Rutgers football landed a second 4-star prospect to its 2024 recruiting class on Saturday as Bergen Catholic’s Kaj Sanders announced his commitment to the program. The positive momentum on the recruiting trail for the Scarlet Knights continues.
Sanders announced on Rivals’ YouTube channel here.
He is a 6’1″, 185 pound athlete who is projected as a defensive back at Rutgers. Sanders plays both sides of the ball for Bergen Catholic. In his junior season, he had 32 rushes for 261 yards on 8.2 yards per carry and three touchdowns along with 3 catches for 14 yards. On defense as a safety and cornerback, Sanders had 40 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, three interceptions and six pass deflections.
He also became an All-American in Track& Field after breaking the school record at the Penn Relays as part of a 4×100 team that finished with a time of 41.93. He also has personal best times of 11.27 in the 100 meters and 22.55 in the 200 meters.
Per 247 Sports composite rankings, Sanders is ranked the No. 6 recruit in New Jersey, the No. 35 safety and the No. 388 overall prospect in the 2024 class.
He holds offers from almost two dozen power five schools including Notre Dame, Penn State, Miami, Michigan State, Nebraska, Pitt, Purdue, Maryland among others. Sanders took four official visits to North Carolina, South Carolina, Wisconsin and Rutgers. He ultimately chose to become a Scarlet Knight.
This is a great recruiting win for Greg Schiano and the coaching staff for multiple reasons. Sanders has legit talent and can develop into a major difference maker on defense. He is big and fast who projects as a defensive back that can give Rutgers much needed versatility, size and speed. Sanders could end up at safety or as a bigger cornerback.
In addition, landing a top recruit from Bergen Catholic is a win in and of itself. Rutgers has struggled recruiting the Big North schools over the years. In a recruiting cycle the focus has been mostly out of state, RU landed a top three recruit in the conference. Whether it leads to more recruiting wins there in the future, landing a big time talent in Sanders is worth appreciating.
Sanders is the second defensive back to commit to Rutgers this cycle. He joins safety Dah’Kari Gilley while athlete Noah Shaw could end up in the secondary as well. Sanders is also just the third 2024 commit from New Jersey. He joins QB AJ Surace and offensive lineman Kenny Jones.
Following the commitment of Sanders, the 21 member 2024 class for Rutgers is now ranked No. 30 nationally and No. 9 in the Big Ten per 247 Sports composite rankings.
For my rapid reaction to Kaj Sanders committing to Rutgers, click here.
Watch junior season highlights for Kaj Sanders below.
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RUinChiTown
July 9, 2023 at 1:29 pm
Wonderful to get him on board (sort of, until he signs)!
Incredible speed! Can he put on the extra weight (25 #) to be an effective Safety? Does he have the “twitch” and hips to be a good CB?
With that speed, why not WR?