Projected to be one of the top players in New Jersey’s 2025 recruiting class, D.J. McClary has a recruitment that has gone national. Rutgers football is one of eight teams to make his recent cutdown.
On Monday, McClary released a top eight of Rutgers, Penn State, USC, South Carolina, Tennessee, Michigan, Oregon and Ohio State. A 6-foot, 210-pound linebacker at Henry Snyder (Jersey City, N.J.), he is a consensus four-star recruit.
The On3 Industry Rankings ranks him as a top 100 player in the nation in the 2025 recruiting class.
Which makes the inclusion of Rutgers as one of his top eight programs all the more intriguing. In fact, the Scarlet Knights were one of four programs from the Big Ten to make McClary’s list.
“Right now is a good time for me to drop my top eight because I should be committing on my birthday, January 3,” McClary told Rutgers Wire on Monday.
“So after that, I can focus on school to make sure I get where I need to be.”
The inclusion of Rutgers seems to be a natural one for McClary. he grew up following the program and has a close connection to the Scarlet Knights.
“Rutgers is my home school. I grew up watching them,” McClary said. “My brother played there so they are like family.”
His brother is Isaac Holmes, a four-star defensive lineman who joined Rutgers as part of the 2009 recruiting class.
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In 23 games at Rutgers playing primarily as a defensive tackle, Holmes was very effective with 32 total tackles, a sack and 5.5 tackles for a loss.
McClary said that the chance to go to Rutgers and help put the rebuilding effort over the top is appealing.
“Rutgers stood out because it is where I can make a name for myself and I like the way they run their defense,” McClary said.
The talented linebacker said that currently, Penn State is showing him the most attention.
“Yes…it does matter to me because it shows how important I am to the pgogram,” McClary said.
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