Michael J. Redden: Fla. Recruitment

Jan 26, 2010 | By: Random Blogger

Over the past couple months, there has been a lot of discussion amongst Rutgers fans regarding the recruitment of Florida prospects. In the wake of Rutgers’ main Florida recruiter Brian Jenkins leaving the program, there have been many fans that have voiced their opinions, stating they would like for RU to once again focus solely on prospects in the tri-state area. I believe that this is a terrible idea.

Ever since his arrival in 2001, head coach Greg Schiano has made it a point to recruit prospects from the goldmine of a state, sometimes in mass numbers. At one point, more than 35 prospects from the “Sunshine State” were on the Rutgers roster at one time. In the beginning, the majority of these players represented Dade and Broward counties. However, with the re-acclimation of Chris Demarest to the staff in 2004, Rutgers also began recruiting the Tampa area as well as other parts of state. This mixture of talent from Florida made a vast contribution to the Rutgers program, one that can be measured in victories.

The fact is, every program recruits out of Florida, and will continue to do so. USC even does so from time to time, landing wide receiver Mike Williams and linebacker Keith Rivers. Notre Dame benefitted from the signings of Armando Allen and Sam Young. Alabama has gotten Trent Richardson from Florida. If these top programs are smart enough to pluck athletes out of Florida, then why shouldn’t Rutgers?

In the past, RU often was delegated to admitting Florida athletes who were not highly recruited. Due to the fact that Rutgers had an annual camp in Florida, they were able to overcome their lack of success on the field by finding kids from the huge state, who no one else knew about. Damaso Munoz and Eric Foster were discovered this way as were many others. More often than not, the staff picked up quality players. With such camps eventually being deemed illegal by the NCAA, Rutgers now has to get these same kids to travel to Piscataway and attend summer camp.

Although this create a challenge for the Knights, there was a very impressive Florida showing last summer at the Rutgers camp. The staff was able to evaluate plenty of prospects up close, as well as actively recruit those who impressed them. This would eventually culminate with the commitment of Marcus Thompson as well as strong interest from many other prospects such as Michael Lee Harris, Corvin Lamb, James Potts, James Louis, Brian Robinson, and several others.

Over the years with Rutgers having more success on the field, it has become clear that Rutgers can go toe to toe with many other top schools when it comes to Florida recruiting. DC Jefferson chose Rutgers over LSU, Marcus Thompson has chosen Rutgers over Florida St; 10 years ago, this would have been unfathomable. After going to five straight bowls games and winning four of them, the fact is that Rutgers can now recruit successfully against most schools, and is perhaps a more attractive destination to some recruits than schools such as the University of South Florida, Florida State, and others.

I was surprised this year at how many Florida kids Rutgers had a legitimate chance with. In fact, Rutgers had to turn down kids who five years ago, they would have laid down in front of a bus to retain. Although these kids will unfortunately not be playing at Rutgers, it is encouraging to see that the Scarlet Knights can still attract the interest of quality kids from the Sunshine State.

People seem to have mixed emotions about the Scarlet Knight’s Florida recruiting efforts, due to the perception that Florida kids have trouble qualifying, or have behavioral issues. You can find kids with these issues anywhere. While it is true that Rutgers has gotten some kids like Malcolm Johnson and Chris McClover, who never make it to campus, or Chris Dirksz who didn’t stick with the program, overall I think the ends justify the means.

There have been times when all of Rutgers skills position players on offense were from Florida, and plenty more times when Rutgers would have lost games that they won if they didn’t have these players at their disposal. I will never forget the Florida versus NJ pick-up basketball games that the football players used to play in the Cook gym. I still have an image of Eric Foster crossing people over at 260-pounds. To be blunt, the Florida kids used to mop up on the Jersey kids while displaying their elite athleticism.

Speaking of Eric Foster, another thing that people don’t seem to acknowledge enough is the swagger that these Florida athletes have brought up North. More often than not, these players are confident, fearless and could care less about who is on the other side of the line from them. I find it hard to believe that the “Keep Chopping” mentality would have proliferated throughout the locker room the way that it did without the presence of an Eric Foster, or “Windmill” Willie Foster. Foster put it best when screaming out, “We got that Fire”.

The point is, despite the fact that Rutgers football has repaired its image within the Garden State; they will always be forced to revert to what got them this far -- recruiting Florida. While Rutgers is creating a culture where it is more attractive in terms of keeping the best NJ kids in-state, they still need to go grab talent in other areas in order to sustain the level of success recently enjoyed.

Like everyone else, Rutgers will have to continue to evaluate and actively recruit kids from all over, but certain places demand more attention than others. If taking Florida kids over lesser-able local kids bothers you, I suggest you get over it because not much will change. Currently Rutgers is actively recruiting Florida and hopefully has no plans to abandon that strategy.

We are currently in the process of getting in touch with Rutgers newest Florida targets for the 2011 class. Stay tuned to learn who Rutgers is looking at, and what the chances are of these targets ending up in Scarlet.

Updated On: Jan 28, 2010 03:05 PM

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