Early Wednesday morning, Rutgers football landed a commitment from in-state offensive lineman CJ Hanson out of St. John Vianney High School.

Hanson is a 6-foot-5, 285-pound tackle prospect who held offers from schools in various conferences such as the AAC, ACC, Big Ten, and much more.

The Knight Report spoke with Hanson after his decision to talk about the commitment and his plans going forward.

“I decided to commit to Rutgers because it’s close to home,” Hanson told TKR. “I get the chance to play for my home state and a chance to play in front of my family every game.”

Hanson, who has a strong relationship with his future position coach, said that was a main factor in his decision to commit to Rutgers.

“I definitely talk with coach Blazek the most,” Hanson said. “We are very close to one another. When we talk it’s mostly about more then just footbal. When we do talk about football, he tells me he doesn’t have a set position for me just yet because he thinks I can play anywhere on the line.”

A couple years back, coach Blazek actually convinced Hanson, who also is a lacrosse goalie, to play football and it seems to have paid off.

“He convinced me to play football freshman year back when he was recruiting (Jamaal) Beatty and (Micah) Clark,” mentioned Hanson. “He saw me in the weight room and he said I should play football, he said he thought I would have a real big future in the sport.. Ended up playing and it was real cool to have him recruit me to play for him in college after all that.”

Before playing football, Hanson was always very big on playing lacrosse and he plans to continue playing just to to stay in shape for football.

“I’ll definitely continue to play lacrosse at least for as long as I’m in high school,” he said. “Coach Blazek even told me I should keep playing keep playing just because it helps to keep players in shape.”

Hanson chose Rutger over 18 other scholarship offers and now that he is committed he is 100% solid to the Scarlet Knights.

“I do plan on taking my official visit in fall. Coach Blazek is supposed to send me over some dates soon. I’m shutting everything down with my recruitment," said Hanson. "I won’t be taking any other visits to anywhere but Rutgers. I think going on a visit elsewhere while be committed to Rutgers would be extremely disrespectful to Rutgers.”