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College football recruiting has changed drastically in recent months and Rutgers is ahead of the curve when it comes to making the most of the new normal.
Now a part of the Rutgers football team, earlier this month quarterback Gavin Wimsatt went from playing his third game of the season as quarterback of his high school team to now being on a Big Ten roster. It is a whirlwind scenario certainly and part of the reality now that Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) is a part of college sports.
Former Rutgers standout defensive tackle Eric LeGrand said that coaching staffs need to rely on their recruiting staff now more than ever to navigate these new realities of college football.
“It’s very interesting, you have to be adaptable, having to change on the fly. I think you have to rely a lot on your staff, your recruiting staff especially, knowing the rules and regulations of what you can do,” LeGrand said on the ‘CHOP Weekly’ show.
“And thinking if we have a position of need, we may have to try and get a guy earlier. Hey, do we have enough scholarships for this? Now you’re going into the game saying usually when I was getting recruited, it was ‘We have enough scholarships for this year and that’s that.’ Now, it’s do ‘I bring him in for 2021? Do I bring him in for 2022?’ You really have to know your roster and how many you’re graduating next year or somebody leaves or transfers in the middle of the year or the summer.”
The case of Wimsatt is certainly an outlier in the world of college football, going from playing in high school to hours later joining a Big Ten program.
But it is a fascinating scenario and one that might play itself over again in the coming years.
With Wimsatt reclassifying to the 2021 class, Rutgers dropped to No. 31 in the national rankings for 2022. They are No. 17 in average star ranking (3.43 stars).
Wimsatt is currently enrolled at Rutgers, practicing with the team and eligible to participate fully including game action.