At the first open Rutgers football fall camp practice on Friday, the media was caught off guard when we saw defensive back Zamir Mickens in a Rutgers uniform. Mickens was originally a class of 2018 Rutgers verbal commit that didn’t sign his letter of intent like the rest of the recruits. However, he still ended up at Rutgers all because of one situation.
The Knight Report spoke with Thomas Mickens, Zamir’s father, to get the latest on how Zamir ended up as a Scarlet Knight in 2018.
“The little scandal happened with some of those football players over at Rutgers," Mickens told TKR. “They got kicked out and god bless that just opened the door up for Zamir.”
The original plan that Mickens told us back in June was for him to attend Milford Academy prep school and arrive at Rutgers the very next season.
“He wasn’t missing too many things there,” said Mickens. “He wouldn’t buckle down and study like he was supposed too and his SAT score was not up to par. He got his score up and if he didn’t he wouldn’t be at Rutgers right now.”
The elder Mickens is very high on the Rutgers football program and thinks coach Chris Ash has what it takes to get Rutgers on par with the big dogs of the college football world.
“I think that Rutgers has some good coaches,” he said. “Coach Ash came over from Ohio State and he was there when they won the national championship. I think he will bring over that type of energy that he got from Ohio State over to Rutgers. You never know maybe in a couple of years he could have Rutgers up there with Ohio State or Alabama.”
After losing safety KJ Gray to dismissal and a couple other defensive backs to the credit card investigation, Rutgers is now pretty short on depth at the position and it appears that Mickens will come in and bring some much needed depth and speed to the secondary.
“I think Zamir brings some real good speed to the team,” Mickens stated. “When he was younger I had him and his sister run track. He was ranked second in the state and second in the regional for two years in the Junior Olympics. His sister was actually faster then him, and she was first in the state and the region. So I think Zamir will bring some real good speed.”
Mickens already has a pretty good feel for the Rutgers program because his step brother, walk-on Javis Hanks, and his former high school teammate Johnathan Lewis are also on the team. The three of them have been playing together since pee wee football when they played for the Brick City Lions.
There are also a couple more familiar faces that Mickens will notice on the roster as he is now the fifth former St. Peter’s Prep recruit on the current Scarlet Knights roster.
“The St. Peter’s Prep connection definitely helped get Zamir to Rutgers,” he mentioned. “That relationship that coach (Rich) Hansen has with Rutgers definitely played a pivotal role for him getting a full scholarship to go to Rutgers.”
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