After committing to Rutgers football on Sunday afternoon, [autotag]Gerrick Gordon[/autotag] has shut down his recruitment. His verbal over the weekend while on an official visit to the Big Ten program represents a significant recruiting win for the program.
Rutgers fought off some stiff competition to land Gordon, who is a 6-foot-4 and 270-pound interior offensive lineman from Trinity Catholic (Ocala, Florida). A three-star offensive lineman, he is the No. 38 interior offensive lineman in the nation per Rivals.
In March, Rutgers joined a list of offers for Gordon that included Duke, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, Purdue, South Carolina, SMU, Tulane and West Virginia among others.
Gordon’s commitment came on Sunday following a conversation with head coach [autotag]Greg Schiano[/autotag]. It was a meeting that impressed Gordon due to Schiano’s honesty with him.
“He was pretty straight forward,” Gordon told Rutgers Wire about the meeting before his commitment.
“Told me my ups and downs. Didn’t just tell me my ups. (I) want a coach that is going to tell you the truth and that’s hard to find.”
Specifically, Gordon said Schiano singled out the “Things I need to work on off and on the field.”
As for his other relationships on the Rutgers staff, Gordon likes how things have progressed with offensive line coach [autotag]Pat Flaherty[/autotag].
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Now in his second year at Rutgers, Flaherty has re-tooled the Rutgers offensive line and helped the unit make a significant developmental leap in his first season back with the program. Flaherty brings two decades of NFL experience back to Rutgers, having been a part of the Scarlet Knights coaching staff earlier in his career.
“Coach Flaherty is a very big reason why I committed,” Gordon said.
“The man knows what it takes to be great. He knows what it’s like to win and what it takes.”
Gordon said he will not be taking any other official visits and is completely committed to Rutgers.
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On the recruiting trip with Gordon was [autotag]Latish Kinsler[/autotag], a mentor who has helped guide him through the recruiting process.
Kinsler is a former standout college football player at Cincinnati who played in the NFL. His son is Jordan Kinsler, a running back at Rutgers who showed some flashes recently at the spring game.
