Schiano’s raiders steal top recruit from the ACC

By Darrell Laurant  |   Thursday, June 05, 2008  |  Comments( 1 )

Rutgers Scarlet Knights
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It used to be that the best high school football players went anywhere but Rutgers. Now, some of them are choosing Rutgers when they could have gone anywhere.

So successful has Greg Schiano's program been in recent years that Rutgers fans have already forgotten that the Scarlet Knights used to be a national joke, one of the worst teams in all of college football. They were Syracuse, in other words, back when Syracuse was Rutgers.

And after a while, success breeds success. The better your team, the more attention you get. The more attention you get, the more top players want to become a part of the action. That makes your team even better, which leads to more attention and more good players. At this point in their history, the Scarlet Knights seem to be ascending an upward spiral.

Just ask Durham, N.C., running back Desmond Scott, rated the No. 2 all-purpose back in the nation by at least one major scouting service. Scott verbally committed to Rutgers this week, a few weeks after Philadelphia-area quarterback Tom Savage did the same. Those are arguably the two highest-profile preps ever to cast their lot with Rutgers, which spent decades watching the best players from New Jersey (Heisman Trophy winner Ron Dayne, for example) wave goodbye on their way to programs with more credibility.

Not so long ago, the Scarlet Knights were scuffling against the likes of Temple, Delaware and Hofstra for players. Then around the time Schiano arrived, they began to show up among the finalists for the more coveted Big East recruits, but rarely closed the deal.

That began to change with Ray Rice, who had originally given a verbal commitment to Syracuse until coach Paul Pasqualoni was fired. The running back from Long Island reevaluated his options, chose Rutgers, and finished his career as the school's all-time leading rusher -- in three years.

Desmond Scott watched Rice on television and saw a more advanced version of himself -- a stumpy (5-foot-9, 185 pounds), strong back with outstanding speed who could operate as a tailback or a slot back. Turning his back on North Carolina and Clemson, the Hillside High star made only two visits, to West Virginia and Rutgers, and chose the latter.

"I already liked the offense and the way they got everybody involved," Scott told the Newark Star-Ledger. "Then when I toured the campus and met everyone, I felt like I belonged there."

It isn't all Schiano, of course. His top recruiters are mostly young and aggressive, and true believers. It doesn't hurt that the Rutgers fan base is euphoric these days, giving players like Rice and Mike Teel and Eric Foster adulation worthy of another state icon, Bruce Springsteen. They're enjoying winning so much that they haven't had time to become cynical.

Although Pitt definitely won the Big East recruiting battle in 2008, Rutgers has jumped out to an impressive early lead this time. The Scarlet Knights already have verbal commitments from seven (five from out of state) and beat Pitt, North Carolina State, Iowa and Boston College for Langhorne, Pa., tight end Paul Carrezola.

They haven't won them all, of course, losing a couple of top state prospects to Notre Dame. But New Jersey is no longer a private fishing pond for Penn State, the rest of the Big Ten, and the ACC.

Rutgers has arrived.













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