The world of recruiting contains a lot of fascinating stories and angles for anyone who is interested in probing this particular part of the college sports business. When we talked to Rutgers Wire editor Kristian Dyer on a recent podcast, we definitely learned a lot about Rutgers’ football recruiting strategy under head coach Greg Schiano.
One of the eye-opening things Dyer told us is that for a lot of New Jersey-based households with prime football recruits, going to Rutgers isn’t seen as the natural or automatic move for their sons. Penn State isn’t too far away. Other prominent programs with far more success and bigger football reputations than Rutgers are given ample consideration. Rutgers is fighting an uphill battle in its own state, for obvious reasons.
Given the need to go outside New Jersey and New York for talent, Rutgers can’t use an approach in which the central focus is to keep talent at home the way USC often needed to do in Southern California by retaining the best Mater Dei and St. John Bosco prospects (among others).
Rutgers has to be different. Dyer mentioned the state of North Carolina as a place where the Scarlet Knights have turned for talent, going under the national radar screen to get players the bigger programs either overlook or flatly ignore. It’s a fascinating conversation. You can listen to the full Rutgers Wire podcast with Kristian Dyer below:
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