Photo: The New York Times
Well college football fans, your Christmas day has arrived!
February 1st is otherwise known as Signing Day. It is the day in which college coaches throughout the nation hope t hear the fax machines in their offices buzzing with as many signed letters of intent as possible. Let’s face it, the name of the game in collegiate athletics is RECRUITING! It is the lifeblood of all of its sports, and those that do it well are successful, whereas those who don’t aren’t. I consider myself a “recruitnik”, someone who follows it rather closely. However, college basketball recruiting is more of my bag. This week, I will take a stab at some college football recruiting when I put the Rutgers 2017 class under the microscope.
This is head coach Chris Ash’s second recruiting class. Remember, he was only on the job two months last year when he brought in 17 players. 2017 is a different story, as he not only has one season in the books, he and his staff have had a whole year to knock on doors and sit in living rooms selling their vision. As of this writing, Ash as received 26 commitments, 15 of which are from New Jersey products. According to two recruiting services (Rivals and ESPN), Micah Clark, a 6’5″, 260 pound offensive lineman from St. John Vianney (Holmdel, NJ), is the highest rated signee. He is considered a 4-star recruit, ranked #178 by Rivals and #291 by ESPN. Clark is the only player ranked in either service’s top 300 players nationally to choose Rutgers.
Photo: www.nj.com
The Scarlet Knights have two more 4-star prospects in the class, Tyshon Fogg, a 6’2″, 235 pound outside linebacker from Calvert Hall High School in Baltimore, MD, and Bo Melton, a 6’1″, 180 pound wide receiver from Cedar Creek High School in Egg Harbor, NJ. The rest of the 23 man class contains seventeen 3-star recruits, one 2-star recruit, and 5 players who are not rated at all. Consensus is that this group is much better than last years, which is good news. As for some bad news, they missed on a few other top ranked Garden Staters such as: Drew Singleton (Paramus Catholic – Michigan), Fred Hansard (The Hun School – PSU), and Dalyn Wade-Perry (Pope John XXIII – Stanford), just to name a few.
When you are recruiting along with Big Ten Conference mates such as Ohio State and Michigan (#2 and #4 classes nationally), any class will look a little sparse, Don’t fret however, the Buckeyes and Wolverines have signed more 4 and 5-star recruits (40) than the rest of the conference combined (36)! Rome wasn’t built in a day Rutgers football fans, give Chris Ash and his staff some time. They have already stepped things up on the trail, and then there is that big game coming up on Sunday in which former Scarlet Knights will be all over the field.
🏆 Most Players in Super Bowl 51
5- Rutgers
4- Alabama
4- LSU
4- Stanford
3- Auburn
3- Georgia
3- Virginia
3- Washington— Pick Six Previews (@PickSixPreviews) January 23, 2017
And that my friends is My 2 Sense for this week. Enjoy the big game!
