The Monday Morning Kickoff
A view from the gridiron (Rutgers Football)
Signing day finally arrived last week as Rutgers brought in 26 scholarship players and two grad transfers in its class of 2017. On Wednesday, head coach Chris Ash spoke about the class.
“Recruiting is about relationships, and I think we've done a great job in this state. We're going to sign 17 players from the State of New Jersey and 23 from the tri-state area. All of our recruiting efforts, like I've said in the past since we took the job, they are going to start right here at home. And I think we've made a huge dent and made some huge inroads in our recruiting efforts here at home, and we'll continue to do that.
“Obviously, we didn't get everybody here in the state. We'll never be able to do that. There are too many outstanding football players here and too many options for them to choose from, but if we can continue to build on what we are able to do here this year, we are going to have a very competitive football team and a competitive roster here soon.”
There were two signing day additions, the first coming from Mater Dei (New Monmouth, N.J.) wide receiver Eddie Lewis.
“It was everything from the start of them offering me,” Lewis said of Rutgers. “Me and Coach Ash built a great relationship, I also built a great relationship with coach [Jafar] Willams and that just made the situation for me better and the process easier."
The second signing day commit and final one in the 2017 class was soeedy running back Raheem Blackshear of Archbishop Wood (Warminster, Pa.).
“In the end, I choose Rutgers because I felt it was the best spot for me,” Blackshear said. “One of the things that sold me was Rutgers business program, I’m hoping to major in that.”
The take from center court (Rutgers Basketball)
The Scarlet Knights picked up a 70-68 win on the road against Penn State on Saturday, pushing their record to 13-11 on the season. It also marked the team’s first Big Ten road victory.
“We’ve come a long way and it’s hard to win in this league. There are terrific teams that are well coached,” head coach Steve Pikiell said following the win. “Obviously, we were on a stretch there, a long stretch and I was tired of reading about it. I didn’t want to be known by that kind of streak. So, our guys did something about it and I’m happy for them. They worked hard and they decided they were going to win a road game and they did.”
Sophomore guard Corey Sanders had another big game, logging 39 minutes and scoring 25 points.
“He was tough today and I couldn’t get him out of the game,” Pikiell said of Sanders. “Obviously, I wanted to a few times but it just wasn’t that kind of game. I was really excited about the toughness he showed today. He made some big plays down the stretch, and so did everybody. It was a great team win and Corey, when he plays like that, it really helps everybody.”
Rutgers will be in action again on Wednesday night, taking to the road against Ohio State with tip-off set for 7 p.m.
On the Mat (Rutgers Wrestling)
The No.14-ranked Scarlet Knights earned a 25-9 victory over Indiana inside The RAC on Sunday. The RU grapplers won seven of those 10 matches to move to 11-3 on the season. The victory also tied the most in a Big Ten season as the Scarlet Knights are 5-2 in conference duals.
There will be little down time as the team will be right back at it tonight with a road dual against No.4 Ohio State, which is actually a makeup date for a previous contest between the two that was cancelled because of inclement weather.
“We’ve got to get on a plane here in a couple hours and get to Columbus, Ohio, but it’s good to get a Big Ten win,” head coach Scott Goodale after RU’s win over Indiana. “I thought we wrestled really good in a lot of different positions so we’re excited about it and we’ll be ready to go tomorrow night.”
Rutgers’ final dual of the season will take place this coming Sunday at The RAC against Northwestern with a noontime start.