Earlier today the Rutgers Football team landed a verbal commitment from a legacy recruit in South Jersey defensive back Malachi Melton.

Melton, who originally committed to Purdue back in the summer, made the decision early Wednesday morning that he was going to stay home and commit to the Scarlet Knights.

The 5.6, three-star commit spoke with us here at The Knight Report about his decision, relationship with Fran Brown and more.

“Rutgers is close to home and I feel very comfortable here,” Melton told TKR. “Now all my family can come and watch me play. I just feel comfortable all around and I know if there is a problem with anything, my family is not too far away. I feel like its just an all around good fit for me.”

As TKR mentioned before, Melton is a legacy recruit as his mom and dad both attended and played sports (women’s hoops | football) at Rutgers. His older brother, Bo Melton is also currently a wide receiver for the Scarlet Knights.

“My family was very happy when I made the decision,” Melton said. “They just reminded that it was 100% my decision and it has been the whole way. They were all just really happy.”

Just a week ago, Rutgers hired Greg Schiano as the program’s next head coach and one of the first recruits he reached out to was Melton - a moved that has paid off.

“The first thing coach Schiano said to me is that we are going to get two work,” said Melton. “He said he’s not going to take it easy on me or anything like that, he gave it to me real. I dont want him to cut any corners or anything like that. He told me a lot of the reasons why he left the first time and I understand them. So I decided to put all my faith in him and hopefully he can just lead the team in the right direction.”

Another recent addition to the Scarlet Knights coaching staff was secondary coach Fran Brown. He is known as a solid recruiter of South Jersey and he already had previous relationship with Melton.

“Coach Fran and I have a great relationship,” he said. “Temple was just a long shot for me, so that’s the reason I didn’t go there. With him at Rutgers, it just made the decision that much easier for me. I know what type of person he is and he’s a great character guy.”

Melton is now the second South Jersey recruit to hop on board with the Scarlet Knights since Fran Brown joined the staff and it doesn’t sound like they are done just yet.

“We have a surprise coming tomorrow,” Melton stated. “A lot of people are on the brink of decommitting and going to Rutgers. I already reached out to a couple of people and it’s going good so far.”

Malachi Melton will be at Rutgers this weekend and is in talks with the Rutgers Football staff about possibly taking another official visit to campus because of the coaching change. Either way, Melton is expected to be at Rutgers this weekend whether it’s an official or unofficial.