Rutgers lands BIG defensive tackle Rayyan Buell out of West New York

On Thursday afternoon, The Knight Report confirmed that the Rutgers Scarlet Knights were able to land a commitment from defensive tackle Rayyan Buell. He is listed as a 6-foot-3, 264-pound defensive tackle whom hails from Hornell High School in western New York.

We were able to speak with Rutgers Football’s newest commit as he gets ready to head to campus this weekend for an official visit.

“I’ve been talking to Rutgers for a little bit now and coach (Andy) Buh came to see me this afternoon,” Buell told TKR. “He told me they were going to offer me and I was pretty excited about the opportunity so I accepted the offer and committed.”

This coming weekend will be the last chance for any prospects to take official visits as the second signing day is quickly approaching. So it only made sense for Buell to take his official visit to campus this weekend.

“I’m pretty excited,” he said. “I know Rutgers is a good academic school, so I’m really looking forward to checking out that side of things. Also, seeing more of the football program.”

Along with Buell, we also spoke with James Blanchard of JKBrecruiting.com. Blanchard has been trying to help put Buell on the map of some of the big schools and in the end it worked out.

“The kid is a freak athlete,” said Blanchard. “He is 6-foot-2 1/2 and around 270-pounds. He also runs a 5.09 laser in the 40 yard dash along with a 4.33 shuttle. Both of those times were verified at the Nike Opening event last summer. They also have some laser equipment at his high school and his coach says they have him at a 4.9 laser, but that can’t be verified yet.”

As we mentioned, Blanchard was very involved in helping Buell in his recruiting process and claims that one Rutgers assistant did a great job identifying Buell and getting him one campus without any other schools noticing.

“Omar Hales did a great job quietly identifying this kid,” said Blanchard. “He got him on campus without any outsiders knowing about it and worked hard to secure his commitment. If you look at this kids athletic times for a guy playing his position and compare them to the NFL combine, his numbers would have been top 10 for the position at every combine for the last 8 years. If Rutgers can develop him correctly, then they just got the steal of the year on the East Coast.”