Rutgers football did a very solid job of retaining New Jersey’s top talent during this recruiting cycle. In fact, this might have been the best job of keeping players in-state that has been done by head coach Greg Schiano and his staff since his return to Rutgers four years ago.
A look at recruiting in New Jersey is especially significant given a recent report that had the Garden State growing among the most NFL players per capita. In a recent study, New Jersey ranked twelfth in the nation in sending players to the NFL.
If Rutgers can keep New Jersey’s top talent in-state, then it will have the chance to compete with the best in the Big Ten as well as being consistently ranked among the top 25 teams in the nation.
Rutgers was one of two teams to land multiple top-five players in the class of 2024 from New Jersey, according to 247Sports. They were the only program to register three players from the state’s top 10.
Georgia swept the state’s top two players (No. 1 Jordan Thomas and No. 2 Nyier Daniels) but then Rutgers registered next with No. 3 Chase Winowich and No. 4 A.J. Surace.
Both Winowich (a running back) and Surace (a quarterback) attended Notre Dame Prep in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. Winowich, a four-star, is the highest-ranked commit in this class for Rutgers.
He is also a four-star according to ESPN.
Rutgers also pulled in [autotag]Kaj Sanders[/autotag], an athlete from Don Bosco Prep (Ramsey, New Jersey). Sanders is No. 9 in 247Sports’ rankings for New Jersey.
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Those are three strong pulls for Rutgers in what was a bit of a down year for recruits in New Jersey.
The 2025 recruiting class for Rutgers has two current commits, with one coming from New Jersey.
Last week, [autotag]Talibi Kaba[/autotag] gave his verbal to Rutgers. The athlete from Hillside (Hillside, New Jersey) chose Rutgers over offers from Boston College, Duke and Iowa State among others.
He said the pursuit from Rutgers made him feel like a priority. That’s good news for the Scarlet Knights as they got quite the player.
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He is a three-star and the No. 13 recruit in New Jersey according to 247Sports. With a strong senior season, Kaba could well finish the year top-10 in New Jersey.