Rutgers, of all schools, is killing it on the football recruiting trail. Still.
When last we left Greg Schiano‘s Rutgers football crew, the Scarlet Knights held the No. 12 class in the 2021 team rankings. That upward move was launched by five commitments in a span of roughly a week. The highlight of the recruiting splurge was four-star linebacker Khayri Banton committing to the Big Ten school.
Tuesday, three-star wide receiver Max Patterson committed to Rutgers football as well.
120% committed!!! pic.twitter.com/mxCyWA8Swk
— Max Patterson (@maxspatt) March 31, 2020
With the flurry of commitments, Rutgers now holds the No. 11 2021 class in the country. Rutgers football. Nearly a Top 10 school in recruiting.
That ranking, incidentally, puts them ahead of the likes of Georgia (No. 15), LSU (No. 16), Michigan (No. 17), Oklahoma (No. 19), Florida State (No. 24) and Auburn (No. 25), among others.
That No. 11 ranking also leaves Rutgers with the fifth-ranked football recruiting class In the Big Ten. The other four are No. 1 Ohio State, No. 7 Wisconsin, No. 9 Maryland and No. 10 Iowa.
The Scarlet Knights have never had a Top 10 recruiting class. Ever. Or a Top 20 class, for that matter. For some perspective, the top-ranked Rutgers football recruiting class of the past two decades was No. 23 in 2012. The cycle immediately after Schiano left the school for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, it should be noted.
Outside of that, the recruiting finishes have been decidedly pedestrian for the Scarlet Knights. Since the start of the 21st century, 18 of the Scarlet Knights’ 21 classes have finished outside of the Top 30. Of those 18, 15 finished 42nd or worse; 10 came in outside of the Top 50.
Seven of the current members of Rutgers’ Class of 2021 hail from the state of New Jersey. The other three come from Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
If Rutgers is to continue making hay on the football recruiting trail, they’ll do so in an extended dead period. Wednesday, the NCAA announced that the ban on all in-person contact between schools and prospects has been extended out through May 31. That extension, of course, is a direct result of the coronavirus pandemic.
