Here’s a quick look at six takeaways from today’s early signing period for Rutgers Football.

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BIG RECRUITING WINS VERSUS PURDUE & VIRIGNIA TECH….

Arguably two of biggest gets in this class came recently when Rutgers managed to flip in-state guys Tyreem Powell and Malachi Melton. Both guys committed to their respective schools (Virginia Tech & Purdue) early on in the process and former head coach Chris Ash was never able to get either to flip to Rutgers. However, it took new head coach Greg Schiano a little less than a week to land both. To flip prospects from solid programs such as Purdue and Virginia Tech are two pretty big wins for Rutgers, a program that was competing with non power-five schools for talent last year.

THE FRAN BROWN EFFECT

All this time people have been hyping up the term “The Greg Schiano Effect” and while he did play a big role in closing on most of these recruits, there was an assistant coach that also played a major role in landing some of these prospects. Fran Brown, the former Temple and now Rutgers secondary coach, is very known for his recruiting abilities, especially when it comes to South Jersey. He played a key role in helping Rutgers flip guys like Tyreem Powell, Chris Long, Robert Longerbeam and Troy Rainey. The four of these guys are all key additions in the class and Brown is the main reason for all of them considering and landing at Rutgers. If he can do this in a two week span, I’m curious to see what coach Brown can do with a full recruiting cycle.

NEW JERSEY HEAVY RECRUITING CLASS

When Chris Ash was in charge, the Rutgers Football program only had six verbal commitments from the state of New Jersey. In the two weeks since Schiano was announced as head coach, he almost doubled that number. The Scarlet Knights are currently at 10 signees from the Garden State and I’d expect that number to continue to grow over the next couple of months. Recruiting New Jersey well is one of many important factors for Schiano and his staff.

RB Kyle Monangai (Don Bosco Prep - NJ)

WR Ahmirr Robinson (Union - NJ)

TE Shawn Collins (Montclair - NJ)

TE Victor Konopka (Blair Academy - NJ)

OL Bryan Felter (Bergen Catholic - NJ)

OL Isaiah Wright (St. Peter's Prep - NJ)

LB Tyreem Powell (Vineland - NJ)

CB Chris Long (WIllingboro - NJ)

CB Malachi Melton (Cedar Creek - NJ)

S Elijuwan Mack (St. Joe's Regional - NJ)

DOES MONANGAI SOLIDIFY BERGER TO RUTGERS?

The night before Signing Day, the Scarlet Knights landed one of the top running backs in the state when Don Bosco Prep running back Kyle Monangai verbally committed to the program. Not only is he the 26th overall player in the state in his class, but he is also teammates and close friends with the number one overall player in New Jersey for 2020 in Jalen Berger. There were tons of rumors all season long that Berger was looking to stay local for his college career and that if Rutgers made the right hire, they would have an excellent shot. Right now, Berger is fresh off official visits to UCLA and Wisconsin going into the dead period. TKR was told that Berger would not sign during the early signing period, but would still decide on January 4th at All-American game. Although Berger technically hasn’t taken an official visit to Rutgers yet, the Scarlet Knights are in a great spot to land his services. Coaches Nunzio Campanile, Fran Brown and Greg Schiano have all met with Berger over the past few weeks and with his good friend Monangai on board now, sources told TKR that Berger is Rutgers’ to lose.

SCHIANO LIKES A CERTAIN TYPE OF LINEMAN

One of the biggest shakeups that we saw among position groups in the Rutgers Football recruiting class was the recruitment of offensive and defensive linemen. Rutgers let go of Nick Bags, he was listed at 6-foot-3, 275-pounds in favor of a bigger defensive tackle in Troy Rainey who is listed at 6-foot-5, 305-pounds. Coach Schiano also added Tunde Fatukasi (6-4, 295), Cedrice Paillant (6-5, 305) to the class. The one thing that Schiano wanted in this class was to get much bigger and meaner in the trenches.

POSITIONS HAVE BEEN SOLIDIFIED ON UNCERTAIN GUYS

Going into today there were guys like Tyreem Powell, Chris Long and Robert Longerbeam who were listed as athletes per Rivals and others like Troy Rainey and Victor Konopka who weren’t certain on their position at the next level. Today, when the Rutgers Football program announced their signees, they also announced which positions they would play. Below is a quick look at where guys will start out their Scarlet Knights careers.

WR Robert Longerbeam

TE Victor Konopka

DL Troy Rainey

LB Tyreem Powell

CB Chris Long