Along with several high school athletes expected on campus for visits, Rutgers football is scheduled to host four transfer portal players this weekend.
Headling the group is Athan Kaliakmanis, a quarterback who spent the last two years at Minnesota. His connection to Rutgers is through Kirk Ciarrocca, who was his offensive coordinator at Minnesota and recruited him to the program.
Ciarrocca is in his first year as the offensive coordinator at Rutgers.
This season, he completed 53.1 percent of his passes for 1,831 yards with 14 touchdowns and nine interceptions for Minnesota. His brother, Dino Kaliakmanis played wide receiver at Minnesota.
Here are the four transfer portal prospects expected for official visits this weekend:
- Quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis (Minnesota)
- Tight end Dino Kaliakmanis
- Wide receiver Dymere Miller (Monmouth)
- Offensive guard Kevin Wigenton (Michigan State)
The emphasis of the portal visits this weekend is clearly on the offensive side of the ball. Midweek, however, Rutgers hosted for an official visit Anthony Johnson (Youngstown State), a powerful defensive tackle.
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The success of [autotag]Jaquae Jackson[/autotag], who came from the Division II level and is now a legitimate NFL prospect, should be a selling point for Rutgers in their pursuit of Miller.
This past season, Miller had an impressive 90 catches for 1,295 receiving yards with nine touchdowns for Monmouth.
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Even with the quarterback getting all the hype, the most important visitor this weekend is Wigenton. A former three-star recruit at The Hun School (Princeton, New Jersey), Wigenton has significant experience at Michigan State and has Big Ten size at 6-foot-5 and 320 pounds.