Scarlet Links 3/2/12

-Running back coach Ben Sirmans, Special Teams Coordinator Phil Galiano and Offensive Grad Assistant Andrew Janocko are all leaving for the NFL. Galiano and Janocko will join Greg Schiano's staff in Tampa as a special teams assistant and Quality Control coach respectively, while Sirmans joins the St. Louis Rams staff as running backs coach. These are  pretty big losses. Sirmans is a New Jersey native and was one of the best running back coaches in the country. Galinao was retained to keep up the success the Knights had on special teams under Greg Schiano and he also recruited South Jersey. There's a lot of talent in South Jersey in the 2013 recruiting class, and losing him might hurt.

-Temple is on the verge of re-joining the Big East as an all sports member. They will be able to join the conference in time for the 2012-13 season, giving the Big East 8 teams. Temple was one of the most obvious candidates for Big East expansion, but it's mildly surprising that the basketball schools allowed this to happen, as they run the conference and Villanova was vehemently against adding Temple for obvious reasons.The only remaining obstacle is the exit fee the Owls would have to pay for leaving the MAC and Atlantic 10.

Schedule wise, Temple could just take over for West Virginia, but is it fair that they would get 4 conference home games while others get 3? If they make Temple play 4 road games, the Big East would have to decide whether they'll give Rutgers, Syracuse or Louisville a 4th home game. Rutgers needs the home game more than the others (in order to pay off the stadium renovations) but knowing the Big East, they'll give it to Syracuse even though they're leaving the conference. An extra home game could improve Louisville or Rutgers stock should conference realignment strike again.

The addition of Temple effects Rutgers in two other ways as well. Recruiting wise, moving to the Big East could improve Temple's recruiting in New Jersey. I don't think it will help in north and central Jersey (CJ is very pro Rutgers and there was a lot of backlash amongst NJ HS coaches when Steve Addazio was a candidate to take oer for Greg Schiano) but Rutgers could go to battle with the Owls for South Jersey prospects. Temple has built ties there taking lesser prospects  who didn't receive a lot of interest elsewhere. Rutgers would also have a void in their non conference schedule form 2015-2018, since they had a scheduled series with Temple. This won't be a big deal if the Big East goes to a 9 game conference slate or if RU joins another conference playing a 9 game slate.

-Former Scarlet Knights Mohamed Sanu, Justin Francis and Desmond Wynn participated in the NFL Combine earlier this week. Sanu is projected to go in the late first or early second round, and ran a sub par 40 yard dash, clocking in at 4.67 seconds. In reality, this isn't a big deal. Sanu is a possession receiver and isn't a track star like some other guys. This years' wide out class is pretty deep, so he will likely fall into the second round. Potential landing spots for Sanu are the Colts at 33 (they might lose Pierre Garcon and Reggie Wayne) , Patriots, 49ers, Texans, and Jets. Francis and Wynn are projected to go in the late rounds.

-Last week in his mailbag, Bruce Feldman fielded a question about Rutgers' future.

From @ChrisMonti Rutgers '12 outlook, one step back, then forward?

I'm not overly optimistic about that because the Big East is going to be so watered down, the perception is the conference is gonna be even less relevant. My hunch is it'll be that much harder for RU to compete with schools from the Big Ten and others when they go head-to-head on top talent around the Northeast. Can Kyle Flood do much more than Greg Schiano did? We'll see. It has become a tougher spot because of the conference's situation

 There is a grain of truth to what he is saying, but I don't necessarily agree. Rutgers has already "lost"* the top prospect in New Jersey for 2013's recruiting class, Eli Woodard of Voorhees to Ohio State, but the last two recruiting classes have proved one thing to me: Jersey kids want to stay home and win together, no matter what the conference landscape is or who the coach is. High School coaches in New Jersey still feel comfortable sending their players to Rutgers, and they approved of Kyle Flood's promotion to head coach. The kids being recruited now remember the Ray Rice and Kenny Britt glory days of Rutgers football and don't remember the sinkhole of a program it was before Greg Schiano.

*Recruiting isn't over until the prospect signs the dotted line. There's still 11 months for Woodard to change his mind.

Scarlet Links 2/17/12

There's quite a bit of news coming out of the Hale Center today, here's the latest:

-Tim Pernetti has finalized a home and home series for this season and 2013 with Arkansas. The Knights will play in Fayetteville on September 22nd and the Razorbacks will make the return trip to Piscataway on September 21st next year.

This is obviously great news for the program, as these games against a premiere opponent will likely be televised nationally. Arkansas finished ranked 5th last season after beating Kansas State in the Cotton Bowl, with their only two losses coming against the two national finalists, LSU and Alabama. They will likely begin the season ranked in the #10-15 range.

Bruce Feldman wrote about the Hogs in his mail bag today, saying:

 " I like the Hogs chances to be a top 10 team, but I don't like their chances to win the SEC West and compete for a BCS title. Reasons for a top 10 run: Tyler Wilson is back, along with Knile Davis and they do get LSU and Bama at home this year. Reasons why I don't think they can win the SEC: I'm not sold on the defense. It wasn't good enough in 2011 and they're losing most of the best players they had on that D to the NFL. "

Wilson is one of the best quarter backs in the nation, as he passed for 3638 yards (8.31 yards per attempt) with 24 TDs and only 6 interceptionslast season. He would have likely been a first round pick this April, had the rising senior declared for the draft. Davis missed all of last season with a  leg injury he suffered during training camp. In 2010 he ran for 1322 yards (6.5 yards per attempt) with 13 TDs. In addition to the losses on defense, the Hogs also lost three members of their very talented receiving corp to graduation.

If Rutgers is at least competitive in these games, it would do wonders for Rutgers' reputation and brand nationally.

-Defensive Back Jordan Thomas has left the program to run track at Binghampton, according to Jason Baum. Thomas was the Scarlet Knights' leading rusher in 2010, before moving to defensive back last season because he did not fit Frank Cignetti's pro-style offense. He was a big special teams contributor, returning and covering kicks, but he was unable to see the field on offense or defense, as Rutgers was loaded at wide receiver and defensive back.

Speculation is that he's ending his football career because of concussions. He suffered a pretty serious one during spring practice this year. This is a big loss, but it's probably for the best. What a shame, good luck to Jordan.

-Baum also tweeted that Nike will unveil a new Rutgers uniform in May. Hopefully this isn't a drastic change and is just a minor alteration or a new alternate uniform. I'm one of the few people under 30 who is a uniform purist, and this news is very concerning to me. Hopefully the changes are nothing crazy, like what Arizona State and Maryland did.

Bonus: Here's new Rutgers offensive tackle, Maryland transfer RJ Dill modeling one of the Terps' new uniforms last summer.