Just when you thought Rutgers Football was done adding recruits to the class of 2021, the staff added another preferred walk-on this weekend in wide receiver / tight end Myles Goddard out of Amityville High School in Long Island, New York.

The 6-foot-6 prospect spoke in-depth about how the 1,000+ point scorer for the Amityville Warriors basketball team ended up committing to Rutgers University for football.

“Honestly this was my senior year in high school and I played basketball my whole life,” Goddard told TKR. “I’ve always been a hooper first, but COVID changed a lot for me.”

SIGN UP AND GET TKR PREMIUM FREE FOR 30 DAYS — CLICK HERE

Goddard isn’t your average high school football recruit, as he hasn’t played organized football since he was in seventh grade, over four years ago, well that was until the state of New York moved their football season to the spring of 2021.

“The last time I played football was in seventh grade,” said Goddard. “So anyway I missed the basketball season because of a broken finger I suffered and I had to wear a cast for a while. So I really didn't want to play and risk another injury. However this year since football came after the basketball season, I just thought why not give it a try one last time.”

Little did Goddard know how good he truly was on the gridiron, good enough to catch the attention of one of Rutgers Football’s assistant coaches in Scott Vallone who is also a fellow Long Island native.

“So I was playing for fun and I had a blast,” Goddard said. “I was doing pretty well too and then my head coach (Bill) Kretz started to reach out to schools for me because he saw the potential that I had. Then I found out Rutgers was interested in me as a tight end and I was amazed. As we got deeper into the process, I was leaning more and more towards playing football in college and when I told coach (Scott) Vallone that he pushed for me to get a spot. In the end it was my coaches who played a very big part in me committing to Rutgers.”

Goddard went on talking about how much of a role coach Vallone played in recruiting him and getting him to choose Rutgers in the end.

“He was completely honest with me,” he said. “He told me it's a big change from playing high school sports, but that I would be amazed if I were to go to school there. He also spoke to me about the atmosphere and talked about how Rutgers is a family and how everyone is really close. He said if I chose Rutgers, that he got me and if I had any questions I can go to him whenever and that we will get through the good times and bad times together.”

How good was Goddard’s lone season of high school that he drew attention from division one schools? He offered TKR all the stats from his six game season this spring.

“I had somewhere between 600-700 yards,” he said. “I also had four touchdowns on around 25 or so catches.”

Goddard is expected to be a preferred walk-on for the Scarlet Knights right away, but is going to be one to watch as he already has some pretty intriguing size and has the athletic background with hoops.