4/27/2022 football Edit

Wide Receiver transfers Sean Ryan, Taj Harris making an impact

Chris Nalwasky • TheKnightReport

Beat Writer

The Rutgers football team’s wide receivers needed a little boost after the departure of Bo Melton, an All-Big Ten honoree who is off to the NFL.

GET TKR PREMIUM FREE FOR 30 DAYS — CLICK HERE FOR MORE

And so, the Scarlet Knights added veteran wide outs in Sean Ryan from West Virginia and Taj Harris from Syracuse, two local guys from Erasmus Hall in Brooklyn and Palmyra down in South Jersey.

Both Ryan, who is in his last year of eligibility, and Harris, who has two years left, have made an immediate impact.

The two were on opposite sides for the Scarlet-White Game on Friday, and they showed Rutgers fans what they bring to the table right away. Harris made five catches for 49 yards while Ryan made four grabs for 48 yards.

“They’ve been great,” sixth-year senior quarterback Noah Vedral told TKR on Harris and Ryan. “They’re older, they have a lot of talent, and they’ve raised the competition level in the room which is always something we talk about here at Rutgers. They’ve been great. Our receivers room has responded. Nobody is going to lay down. The competition has been great and they’ve been great additions to the team.”

On the White team’s first drive of the game, Vedral found another experienced receiver, Shameen Jones, for an 8-yard completion. He then hit Josh Youngblood for a 12-yard gain. After a long run by Al-Shadee Salaam, Vedral connected with Harris for an 18-yard touchdown on a back shoulder throw.

“That was a great adjustment by him. It was a great catch,” Vedral said. ”Our whole wide out room has been coming along. That’s just exclusive to Taj. He’s obviously an extremely talented receiver, but our guys all across the board, I think it was fun to watch.”

For the Scarlet team, Ryan was on the receiving end of Gavin Wimsatt’s first throw of the night. It went for 26 yards.

“A lot of guys made grabs and made plays,” Vedral said. “When you can spread the ball around and teams can’t take one guy away, it makes it that much more dynamic. It’s exciting to go into the summer with this momentum.”

Harris tallied 2,028 yards and 10 touchdowns on 151 catches in 35 games for Syracuse, Ryan caught 25 passes for 399 yards and three scores at West Virginia in 2021. He was at Temple before that.

Jones, who had three matches for 67 yards in the Spring Game, can’t be forgotten as well. With those three leading the way, with Youngblood now healthy, with Christian Dremel making plays, and with Isaiah Washington still flashing, the receivers have a chance to help lift this offense in 2022. It is unclear when Aron Cruickshank will be able to play coming off of his ACL injury, but he’s a speedy weapon who had much success last season, too.

“I think they are really going to help us,” head coach Greg Schiano said. “You know, they come in, they join Shameen, and then a host of other guys. We lose a really fine player in Bo as he leaves for the NFL. And I think it's really important that what we did through the portal, supplementing what we already have here.

"We have some young receivers that are going to be really good but they make take a little while to get there. To have some experienced guys on the squad, that helps a lot.”