Semi-OT: Rutgers Recruiting

Submitted by maizeonblueaction on

I figured this might be at least kind of relevant considering Rutgers will be a new conference-mate soon (and the whole recruiting New Jersey thing), but today ESPN has an article about what Rutgers has to do now to get players that will help them compete in the B1G. At this point it entails just offering NJ kids earlier and earlier to get on their radar, but I am kind of wondering if they will have much luck keeping the kids in-state if Michigan and Ohio (and later PSU) really make a push for the top ones. http://espn.go.com/college-sports/recruiting/football/story/_/id/9301414/college-football-recruiting-rutgers-early-offer-strategy

NOLA Wolverine

May 26th, 2013 at 9:53 PM ^

Replace "Rutgers" with "Michigan State" and the moral of this article still reigns true. They'll have a tough time recruiting "their turf," and they won't matter in the grand scheme of things. 

WolvinLA2

May 26th, 2013 at 9:58 PM ^

The best they can do is recruit the East Coast and take the top guys not offered by the big boys, and every now and then steal one who is.  No, they will not be able to recruit alongside Michigan and OSU, but their location could allow them to pull in classes in the 3-5 range in the Big Ten.  Every year there are a lot of guys M looks at for a while but we just don't offer.  If Rutgers can snatch up that next tier of talent, they could certainly make noise in the Big Ten.

kyeblue

May 26th, 2013 at 10:20 PM ^

Rutgers will never be relevant. 

People in NJ would rather pay out-state tuition to send their kids to Michigan, or if they cannot get into Michigan, to NYU, rather than having them attend Rutgers. 

Rutgers does have a strong academics in terms of research. But public universities in northeast simply do not have the same status as their counterpart in mid-west and the rest of the country, and locals don't care about them at all. 

 

 

Vasav

May 27th, 2013 at 12:32 PM ^

While Rutgers certainly doesn't have the same pull as most Big Ten schools - either locally or nationally - Rutgers has been on "best buy" lists for a while now, and is being seen as an alternative to the costly private schools that are so popular in the Northeast.

NJblue2

May 26th, 2013 at 10:02 PM ^

Rutgers will never been good enough to seriously compete. Most people gave up hope on Rutgers the second they announced the move to the Big Ten. Most athletes, just like students, consider Rutgers a back up, or safety school. No one really wants to go there.

kyeblue

May 26th, 2013 at 10:11 PM ^

Nobody cares about Rutgers in NY metro. M, ND, Penn State, and even Ohio State have far more following out here. If Big Ten want to expand to northeast, they should get UConn, who at least have some following. 

Now they are in a complete mess with the allegations against their new AD, who is a political correct hire. 

ESNY

May 27th, 2013 at 9:52 AM ^

I still can't believe people keep bringing this up.  It has absolutely zero to do with following, fan bases, etc. and has to do solely with location.  If Rutgers was located 60 miles west into Pennsylvania, they would never have been invited to the Big Ten.  By being located in the largest media market in the country, they "offered" the Big Ten millions of subscribers on basic cable.    And if you think UConn football has any following, you are kidding yourself.  Rutgers may not be a huge football program but they have a much bigger following and much more success than Uconn football.

woomba

May 26th, 2013 at 10:26 PM ^

I think this is less true than it was a decade or two ago.  

My family's from the NYC metro area and my younger sister is just graduating high school now (she's 13 years my junior) so I have some perspective on how the different schools around here are perceived and the general sense is that Rutgers (and some other state flag ships around the tri-state area) are on their way up at the expense of the mid-tier private universities around the NE area.

 

 

Geary_maize

May 26th, 2013 at 10:30 PM ^

Rutgers has a pretty decent chance at being good in the B1G. In terms of pure talent, they're better than, or at least close to, Indiana, Purdue, Minnesota, Iowa, Northwestern and Illinois. Very good recruiting in-state and closeby in New York and  Maryland, plus the B1G powers of Ohio and Michigan are a significant distance away.

Until now, the Big East was simply not an option for most top New Jersey recruits. Now they're in the B1G, and have the money to pay coaches and rennovate.

Hey, if South Carolina can do it with world beaters just next door, sure it's not impossible for Rutgers. I hate to say it, but if they had a coach like Dantoni who would lock down the borders, they would be pretty good.

 

 

 

kyeblue

May 27th, 2013 at 3:20 AM ^

When picking universities, kids in NYC metro, including those from NY, has no loyalty to their in-state schools and always look far beyond the state borders, if it is ever a big deal. 

LSAClassOf2000

May 26th, 2013 at 10:32 PM ^

I ran a similar analysis on historic star ratings at Rivals for Rutgers that I did for the current Big Ten schools. Long story short, if they had been in the conference with their historic ratings, they would be nestled snugly between Illinois and Purdue for average performance - not the worst by average ratings, but substantially below Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State and Nebraska (had Nebraska been in the conference the whole time). If that is their "baseline" coming into the conference, it is definitely an uphill battle for them - with the aid of Big Ten affiliation, they could very well improve their athletics outlook in general however. 

WolvinLA2

May 26th, 2013 at 11:03 PM ^

But if they're basically Illinois after no recent success and a crap conference with a crap schedule, there is reason to believe they'll be at least Illinois+ in the Big Ten since they have a lot more to sell. It's a lot easier to sell a recruit on big teams coming to town for nationally televised games than about playing Cincinnati or USF on Wednesday night.

LSAClassOf2000

May 26th, 2013 at 11:27 PM ^

Here's the four-way comparison with Michigan and Ohio State and Illinois and Rutgers...

 photo MORIChart_zps5d7a6a21.png

Rutgers will definitely have a rough go in the beginning, and their cultural / recruiting transition in the Big Ten will likely take years. It's just hard to know where, say, a decade or more of payouts from the conference and - if they choose to make an investment - better facilities and an attempt to get star hires in coaching or assistant positions would get them. Any success like that would be key, I think, or they risk generating about the same level of interest that they do now for a good long time, which is not saying much. 

WolvinLA2

May 27th, 2013 at 12:11 AM ^

Well obviously they won't compete with UM and OSU, so if you're arguing against that, then, well, duh.  But they have been recruiting right along with the conference average for the last few years (and probably above if you looked at "conference average without UM and OSU").  

Sometimes you bring in teams because you know they can compete (Nebraska, TAMU for the SEC) and sometimes you bring in teams for the other expansion purposes, and you just hope they're as good as the "rest" of your conference (Mizzou in the SEC, Utah and Colorado in the Pac 12).  

bacon

May 26th, 2013 at 10:39 PM ^

I think Rutgers will be ok.  They'll always be in that second-tier of Big 10 schools, but that's better than being in the second-tier of the Big East.  With the Big 10 network, games are always televised, and you also have the chance to play teams like Michigan and Ohio State, which they can sell recruits on much more than they could in the Big East.  Rutgers will have games on national TV, it's been a while since that happened.  I think that they'll be more like Iowa than Indiana.  

BTW, did the Big 10 mandate anything about changing the Maryland jerseys before admission into the conference?  Those things are turrible.

BlueinLansing

May 26th, 2013 at 11:30 PM ^

the best 5 or 6 year period in their entire history.  The architect behind that is inexplicably coaching the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  Rutgers is going to be a bad football program for a long, long time just like they were before their "rise" in the horrible Big East.

WolvinLA2

May 27th, 2013 at 12:05 AM ^

But they've gone 9-4 the last two seasons without him, and last year they were an OT loss to VT in their bowl away from 10 wins.  They are recruiting better than they had with Schiano.  I'm not saying they'll win the league anytime soon, but they can compete with everyone else.  

bluebyyou

May 27th, 2013 at 6:14 AM ^

For the last few years, my take is that they would have been a middle of the pack B1G team and not a bottom dweller. They barely lost to a good Louisville team which went on to beat Florida in a bowl.

Academically, they rank higher than Minnesota, MSU, Iowa, Indiana and Nebraska.

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/top-public/page+2

Do I wish Delaney had found someone else? Yes, but let's be fair in our opinions.  The school is not terrible academically nor in football.

UofM626

May 26th, 2013 at 11:58 PM ^

How bad Rutgers or any other new team that comes to the Big 10....all that matters is this



Big 10 schools received $20 million this year! CHA Ching

maizeonblueaction

May 26th, 2013 at 11:58 PM ^

oddly enough, they do have the number 19 class in the country right now (possibly due to sheer size), which is good for fourth in the B1G, behind Michigan, Ohio, and Northwestern.

JayMo4

May 27th, 2013 at 8:49 AM ^

If Rutgers can win in the Big 10 just by holding on to a few more Jersey kids, then someone ought to tell Illinois that their state has some decent talent.  Maybe their program can wake up and start winning a few games.

 

In any case, even with the Big 10 in a sorry state right now, just looking at Rutgers' first Big 10 schedule it is clearly the toughest slate they've had to play going back at least to when Miami and VaTech were still in the Big East.  If and when the Big 10 gets back to where they once were, it'll be a tougher conference to compete in than the Big East ever was simply because it'll be deeper.  RU is going to have to play Michigan, ohio, and Penn State every year, and still get the occasional cross-division matchup with Nebraska and Wisconsin.  Even in the years where they can take care of business against Maryland, Indiana, and sparty, they're still going to have to go through a handful of really tough opponents if they have any hopes of getting to a January bowl.

jerseyblue

May 27th, 2013 at 2:14 PM ^

Many fans in NJ don't have a lot of confidence in Kyle Flood. The expectation is that RU should get 3-4 four star guys and a bunch f 3star guys and then sprinke just a handful of low rated diamonds in the rough that you hope turn out to be steals. It's May and fans are nervous that he's got too many commitments from the diamond inthe rough low rated guys. They shouldn't make up the majority of your class. They also feel that based on those guys' offer lists that they are commitments that could have been accepted later after they know where higher rated guys have gone. So not a lot of confidence in NJ IMO.