The Monday Morning Kickoff
A view from the gridiron (Rutgers Football)
The annual Rutgers pro day took place in Piscataway on Friday and featured 13 former Scarlet Knights participating in various combine events in front of a collection of NFL scouts. Leading the way was wide receiver Andre Patton, who clocked a 40 time of 4.40.
“I think my best drill was the three-cone,” said Patton, who registered a 7.36 in that drill. “When I was out here running position drills, my routes were clean besides one ball across the middle. I thought everything else was real good.”
Current players, some former players and a good portion of the RU coaching staff were on hand for pro day.
“We talk about plan A and plan B. Everyone that goes to play college football, most of them have a plan A, which is to have an opportunity t play football for as long as they can,” head coach Chris Ash said on Friday. “It’s good for them to come out and watch and kind of see what the players go through and what to look forward to in the future.”
Meanwhile, recruiting remains in full swing as the Scarlet Knight coaching staff continues to send out offers. A local offer went out last week to class of 2019 DePaul dual-threat quarterback Ta’Quan Roberson while he was on campus for an official visit.
“Coach [Jerry] Kill said I was a great player on film and that he believes I have a bright future. After that, he said they would like to be the first class of 2019 quarterback that they offer,” Roberson said.
Rutgers is also faring well with some prospects outside the state of New Jersey.
“The coaching staff and I keep in touch a lot and Rutgers is definitely one of my top schools,” said three-star Georgia defensive end Abi Okonji. “…I hear from coaches [Shane] Burnham and [Jafar] Williams just about every day. They are just showing a lot of love and letting me know they I’m wanted at Rutgers and I’m a priority.”
As always, stay logged onto The Round Table for all the latest Rutgers recruiting updates.
The take from center court (Rutgers Basketball)
Rutgers’ run through the Big Ten Tournament spanned two games last week as an opening round 66-57 win over Ohio State was followed up by an 83-61 loss to Northwestern.
“I think we did a lot of big things this year for Rutgers basketball,” said starting guard Corey Sanders, who finished the season with team-high of 12.8 points per game. “That was the goal and we are going to keep striving for that goal, move on and keep progressing. I think a lot of people saw that. The goal is just to keep progressing. When I look back on it, I know that we worked hard and we played hard. That is really the biggest thing about it.”
The Scarlet Knights finished 15-18 on the season in head coach Steve Pikiell’s first year at the helm.
“We accomplished a lot of things,” Pikiell said. “We got some respect back to Rutgers basketball. I am very excited to be the head coach. I love the university. It’s a great place. We are building a new practice facility. We have a great athletic director, we have a lot of real positive things going on.”
Rutgers will only bid farewell to one scholarship senior in center CJ Gettys.
On the mat (Rutgers Wrestling)
The NCAA Wrestling Championships will take place this coming weekend in St. Louis and Rutgers will send seven grapplers to compete. At 141-pounds, two-time Big Ten champion Anthony Ashnault is seeded No. 5, the highest of any Scarlet Knights.
The RU representation continues with No. 13 seed John Van Brill at 157 pounds and No. 15 seed Ken Theobold at 149 pounds. There are also four unseeded Scarlet Knights in 133-pounder Scott DelVecchio, 174-pounder Jordan Pagano, 184-pounder Nicholas Gravina and 197-pounder Matthew Correnti.
The NCAA Championships will run March 16-18 inside the Scottrade Center.