RU winning recruiting games, too
Friday, November 17, 2006
By ADITI KINKHABWALA
STAFF WRITER
PISCATAWAY -- Last Thursday, while Rutgers was climbing out of an 18-point hole against then-No. 3 Louisville, Anthony Davis might've pumped a fist or two.
"But I wasn't jumping," the 6-foot-5, 341-pound man-child swore.
Last Thursday, when Rutgers had upended Louisville and a sea of fans rushed the field, Davis might've climbed down onto the FieldTurf too.
"I had to get to the locker room," the Piscataway High School lineman protested.
Davis didn't want to cop to getting caught in any Scarlet Fever contagion and he was fine pretending Rutgers hadn't given him the time of his life. But then the senior, who is maybe the best schoolboy lineman in the country and definitely on every college coach's wish list let out one little giggle and had to whoosh: "It was craaaaa-zy. The atmosphere was unreal."
It's a totally new world for the 9-0 Scarlet Knights, one in which their BCS ranking of six may actually be a smidgen less intoxicating than the ones the state's best prospects are handing out.
"I think," Paulsboro linebacker Alex Silvestro said, "they're starting to build a dynasty."
Those are heady words to coach Greg Schiano. Davis, who in talking about crazy is headed for the Ohio State-Michigan game Saturday, said his choices are down to the Buckeyes and Rutgers. Silvestro said he's visiting West Virginia next weekend, Penn State the weekend after and then Rutgers. Schiano said he's always felt Rutgers was among the finalists for elite prospects, like these two, but he readily admits those prospects didn't necessarily trumpet it, like these two.
"Maybe it wasn't in their best interests to mention that publicly. At that time, it would kind of drag their stock down in the propaganda game," Schiano said. "Now the quote-unquote top players are not apprehensive to mention Rutgers."
Union Hill coach Joe Rotondi absolutely agreed, remembering how four years ago, when his charge and current Rutgers left tackle Pedro Sosa said no to Penn State and Miami. "He had to battle his friends saying, 'Are you crazy?' "
This year, when Manny Abreu picked Rutgers after an official visit to the Swamp at Florida, Rotondi said the 6-4, 230-pound linebacker thought the only difference was "Rutgers is closer."
Schiano's charisma has sold his dream to kids such as senior captain Brian Leonard. Schiano's lure of playing for their mutual home state school has won kids such as quarterback Mike Teel. And some of the things Schiano had working for him in years past haven't changed.
Davis said Rutgers' biggest selling point to him is "that the academic situation is so good." Silvestro said Schiano's obvious development of his players impresses him, explaining: "Newspapers keep dogging the defense, saying it's a bunch of nobodies. Well, if he's doing that with nobodies, imagine what he'll do with top kids."
As Rutgers has made habit with the state's top prospects, Abreu, Davis and Silvestro all said their first offers, and therefore most unforgettable, came from Rutgers. When Carol Boyer's son Matt, a 6-4 tight end at Governor Livingston, had his offers pile up, she said the one school that continued to stand out was Rutgers, because recruiting coordinator Joe Susan "writes personal letters. He doesn't type them and that says something."
All that is what brought kids who got Rutgers to 9-0. But at 9-0, there's something more for the 14 kids who've already committed -- and the ones who still will.
It's been hard, Davis said, not to get big-eyed over a red-lit Empire State Building, or a New Jersey Turnpike lined in "Go Rutgers" signs. Davis knew exactly how many people were at the Louisville game ("44,111, but I think it'll be bigger soon") and Silvestro knew how many ESPN appearances Rutgers has made ("every football player watches ESPN").
Rotondi said the burgeoning school spirit has had a huge effect in his neck of the state. Sosa regularly comes to speak to his Union City elementary school, and since he always brings Rutgers T-shirts, the town's now full of little kids, the coach said, "who run around saying, 'I want to play for Rutgers.' "
Well, that's hard not to say. Rutgers, after all, is a cooler school these days. Just ask Anthony Davis.
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