Throwback Thursday: Rutgers Football and Iowa starters as recruits
One of The Knight Report’s weekly game preview pieces is our Throwback Thursday piece, where we compare the projected Rutgers Football starters as recruits to their team’s opponent each week.
With that being said, let’s compare the Scarlet Knights to the Iowa Hawkeyes football team to see what they looked like and where they were ranked in high school.
Quarterback
| POSITION | PLAYER | HIGH SCHOOL INDUSTRY RATING |
| QB | Athan Kaliakmanis | 91.20 (No. 202 in 2022) |
| POSITION | PLAYER | HIGH SCHOOL INDUSTRY RATING |
| QB | Mark Gronowski | N/A (Unranked in 2020) |
Running Back
| POSITION | PLAYER | HIGH SCHOOL INDUSTRY RATING |
| RB | Antwan Raymond | 86.90 (No. 816 in 2024) |
| POSITION | PLAYER | HIGH SCHOOL INDUSTRY RATING |
| RB | Terrell Washington Jr. | 86.20 (No. 873 in 2023) |
Wide Receivers
| POSITION | PLAYER | HIGH SCHOOL INDUSTRY RATING |
| WR | Ian Strong | 84.54 (No. 1204 in 2023) |
| WR | KJ Duff | 90.70 (No. 273 in 2024) |
| WR | DT Sheffield | 88.69 (No. 37 JUCO in 2020) |
| POSITION | PLAYER | HIGH SCHOOL INDUSTRY RATING |
| WR | Sam Phillips | N/A (Unranked in 2020) |
| WR | Seth Anderson | N/A (Unranked in 2020) |
| WR | Jacob Gill | 82.38 (No. 1242 in 2021) |
Tight End
| POSITION | PLAYER | HIGH SCHOOL INDUSTRY RATING |
| TE | Kenny Fletcher OR Colin Weber | 88.33 (No. 474 NATL.) 79.10 (No. 1986 NATL.) |
| POSITION | PLAYER | HIGH SCHOOL INDUSTRY RATING |
| TE | Zach Ortwerth | 86.47 (804 in 2023) |
Offensive Line
| POSITION | PLAYER | HIGH SCHOOL INDUSTRY RATING |
| LT | Tyler Needham | 83.53 (No. 919 in 2021) |
| LG | Bryan Felter | 85.53 (No. 805 in 2020) |
| C | Gus Zilinskas | 80.56 (No. 1670 in 2021) |
| RG | Kwabena Asamoah | 86.72 (No. 701 in 2022) |
| RT | Taj White | 85.47 (No. 887 in 2022) |
| POSITION | PLAYER | HIGH SCHOOL INDUSTRY RATING |
| LT | Trevor Lauck | 88.99 (No. 446 in 2023) |
| LG | Beau Stephens | 90.64 (No. 225 in 2021) |
| C | Logan Jones | 91.58 (No. 210 in 2020) |
| RG | Kade Pieper | 82.47 (No. 1675 in 2023) |
| RT | Gennings Dunker | 85.63 (No. 604 in 2021) |
In terms of high school rankings, Rutgers has the better prospects at quarterback, running back, wide receiver and tight end, but to no surprise, the Hawkeyes have the higher rated offensive lineman. Now I say no surprise, because Iowa traditionally has one of the better offensive line units year in and year out in not only the Big Ten, but the nation overall.
Defensive Line
| POSITION | PLAYER | HIGH SCHOOL INDUSTRY RATING |
| DE | Eric O’Neill | N/A (Unranked in 2021) |
| DT | Keshon Griffin | 82.83 (No. 1069 in 2021) |
| DT | Zaire Angoy | 81.90 (No. 1294 in 2021) |
| DE | Jordan Walker | N/A (Unranked in 2021) |
| POSITION | PLAYER | HIGH SCHOOL INDUSTRY RATING |
| DE | Max Llewellyn | 89.47 (No. 290 in 2021) |
| DT | Aaron Graves | 92.49 (No. 170 in 2022) |
| DT | Bryce Hawthorne | N/A (Unranked in 2023) |
| DT | Ethan Hurkett | 85.33 (No. 827 in 2020) |
Linebackers
| POSITION | PLAYER | HIGH SCHOOL INDUSTRY RATING |
| LB | Dariel Djabome | N/A (Unranked in 2022) |
| LB | Moses Walker | 91.63 (No. 208 in 2022) |
| POSITION | PLAYER | HIGH SCHOOL INDUSTRY RATING |
| LB | Karson Sharar | 82.24 (No. 1216 in 2021) |
| LB | Jaden Harrell | 85.58 (No. 611 in 2021) |
| LB | Jaxon Rexroth | N/A (Unranked in 2021) |
Defensive Backs
| POSITION | PLAYER | HIGH SCHOOL INDUSTRY RATING |
| CB | Jacobie Henderson | 83.15 (No. 1314 in 2022) |
| CB | Bo Mascoe | 85.80 (No. 933 in 2023) |
| NB | Cam Miller | 91.02 (No. 239 in 2022) |
| S | Jett Elad | 80.27 (No. 1920 in 2019) |
| S | Kaj Sanders | 88.76 (No. 495 in 2024) |
| POSITION | PLAYER | HIGH SCHOOL INDUSTRY RATING |
| CB | TJ Hall | 88.90 (No. 414 in 2022) |
| CB | Deshaun Lee | 86.58 (No. 731 in 2022) |
| S | Koen Entringer | 87.60 (No. 572 in 2022) |
| S | Xavier Nwankpa | 96.09 (No. 52 in 2022) |
The Hawkeyes defense boasts some very highly ranked prospects throughout and again, similar to the offensive line rankings, the Iowa defense has always been pretty stout and those rankings reflect that.
However the Scarlet Knights do have some highly ranked prospects of their own, but Iowa still has the edge here based on the high school rankings.
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