The Monday Morning Kickoff
Rutgers is busy welcoming its early arrivals to campus as some transfers and freshman will officially report today at noon. Among those freshmen enrollees are Tennessee quarterback Tylin Oden and Mississippi defensive tackle Julius Turner.
“I'll be heading to Rutgers Saturday morning,” Turner said last week. “I kind of have mixed emotions about the situation. Being so far from family and friends, it's going to be sad. But at the same time, I'm ready to get there and be part of the new program. I've been waiting on this opportunity since I was young and I've finally got it.”
Rutgers is also bringing in a few transfers as defensive end Malachi Moore comes in as a fifth-year transfer from Boston College.
“I definitely did not want to lower my competition level, just off of pride,” Moore told Scarlet Nation on Friday. “I’d like to think I can keep up with that competition. Coming to Rutgers, there are some great teams in the Big Ten. I am just so blessed and happy that it all worked out.”
Rutgers brings in another transfer as cornerback Kobe Marfo still has three years to play after spending last fall at Reedley Community College in Reedley, Calif.
Marfo returned home to Virginia for the spring, where he was helping younger kids learn the game of football.
“I wouldn’t mind getting into coaching. I get a different view and appreciate my coaches more,” Marfo said. “I understand their frustrations and also what they do for other people.”
Graduate transfer Ross Taylor-Douglas is already on campus, having arrived last Thursday, where he weighed in at 190 pounds. Taylor-Douglas will have two more years to play as a Scarlet Knight.
On the recruiting front, South Jersey defensive back Edwin Lopez will announce his college decision Wednesday at Woodrow Wilson High School as Rutgers is among his finalists, which also include Temple, Tulane and Boston College.
New offers continue to go out and one of the most recent tenders was extended to class of 2017 linebacker Dillon Harris of Bloomfield, Conn., who told Scarlet Nation he will be on campus this coming weekend.
“I will be at Rutgers next Sunday hopefully,” Harris said. “I'm hoping to see all the facilities, the locker room, academic buildings, and, most of all, the surrounding area near the campus.”
Another new offer went out last week to defensive back recruit Salim Turner, who is transferring from Poly Prep (Brooklyn, N.Y.) to Episcopal Academy (Alexandria, Va.) where he will reclassify in the class of 2019.
“They visited the boarding school that I will be transferring to next year, Episcopal in Virginia, and the school's head coach was showing them my film,” Turner said of Rutgers. “They decided that they wanted to offer me so they had the coach tell me to give them a call.”
As always, keep it locked on Scarlet Nation for all your latest Rutgers football and recruiting news.