Test Football trainer Racioppi talks about future NFL Knights
Most Rutgers football fans have noticed videos of workouts popping up on Twitter from two of the top competitors vying for the the Rutgers starting quarterback job. Those videos were posted by NFL Draft prep trainer Tony Racioppi from Test Football Academy.
Racioppi is a former college quarterback at Rowan University and is now a NFL prep trainer at Test Football Academy in Martinsville, New Jersey. His job is to get former college players ready and helping them to earn a chance at making an NFL roster.
Recently he’s been training a number of former Scarlet Knights from last years football team that include quarterback Kyle Bolin, running backs Gus Edwards and Josh Hicks.
We here at TKR caught up with Racioppi to talk about the potential of some of these former Knights and some strengths they provide.
Career Stats at Rutgers: 73-of-133 for 711yards, 3 TDs & 6 INTs
"He has come a long way. I trained him last summer just a couple times before Rutgers started up. I saw the talent in him fundamentally and we’ve been working on getting him some more velocity on the football. He tore up the recent Rutgers pro day, he threw the ball just fabulously. Then he went to Kentucky pro day the other day and had another great pro day as well. Right now he’s been invited to a couple local pro days.” - Test Football trainer Tony Racioppi
Career Stats at Rutgers: 257 carries for 1351yds & 7 TDs11 rec. for 89yds & 1 TD
“He has a lot of potential. He fits that mold of a third down back in the NFL. He runs hard enough to be an every down back. I was blown away by how talented he was in the pass game. He is a great route runner, with some really good feet and awesome hands. Hands like a sponge.” - Racioppi
Career Stats at Rutgers: 164 carries for 713yds & 6 TDs13 rec. for 103yds & 1 TD
“Gus is a big, downhill runner with good vision and showed ability to catch ball out of backfield. Legit size and speed. Has opportunity to be a 3 down back. Rutgers is the home of the undrafted Free Agent Over Achiever who can make a team and have a nice 5-10 year career.” - Racioppi
Career Stats at Rutgers: 98 rec. for 1059yds & 2 TDs, 36 carries for 344yds & 4 TDs, and 3 Punt Returns for TDs & 5 Kick Returns for TDs
“Janarion has been in working with us, obviously he trained at IMG before us. He is going to with me probably for the rest of the time. He’s a good route runner and I’m sure you’ll hear how good his hands are for a receiver. I think he is definitely going to be that slot receiver / punt & kick return type of guy at next level. It’s a plus since everyone is kind of looking for those guys now a days.” - Racioppi
Along with working with some of the future NFL draft prospects out of Rutgers, Racioppi is also helping fine tune one current NFL Knight in former wideout Carlton Agudosi.
Career Stats at Rutgers: 35 rec. for 513yds & 2 TDs
“I actually coached Carlton back in high school at Franklin, we actually go back a while we’ve known each other since 8th grade. I think he has a great shot this year coming up to make the roster. He spent a ton of time last year on the practice squad going up against Patrick Peterson on the scout team. I think he really developed his game a little more and has just more knowledge of the position. He is in their plans to be a part of the teams top five or six receivers. So going into training camp it’s just his job to stay there.” - Racioppi
Stay tuned as we will have more on some of the future NFL Knights heading up to the NFL draft at the end of this month and more right here on The Knight Report.
