into the season, and he had a very good year in 2012 for the some what disappointing Iron Men. It has been rumored for a while that he has secretly given a verbal commitment to Notre Dame, but he is waiting to officially announce it at the Army All American Game on January 5th. It's not a stretch to believe that he has in fact given his commitment to the Irish considering they went undefeated this season and one of his best friends Elijah Shumate is already in South Bend, but I wouldn't totally rule Rutgers out on him yet. The coach recruiting him for Notre Dame, defensive coordinator Bob Diaco, is a candidate for some head coaching vacancies, and of course he has quite a few of his high school teammates playing for the Scarlet Knights who could sway him to stay close to home.
Another instate defensive end may be on the verge of decommitting. Immaculata's Tashawn Bower has been wavering on his commitment to Auburn for a while, and he is now looking to take official visits at other schools in wake of Gene Chizik's dismissal from the school. Gus Malzahn, who is the new head coach on the Plains, has already visited him in person, but Bower has scheduled official visits to Rutgers, LSU and Florida. Bower was rated as the 8th best player in New Jersey before the season, but he is know arguably the top prospect in the state after a strong senior year. He has made numerous unofficial visits to Rutgers this season, and many recruiting analysts view the Scarlet Knights as the heavy favorite for his services.
2012 safety DJ Singleton is back on the market after singing his letter of intent with Wisconsin last year. He failed to qualify because his SAT scores were a few points too low, and he is looking around for potential new suitors after Bret Bielema left the Badgers for Arkansas. Rutgers figures to be in the mix for the three star prospect after they offered him a scholarship a year ago, and Savon Huggins, his teammate at St. Peter's Prep, has reached out to him on Rutgers' behalf. The Scarlet Knights already have a number of safety types committed in this recruiting class, so it will be interesting to see how hard they go after Singleton. Wisconsin and other major programs figure to go after him as well.
Elsewhere, Asiantii Woulard, one of the top duel threat quarterbacks in the nation, has reopened his recruitment after South Florida fired Skip Holtz. According to ESPN, the Winter Haven, Florida product is considering Rutgers, Maryland, Syracuse, Tennessee and Ole Miss, with the Volunteers appearing to be the favorite. None of the recruiting sites have him listed as having an offer from Rutgers though, and in fact Rutgers is not even listed as having interest in him. Teams very rarely take more than one quarterback in a recruiting class, and with Chris Laviano already in the fold, I doubt Rutgers goes hard after him.
Rutgers already has 22 commitments for 2013 so far, so they don't have a ton of room to add more recruits (the limit is technically 25, but it is very easy to get around that rule). Hopefully they will get a few upper echelon guys to commit so they can have a top 25 class for the second year in a row. I think it is vital for them to either get Bower or Muhammad, and that was very apparent to me during the Louisville game when their lack of an impact pass rusher was painfully obvious. Regardless of what they do, their class appears to be in good shape.
No comments:
Post a Comment