Rutgers: Scarlet Knights set to land N.J.'s top recruit The # 1 lineman in USA
Saturday, January 06, 2007
BY MIKE HELFGOT
Star-Ledger Staff
The turnaround of the Rutgers football program is about to include a victory over the nation's top-ranked team.
Piscataway High School offensive lineman Anthony Davis, the most sought-after prospect in the state, is expected to tell a live television audience that he will attend Rutgers rather than No. 1 Ohio State, according to two people familiar with his plans.
The sources declined to be identified because the 6-5, 340-pound Davis, considered by some experts as the top offensive line recruit in the country, is supposed to make his announcement during the All-American Bowl in San Antonio. That game, comprised of many of the best high school players in the country, will be broadcast on Channel 4 at 1 p.m.
Verbal commitments are nonbinding until the player signs a letter of intent. Until then, players often remain a target of other schools -- and sometimes they change their minds.
Assuming Davis honors the verbal commitment on national signing day Feb. 6, it will mark the first time the state's consensus No. 1-ranked recruit has stayed at home. And it would be the most impressive recruiting victory for Scarlet Knights coach Greg Schiano.
"That is fantastic, a great example of just how far Rutgers has come," said recruiting expert Allen Wallace, Super Prep Magazine's editor and publisher and the national recruiting editor for Scout.com. "I don't think there was a snowball's chance in hell most observers of the recruiting game thought a prospect as renowned as Davis would choose Rutgers."
Wallace said it ranks as one of the biggest recruiting surprises of the year.
"The fact that their success on the field has bled so quickly into this kind of success in recruiting is actually unusual," Wallace said. "It shows the recruiting approach Schiano has been employing for a while has been geared for success. They had to be working incredibly hard to show guys like Davis that it is real and they can get there."
Coming off an 11-2 season that included a victory over Kansas State in the Texas Bowl, Rutgers has received 20 verbal commitments. The recruiting class is likely to be the best in school history -- an almost annual occurrence in Schiano's six-year tenure.
Before the Davis commitment, Scout.com had Rutgers' 2007 class ranked No. 29 in the nation -- the Scarlet Knights didn't crack the top 50 last year. Wallace said Davis' addition should move the Knights up "five or six spots."
"Anthony Davis will serve as a magnet to other big-time players," Wallace said. "He can relate to them. He will tell them, 'I could have gone anywhere I wanted, but I didn't have to go far away because everything I needed is right here.'"
Though he already looks like an NFL offensive tackle, Davis is expected to step in as Rutgers' starting right guard next season with two All-Big East standouts, Jeremy Zuttah and Pedro Sosa, coming back for their senior seasons in 2007. Davis will likely switch to tackle as a sophomore.
Starting left guard Mike Fladell will also return to an offensive line that helped make running back Ray Rice a Heisman Trophy candidate and Mike Teel emerge as an effective quarterback by the end of this past season. Rice and Teel will return next season to lead what should be an explosive offense. The receiver position should also be effective with the emergence of freshmen Kenny Britt and Tim Brown.
"This may be the No. 1 turnaround I've ever seen, but it is hard to say because it's just one year," Wallace said. "Bill Snyder had a similar turnaround at Kansas State that lasted for a long time, but he is gone and they are gone. Northwestern came out of nowhere to make the Rose Bowl (in 1996), but they went right back to being bottom-dwellers.
"Rutgers has better players now, but they will also have to deal with greater expectations. Once you raise the bar, things never go back."
Staff writer Tom Luicci contributed to this report. |
