Rutgers football recruiting continues to move up the national rankings while also setting official visits with highly rated uncommitted prospects.
Recently, two top recruits confirmed official visits for Rutgers for the weekend of June 9-11. There is 4-star athlete Willy Love, a top five recruit in New Jersey, who is considered a Rutgers lean. In addition, high 3-star Caden Brown, who recently included Rutgers in his group of four finalists, is also confirmed for an official visit that weekend. The program is hoping to have at least a dozen recruits take official visits that June weekend.
On Tuesday, Rutgers confirmed an official visit for a top 100 prospect from Texas. High 4-star defensive lineman Nigel Smith II announced he was visiting six schools. The Scarlet Knights were named in a group that includes national brands in the Big Ten, Big XII and SEC.
The 6-foot-5 and 260 pound interior lineman will take official visits to Ohio State, Penn State, Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Texas following his trip to Rutgers.
Smith II is the No. 73 player in the nation in the 247Sports composite rankings. He is also the No. 10-defensive lineman nationally and the No. 14 prospect in Texas.
Defensive line coach Marquise Watson is the lead recruiter for Smith II. Recruits are now allowed to take more than five official visits. While Rutgers would appear to be a underdog among the programs he is visiting, getting him on campus is a significant development. Watson has been a standout recruiter for RU since his arrival before last season.
With the 2024 class now with eight verbal commitments, Rutgers is currently ranked No. 27 nationally in the 247 Sports composite rankings. However, it is early in the recruiting cycle and Greg Schiano needs to improve the talent and depth of the roster as much as possible. Getting a top 100 out of state prospect on campus is a step in the right direction.
You can watch junior season highlights of Smith II here.
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pj43
May 10, 2023 at 10:59 pm
It’s been noted that Schiano carefully targets offers rather taking a more scattered shotgun approach. RU remains a mainly 3* recruit program but you can’t help but notice that more so called 4* caliber recruits appear to to be taking this program more seriously. Apparently there are many recruits who find this coaching staff’s recruiting approach to be genuine and worth more careful consideration. To me that’s substantial progress over the past when, for example, a more highly rated Jersey recruit gave RU little more than a polite nod. One can only imagine what a winning season and a bowl appearance would do for recruiting. I may be wrong, but I think a breakthrough may be closer than we imagine in terms of Rutgers football being a truly competitive program in the Big Ten.