FB Recruiting **PODCAST — Instant Reaction to Antonio White commit + Mulcahy news**
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Great to see RU moving away from the sloppy seconds talent in NJ and going after kids from other areas. Screw these duplicitous NJ coaches and the mediocre NJ football talent they have been dumping on us.
It could have been those coaches lost confidence in RU FB and sent their better talent elsewhere .
Now Greg is pulling in better talent from out of state and wouldn't be surprised in the homegrown talent starts looking RUs way because their coaches are becoming confident he will be able to build a winner like he done before at RU.
The way @Richard Schnyderite made it sound, the talent is just not there. Name a recent NJ recruit who has gone to a blue blood and produced at a high level in college
Well, just looking at this year's NFL draft ...
Second rounders Will Levis and Luke Schoonmaker went to high school in Connecticut. In the third round, Ji’Ayir Brown was from New Jersey. In the fourth round, Carter Warren was from NJ. Fifth round ... Israel Abanikanda and SirVocea Dennis were from NY and Justin Shorter was from NJ. In the Sixth round, Luke Wypler was from NJ and Titus Leo from NY. There was nobody from a local high school selected in the seventh round.
I suppose my point would be, there was NFL talent from the local area (NJ, NY, Connecticut) out there. Maybe not enough to compete with Ohio State on its own, but definitely enough to compete with Purdue and Nebraska.
Quenten Nelson
Jabrill Peppers
Minkah Fitzpatrick
Mike Gesicki
Eli Apple
David Ojabo
Ronnie Hickman
Odafu Oweh
Rashan Gary
Justin Shorter
Javonte Jean-Baptiste
Jordan Fuller
Just to name a few...
As NJ residents and fans, we sometimes have delusions of grandeur about our talent being the best anywhere in the US.
Yeah, but you could pull up Texas, Florida, Cal, Georgia and probably dwarf that list with each one. Saquon is from PA too.
NJ, not the TRI state area. Played football at a NJ HS. Slim pickings if you are correct.
Deleted saquon had him confused, he de-committed from us.
Those states sure! Now pull up Michigan, Indiana (Norte dame), Alabama, and Wisconsin. See how those prospects look compared to jersey and see how the programs in those states still manage to put forth winning programs
Considering most prospects especially at blue bloods don’t see the field until their 3rd year and the classes you listed were last years’ true freshman, this upcoming years true freshman and this years HS seniors that’s to be expected. How are guys literally still in HS supposed to make an impact at this point?
There will be plenty of guys from those classes to emerge over the next couple years and wind up in the league
My point is that NJ talent is good but we tend to overrate it because we have state pride. Those programs you mention are likely benefiting from HS talent in the states I mentioned.
My goodness are some people dense and argumentative. Thank you for clarifying bc that poster is nothing but a Rutgers hater and troublemaker. I did not realize that I had to provide a verbatim transcript of Richie's comments with footnotes and qualifying data.
Richie and Mike do a great job on these podcasts and share a lot of great info. They are worth listening to.
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What about Isiah Pacheco?
To be fair, I think he was specifically talking about the Big North since Fitzpatrick/Peppers
You are correct and the frame of reference was post Peppers. It's been mostly scrambled eggs since Peppers from the Big North.
But you raise a good point. Post Peppers, there is likely more talent from South Jersey high schools going to the NFL than North Jersey.
But don't sleep on Central Jersey, if that even exists or if it can be defined.
*Schiano HaterMy goodness are some people dense and argumentative. Thank you for clarifying bc that poster is nothing but a Rutgers hater and troublemaker. I did not realize that I had to provide a verbatim transcript of Richie's comments with footnotes and qualifying data.
Get it correct. I’m a Rutgers alum who wants to see a winning program and understands that Schiano 2.0 is nothing more than Randy Edsall 2.0 at UConn.
Your response was a heck of a spin to simply say you were wrong, lol
Can you explain to me how a 2023 or 2024 kid could have possibly made an impact as they literally have not been eligible to play a college game yet? Your quote was ‘what recent HS player from jersey has gone on to a blue blood and had a significant impact, when presented an extensive list of examples of players all from the last 8 years you change course and say you were talking about the 22’-24’ classes. It’s impossible for any kid from the 23’-24’ classes to have made an impact as they ARE NOT ELIGIBLE.
Holy Christ do you want a cookie for pointing out that kids who just graduated hs 2 weeks ago haven’t made a college impact yet?? Keen insight Sherlock!
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I think you’re being deliberately obtuse here and ignoring points made by others in this thread. Now more than ever, recruits come in ready to contribute early. Not that KS needs me to defend him, but I agree that post Peppers, the pool hasn’t been deep. Is it just a cyclical thing or a trend? That’s probably a better discussion to have.
Yes and no.
You are correct that a lot of guys come in and make instant impacts, other guys take years to develop still and can turn into superstars. A perfect recent example of this is Joe Burrow and Stetson Bennett
There’s several guys from my list above that did not become ‘big time contributors’ until they were upper classman.
I do agree though that the trend moving forward is going to be more and more guys getting early time across the nation, simply for how easy it is to transfer these days and having immediate eligibility
I have that poster on ignore. Don't know why the mods don't permanently ban him like they have had to ban him from specific threads for being a dickhead. Thanks, but I need no defense. Our resident expert @Richard Schnyderite made the statement. It seems correct, but perhaps there is room for debate.
Here is his comment on the Big North for "the last couple of years":
But according to some here, they all suck only because they didn’t go to Rutgers.
KS specifically said NJ recruits who went to Blue Bloods. I can't include Rutgers on a list of 'Blue Bloods' much as we all wish we could. I also excluded kids who went to BC, Syracuse, Pitt, and Maryland because again, I can't consider them Blue Bloods.
Every guy on that list went to one of Notre Dame, Ohio State, Michigan, or Penn State aka "Blue Bloods". I wanted to make sure I answered accurately so KS couldn't dance around it
I think that players make choices based on a few factors. In no particular order: 1) some kids just want to get out of New Jersey, and that is understandable; 2) some kids make decisions on where their coaches/advisors steer them to; 3) some pick schools based on where they are perceived in terms of football stature, and the blue bloods win here (personally, I have not objection to a kid choosing Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State, Iowa (perhaps) over Rutgers. Penn State is a harder one for me, bc I loathe that school and everything about it; 4) some pick a school based on the player's ability to develop, grow and showcase their talents for the NFL.
On #4, having Greg back has been a net positive for defensive players. Greg has had a track record of sending defensive players to the NFL, and Bill Belichick has said numerous times that RU players under Greg are well-prepared for the NFL. Maybe that will change as our offense improves (please!!!). I kind of had hoped that with Pop's performance with the Chiefs and scoring a TD in the Super Bowl, we would have gotten some recruiting pop out of Pop's performance, and perhaps that may be a little what behind the momentum in this class.
But as to your point, you are right. I don't think it is right to root for recruits to do poorly if they did not choose Rutgers, except when they play directly against Rutgers. On the other hand, it is a little gratifying to see a star player who spurned Rutgers to not perform at the next level.
Yeah, but there are no major college football in Connecticut or NY. We're not competing against Power 5 NYU or UConn for recruits in those areas. On the other hand, in a state like Michigan, Michigan is competing with Michigan State too. The University of Texas competes, in state, with Texas A&M, Baylor, Texas Tech, TCU (not to mention Houston, SMU, North Texas). In state, Florida is competing with Florida State and Miami (and Central Florida, South Florida, etc). If we can't own the Tri-state area, we can't compete as a Power 5 school.
I realize what I said in my original post, and I thought I had corrected myself. I was referring to something Richie said in the podcast that was specific to the Big North NJ schools. This was never about the more general topic of Northeast recruits, or in particular NY/NJ/CT, or the entire state of NJ for that matter.
While Richie did not refer to it, IIRC, the reason RU hired Nunzio and Augie was to get recruits for the Big North high schools, namely Bergen Catholic, DePaul, Paramus Catholic, Don Bosco, etc.
THE POINT was that the Big North High Schools have produced very little in the way of NFL talent post Jabril Peppers (2014).
That may be. I don't follow high school football. Have those schools been nationally ranked (like they used to be)?
I have no idea about rankings, as I don't follow high school football either. I kinda feel like you and I are providing completely useless info to each other with each successive post.
However, back to a point you made a couple of posts ago, I agree that a State U should dominate their State in recruiting. However, when a program has been as bad as Rutgers has been dating back to 2015, fans cannot expect dominance.
I don't necessarily agree that RU should dominate NY and CT. A kid from CT has no reason to choose Rutgers over any other school, except for perhaps playing close to home. One point that Richie made in the podcast is that RU has pretty much dominated NYC, Erasmus Hall in particular, which has provided a pipeline of solid players.
My bro, a NJ HS FB Coach, said there are less kids playing football in NJ. Sad to hear
What the Schiano haters are doing is imagining that some other coach.. and they fill in the name of whoever currently has some success beyond what was expected of them.. could solve the puzzle of Rutgers football and thereby get a huge share of 4-stars and even 5-star recruits... and then win with them here like no one here has won before.
They do this because then comparing GS to XX, the godlike coach who guarantees success and costs less than GS does today.. that comparison becomes an easy one for them. It is an obvious "win" for them.
But the person.. that Coach XX.. does not exist.
But.. a point in their favor is that ANYONE could do better than Ash did. Just like ANYONE was going to do better than Eddie Jordan did in basketball. And when we hired GS 1.0 there were many such haters of that hire.. they wanted him gone by year three and then they were made look foolish for many years before coming back to tell us it was time to switch horses that GS took us as far as he could...
..all while the sand was shifting under GS feet with all the conference realignment BS.. something beyond his control. And the same has happened now with NIL and easy transfers while Rutgers is in the toughest division in college football.
Patience. That's what we need now... and blanket support. There may come a time to make a switch but that is not now.. so why drag the coach through the mud? It is not helpful in any way whatsoever.
They do this because then comparing GS to XX, the godlike coach who guarantees success and costs less than GS does today.. that comparison becomes an easy one for them. It is an obvious "win" for them.
But the person.. that Coach XX.. does not exist.
But.. a point in their favor is that ANYONE could do better than Ash did. Just like ANYONE was going to do better than Eddie Jordan did in basketball. And when we hired GS 1.0 there were many such haters of that hire.. they wanted him gone by year three and then they were made look foolish for many years before coming back to tell us it was time to switch horses that GS took us as far as he could...
..all while the sand was shifting under GS feet with all the conference realignment BS.. something beyond his control. And the same has happened now with NIL and easy transfers while Rutgers is in the toughest division in college football.
Patience. That's what we need now... and blanket support. There may come a time to make a switch but that is not now.. so why drag the coach through the mud? It is not helpful in any way whatsoever.
not exactly....no one else would have been a sure thing ace recruiter and guaranteed winner. i thought he was a bad hire at the time and still do, but the bigger problem is not having the flexibility to fire him if need be to take another bite of the apple, which it already looks like we do need.
there wouldn't be nearly as much 2.0 disdain if a crappy 2023 could be his last,..but the dread of three more sh*tshow years after this pisses people off. I don't think he sees year 8 but we're stuck with him through year 7, which should never have happened..for any coach.
With All the news about CTE, can you blame them. Ray Lucas will be popping pills the rest of his life. That’s no way to live.