gw,
i'm with you on rutgers.
here is an interesting article on how rutgers is recruiting in fla.
Knights take Florida talent
BY DICK WEISS
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Rutgers football sent a huge Christmas card to South Florida last year.
Coach Greg Schiano and marketing director Kevin McConnell designed billboards that said, "Season's Greetings from Rutgers football" with a picture of the Scarlet Knights' Florida-recruited players and placed them across the street from specifically targeted high school in Palm Beach, Broward and Dade counties during December and January, the two months before the signing date.
Schiano also had his TV show pumped into the state on the Sunshine Network and his coaching staff has held clinics there.
It may look like sensory overload but it actually has been a creative plan to establish Rutgers as a viable alternative to high school prospects in a fertile recruiting ground.
Rutgers finally looks like it is on the verge of making a breakthrough in the revised Big East this season. And when the history of the Schiano era is written, his Florida connections will play an important part. Schiano, who had been the defensive coordinator at Miami before taking over this once-stagnant program four years ago, has used his contacts to lure 29 players from Florida to New Jersey.
At least 14 of them could be starters on a team that is actually talking about the postseason. Rutgers has not had a winning season since 1992, but a seven-win season seems possible now.
"When I got here I made it clear we needed to recruit our state for the best players," Schiano said. "But I felt we also needed to recruit Florida. That was definitely our strategy. And we wanted to limit the areas where we recruit - not go national. People say, 'Why don't you go to Maryland?' When you look at the number of Division I signees out of Maryland, then you look at the state of Florida, what was it? There were 361 Division I signees out of Florida.
"People say, 'Well, you're taking seconds out of that state?' Well, what is a second? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
Consider most of the star players on this year's Scarlet Knights. Senior free safety Jarvis Johnson is from Miami South Dade HS. Junior Quarterback Ryan Hart is from Cardinal Gibbons in Coral Springs, junior wide receiver Shawn Tucker is from Parkland Douglas and senior wideout Tres Moses is from Delray Beach Atlantic. Hart, who completed 59% of his 398 passes for 2,714 yards and 15 touchdowns last season, could be the best quarterback in the Big East if he can cut down his 19 interceptions. Tucker and Moses both caught over 50 passes a year ago, while Johnson led the team in tackles with 97.
"When I first heard about Rutgers, I honestly can say I didn't even know where the school was located," Moses said. "I had no idea. I didn't know anything about Rutgers. When I signed, a lot of players from my class just came on blind faith. We just went from word of mouth from coach Schiano. But now, more and more people are starting to see what's happening around here. It wouldn't surprise me if a lot more people from Florida want to be a part of that."
Hart, who has been a starter since midway through his freshman year, was an all-state quarterback at Gibbons. "When Rutgers recruited me, I was a junior in high school," he said. "I didn't know much about the program. In fact, I didn't know what state it was in. Then, I talked to the coaches and got more informed about it. I was really excited when I came up here for a visit. I went to their summer camp and was really shocked by their facilities."
Everybody who actually ventures onto campus to see this well-kept secret says that. AD Bob Mulcahy has gotten the university to put its money where its mouth is. The facilities on the Piscataway side of the river match up well with every school in the Big East. Mulcahy has upgraded 41,500-seat Rutgers Stadium with FieldTurf, a video scoreboard and luxury boxes. He oversaw the $13 million expansion of Hale Center, the school's football operations building that now houses digital classrooms and meeting rooms, a 150-seat amphitheater, an expanded weight room and cutting-edge training center. Mulcahy also turned the former baseball field into an enclosed practice area with three full-length fields.
He also has been patient with Schiano, who suffered through 2-9 and 1-10 seasons his first two years, but has recruited an infusion of talent and a creative offensive coordinator in Craig Ver Steeg from Utah, which has made Rutgers fun to watch on offense and should make the Knights competitive in every game they play.
"I think the Big East is pretty even," Hart said. "It's going to be like the SEC or the Big Ten, where any team can upset any team on a given Saturday."
The first given Saturday might be in just five days, when Michigan State comes to Piscataway and gives Schiano's Scarlet Knights their first chance to make some noise on the national scene in a long time.
good luck.
