RU’S INTENT CLEAR
Coming off a season in which Rutgers finished 12th in the country and won the Texas Bowl – the highest ranking and first postseason victory in school history – coach Greg Schiano reeled in a recruiting class on National Signing Day that’s clearly his best ever and that he termed a championship one.
The biggest cornerstone of the class – and that is indeed a double entendre – is 6-6, 340-pound Anthony Davis, a five-star prospect who is the second-ranked tackle in the country by scout.com.
The Piscataway (N.J.) High School star picked his hometown team over Ohio State, while Union Hill’s Manny Abreu – the No. 2-ranked weakside linebacker by scout.com – chose RU over Florida, which beat Ohio State in the BCS title game.
What exactly does snatching a pair of heavily recruited prospects away from so-called big schools like the Buckeyes and Gators say about Rutgers?
“It says we’re a big school,” Schiano bristled. “We were 12th in the country; we have 26,000 undergrad students. We just haven’t been successful on the field, but we’ve started that now. It does say a lot.
“The only thing holding us back when we got here was us. We had to get young men in here who believe in what we’re doing: Now we’re doing that. But our goal isn’t 11th; it’s to be the best in the country. The young men who are coming here, I hope they’re coming to win a national championship.”
After finishing 7-5 in 2005, RU went 11-2 this past season and beat then-No. 3 Louisville, 28-25.
That breakthrough showed on the recruiting trail, with Davis saying on CSTV: “They didn’t think we’d be ranked in the Top 25 and we ended No. 12. We can win [a title] next year.”
This 21-player class – which included 11 linemen – dropped just outside of the Top 25 when S Joseph Nicolas of Homestead (Fla.) de-committed in the finals hours to go to Miami. But it still ended up ranked 28th by scout.com, and was tabbed second-best in the Big East by Tom Lemming of CSTV and the “Prep Football Report.”
“When we were 7-5, I said we’ve got a window of opportunity here,” Schiano said. “We’re halfway through. But we can’t let that window slam on our legs.”
They seem well on their way, with nine of the Top 30 New Jersey prospects according to rivals.com, and four of the Top 10 in Davis (2), Abreu (4), Somerville RB/DB Mason Robinson (7) and Trenton Central OL Keith Newell (10).
Schiano called Robinson – who ran for 1,688 yards on 8.7 yards per carry – “explosive” and said he’d use him at running back, but that he’d switch Hopatcong’s Joe Martinek – New Jersey’s all-time leading rusher with 7,589 yards – to defense.
Schiano also called DE Jonathan Freeny (Dwight Freeney’s cousin, despite the different spellings) a natural, and praised 6-6, 318-pound OL Desmond Stapleton, “little” brother of RU’s Darnell.
Antwain Easterling, the country’s third-ranked tailback chose Southern Miss over Rutgers.
Schiano would not say whether he offered a scholarship to the troubled star, who was involved in a sex scandal with a 14-year old fellow Northwestern (Fla.) High student. Both stated the act was consensual, but he got arrested on charges of lewd and lascivious battery. He enrolled in a 26-week Pre-Trial Intervention program that would drop the charges upon completion.
