How Strong Has Rutgers' In-State Recruiting Really Been?

By Radio Man

Rutgers head football coach Greg Schiano did what many people deemed impossible: He brought Rutgers football to respectability, and then a top 10 ranking in the BCS polls.  Hats off to coach Schiano and everyone associated with Rutgers football for making that dream a reality for long-suffering Rutgers fans.

That's the good news—but the bad news for coach Schiano and his coaching staff is that expectations are now through the roof, especially with Rutgers currently expanding its football stadium.

According to the Star-Ledger, a New Jersey-based newspaper, Rutgers will likely be short on funding for it current expansion.  That places further pressure on Rutgers to win games so that private donations escalate to offset the pending funding issue. 

What is the best way for a team to win more games?  Recruit, recruit, recruit—and then recruit some more.  Schiano proved he can coach at a high level, but at some point a head coach needs elite level talent to consistently reach the top of the college football mountain.

Not to mention Rutgers is not going to sneak up on its opponents any longer.  Then again, that's sort of a good thing for Rutgers.

How strong has Rutgers' in-state Recruiting really been?  Well, good, but not nearly good enough.  Several of New Jersey's top recruits have still been finding their way to other programs beyond the state borders.

College football generally runs on perception, as deviant and misguided as it can be.  With that in mind, a friend back East mentioned today that Rutgers is still losing far too many of its homegrown prospects to schools such as Notre Dame and Michigan.  After taking a closer look at the Rivals.com New Jersey Recruiting Rankings for the past three years, I saw my friend's information was correct.

To formulate a baseline for Rutgers' recruiting efforts, Rivals.com New Jersey recruit rankings from 2007-2009 will be used.

Beginning with the class of 2007, Rivals.com's top 10 in New Jersey included four of the top 10 recruits signing with the Scarlet Knights.  That's pretty good, especially with the state's No. 2 overall player, Anthony Davis, an offensive tackle, signing to play for Rutgers.

Still, Duval Kamara, a wide receiver and the top Garden State recruit, signed with the Irish, as did the No. 3 New Jersey recruit, Mike Ragone, a tight end.  Rounding out the top five was Justin Trattou, a defensive lineman who signed a letter of intent to play for Florida.

In 2008, Rutgers signed two of New Jersey's top 10 recruits.  That's it: two—Art Forst, an offensive tackle who placed No. 4 on the list, and Rashad White, a running back that finished No. 8 on the list.

Michigan, meanwhile, signed three of the top five New Jersey recruits, including J.B. Fitzgerald, a linebacker who was selected No. 2 on the list, Brandon Smith, a safety that ranked No. 3, and Marcus Witherspoon, a linebacker that rounded out the top five.

Michigan signed all three of those recruits during a year in which the Wolverines had a head coaching transition, no less!

That's right: Rutgers signed two of the top 10, while Michigan, a school that rarely recruits New Jersey successfully, signed three of the top five recruits from the state of New Jersey.

As for the current recruiting class, Notre Dame has hit New Jersey hard again, landing commitments from the No. 2 recruit on the list, Theo Riddick, a running back, as well as the No. 3 recruit on the list, Tyler Stockton, a defensive tackle.

The Irish added a verbal commitment from the No. 9 New Jersey recruit, Carlo Calabrese, a linebacker, and are the odds-on favorite to land the Garden State's No. 1 recruit, Anthony LaLota, a defensive end and teammate of Stockton.

Rutgers has done fairly well itself, with commitments from the number six, seven, and eight recruits from in-state.  With that said, losing the top three recruits to Notre Dame, assuming LaLota selects the Irish, would be a major blow to coach Schiano and the Rutgers football program.

Rutgers has a "nice" program right now.  But if it continually loses New Jersey recruits, especially top skill position recruits such as Kamara and Riddick, to Notre Dame coming off a 3-9 record, and a Michigan team that went through a head coaching transition this past season, Rutgers will be unable to get over the proverbial hump and make a legitimate run at a National Championship or be a consistent BCS bowl contender.

For whatever the reason, New Jersey recruits felt better off signing letters of intent with schools such as Notre Dame and Michigan instead of Rutgers.  Considering the amount of effort Schiano placed each year on keeping top in-state recruits from signing with other programs, it does not bode well for Rutgers moving forward.

Coupled with Schiano's propensity to recruit South Florida, New Jersey provides enough talent for Rutgers to have an excellent roster.  That's theoretically speaking, of course.

Until proven otherwise, the perception of Rutgers football in the minds of elite New Jersey recruits is that it's more often than not better to go out of state to play college football than to stay home and play for the Scarlet Knights.

Rutgers must change that perception or watch programs such as Notre Dame and Michigan continue to march into New Jersey and sign its best recruits.