Jon Pollock settling in as Rutgers freshman

The future has already started for Rutgers true freshman linebacker Jonathan Pollock as he is now three weeks into his career as a college student athlete. He enrolled early while his former classmates are still wading through their senior year in Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, Fla.

“It’s awesome, I have always really wanted to come here,” Pollock said yesterday inside The Hale Center at Rutgers. “I got my boy Trey [Sneed] from Florida, so it is a lot of fun. It’s football, everybody talks about these little things. But at the end of the day, it is just football.”

Pollock talked about what it is like getting settled into college.

“It’s getting acclimated to a different lifestyle and living on your own and going to classes, having people right in your face about what to eat and then seeing everyone else going through a whole new workout with you. You have to remember they are not used to these workouts either. I think that’s pretty cool.”

And how have the workouts been thus far?

“It’s college football, I expected that coming in. Nothing is going to be easy,” Pollock said. “You have to fight and work hard and earn everything.”

Pollock said he is currently weighing in at 220 pounds and has a set goal weight of 225.

“I have one of the strength and conditioning coaches sit down with me every day and basically tell me what to eat,” he said.

There has also been some differences between head coach Chris Ash’s new coaching staff at Rutgers and the old staff that first recruited Pollock.

“It is definitely different,” Pollock said. “It is going to happen with a coaching change, but the difference is in the attention to detail, the little things; running two yards past the line, how you rack a weight, what you eat, how you get to class early. The little things are the key.”

Coming all the way up from Florida, Pollock has already noticed some differences about living in New Jersey.

“The pace of life. Things are a lot slower and chill down in Florida and up here it is go, go, go,” Pollock said. “It’s probably cause of football, but people walking around and driving, it’s a little different.”

As a recruit, Pollock did his part to sell the school to other recruits and now that he is officially a Scarlet Knight, that does not look like it is going to change.

“I love this place a lot. I consider it my home and I am willing to talk about Rutgers and hype it up as much as possible.”