#23. Rutgers Scarlet Knights

Much respect must be given to the coaching staff of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights for being able to keep everyone on board even after their head coach, Greg Schiano left to coach the Tampa Bay Buccaneers a week before signing day. Not only were they able to keep everyone in the fold, but they were able to land some of the guys they were targeting even after Schiano left.

First, and most importantly, was the commitment from the top player in the state of New Jersey, defensive end Darius Hamilton. Hamilton had probably made up his mind for Rutgers before the Schiano news, but for the staff to still land the 6’4”, 245 lber is unbelievable. Hamilton is truly a talented player, and the top rated Rutgers commitment.

The Scarlet Knights were also able to fill up at a position of need in the offensive line. The Knights desperately needed two offensive tackles, and they got two very good ones in Pennsylvania Tackles J.J. Denman and Chris Muller. Both kids were highly rated and highly regarded players. On top of that they landed a pair of other top offensive lineman in New Jersey’s Ryan Brodie, and Pennsylvania’s Brandon Arcidiacano.

The Knights other big time need was to land a quarterback. They did that nicely by adding Bloomsburg’s Blake Rankin. The 6’4”, 190 lbs signal caller is a true talent, and is the best high school quarterback to go to Rutgers since Tom Savage in the class of ’09.

The Knights landed commitments for some other top prospects as well such as New Jersey linebacker Quanzell Lambert and wide receiver Leonte Carroo, as well as Pennsylvania running back Desmon Peoples.

Top Recruit:Darius Hamilton

’12 PA QB Blake Rankin

’12 PA HB Desmon Peoples

’12 NJ WR Leonte Carroo

’12 NJ WR Carlton Agudosi

’12 NJ WR Ruhann Peele

’12 MD WR Ian Thomas

’12 PA OL J.J. Denman

’12 PA OL Chris Muller

’12 PA OL Brandon Arcidiacano

’12 NJ OL Ryan Brodie

’12 NJ DE Darius Hamilton

’12 NJ DT Julian Pinnix-Odrick

’12 NJ LB Quanzell Lambert

’12 NJ LB Steve Longa

’12 NJ ATH Jevon Tyree

’12 FL K Kyle Federico

#25. Virginia Cavaliers

The Virginia Cavaliers  capitalized on the success of a very good season on the recruiting trail. Head coach Mike London led the Cavaliers to big wins over teams like Florida State, Georgia Tech, and Miami. However he didn’t have the athletes on the field to compete with teams like Virginia Tech and Auburn. That is why this class of ’12 was crucial for the Virginia Cavaliers.

Getting athletes however, was exactly what they did. Their top prospect in Quarterback Greyson Lambert out of Georgia. Lambert is our second best quarterback for the class of ’12. He enrolled early for the spring, and will be hoping for playing time this upcoming season. At 6’5”, 200 lbs, Lambert has the size, and tools to be a great one.

The Cavaliers also landed several studs on the defensive side of the football. Linebacker/Defensive End Eli Harold is the top player in the state of Virginia, and will be getting early playing time. At 6’3, 225 lbs, he has the size to play either spot. Inside linebacker Kwontie Moore is another one of the very talented players in this class. At 6’1”, 235 lbs, Moore is also physically ready to step in and play right away. 

Safety Demetrie Brim is our fourth highest rated player in this class.  Brim is an exceptional athlete and we believe he will end up as one of the better safeties to come out of Virginia. Hyattsville (Md.) Defensive End Michael Moore will also be pretty good at Virginia. Moore, 6’5”, 255 lbs, is plenty big enough and comes from a high school known for having freakish athletes.

Offensive Lineman Sean Karl and Athlete Maurice Canady are also very talented players, that could have huge careers at Virginia.

Top Recruit: QB Greyson Lambert 

’12 GA QB Greyson Lambert

’12 PA QB Matt Johns

’12 VA WR Mario Nixon

’12 MA WR Canaan Severin

’12 VA OL Andre Miles-Redmond

’12 PA OL Michael Mooney

’12 NY OL Sean Karl

’12 NJ DE Max Valles

’12 MD DE Michael Moore

’12 VA LB Kwontie Moore

’12 VA LB Eli Harold

’12 FL S Demeitre Brim

’12 VA ATH Maurice Canady

Final weekend before signing day……

It was a big weekend, and the final before National Signing Day 2012. The biggest commitment of the weekend came yesterday when the Oregon Ducks landed the 6’8”, 275 lbs Arik Armstead (video below). The former USC commitment wants to play Defensive End in college, but knowing Chip Kelly, he should be an offensive tackle by the end of 2012. Still, he is a huge commitment, and will certainly make an impact at Oregon. Some of Oregon’s other top prospects are DE DeForest Buckner, QB Jake Rodriguez, and TE Pharoah Brown.

Second on the list was Texas middle linebacker Dalton Santos. Santos, who has been committed to Tennessee since what seems like forever, started taking visits this January. Texas was also his dream school which factored into the equation. Once the Longhorns offered him, his decision may have been made. The Longhorns are getting a good one in the 6’2”, 240 lbs Van High School star. Santos was actually the second big time Longhorn commitment of the day. Texas cornerback Daje Johnson also committed. The 5’10, 185 lber is another dynamic weapon that will give Texas a chance to be ranked #1 overall by RedshirtScouting. 

Storyline #3, talented New Jersey Quarterback Devin Fuller chose UCLA yesterday. Fuller chose UCLA over Rutgers and Arizona. The Bruins are getting a nice looking quarterback. He is small at 5’11.5”, but Fuller is certainly a talented player. The change of Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano may have pushed Fuller to UCLA as apposed to Rutgers.

Talented cornerback prospect Armani Reeves joins his teammate and close friend LB Camren Williams as an Ohio State commitment. The run that Urban Meyer has been on since taking the job has been incredible, and a piece about it will be posted in the coming days. Regardless, Reeves is a very talented corner, and at a position of need for Ohio State. The Ohio State Buckeyes are now also in the running for a top finish with guys like Stefon Diggs, Kyle Dodson, Davonte Neal, Jamal Marcus, Joel Caleb, and Bam Bradley still on their board. Speaking of Stefon Diggs, the Buckeyes hosted him this weekend on an official visit.

Speaking of Ohio, big time wide receiver Monty Madaris also made his commitment yesterday. Madaris chose Michigan State. The 6’2”, 180 lber is a big time kid. The Spartans also have a commitment from one of the top in-state kids as well in Aaron Burbridge.

’12 TX LB Dalton Santos

’12 TX CB Daje Johnson

’12 MA CB Armani Reeves

’12 NJ QB Devin Fuller

’12 OH WR Monty Madaris

J.J. Denman is bad luck

Pennsylvania Offensive Lineman J.J. Denman (Video Below) is in the news again. Coaches around the country are again after the 6’6”, 300 lbs offensive lineman. Denman committed just two days ago to Rutgers, however today’s hiring of Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers changes things a little.

Denman has been a bit of bad luck to any school he’s been committed to. He first committed to Penn State last summer. That changed as the Penn State scandal broke. He then flipped to Wisconsin. However earlier this month Wisconsin’s offensive staff was raided by Pittsburgh. Thus, he flipped to Rutgers. Today’s news won’t make Mr. Denman too thrilled. He does report offers from Miami (FL), Michigan, North Carolina, and Notre Dame, among others.

Speaking of big, talented offensive lineman, (Wash.) senior Joshua Garnett made his commitment today. Garnett chose between Michigan and Stanford. The 6’5”, 280 lber chose the Stanford Cardinal. This leaves Michigan in a big of a bind, as they wanted one more talented offensive lineman to go with Ben Braden, A.J. Williams, and Kyle Kalis. Fortunately for the Wolverines they still have two other offensive line recruits, and are the favorites to land Chicago (Ill.) Offensive Lineman Jordan Diamond.

Another Pennsylvania kid made his commitment today. Pennsylvania’s #2 rated Tight End J.P. Holtz committed to Pittsburgh over Michigan State. Holtz becomes the 2^nd highest rated commit for Pittsburgh only behind running back Rushel Shell.

 

’12 WA OL Joshua Garnett

’12 IL OL Jordan Diamond

’12 PA TE J.P. Holtz

Top 2012 Running Back is….

Miami Norland’s Randy “Duke” Johnson (Video Below). This kid out of Miami is electric, and will be making the Hurricanes a better football team. At 5’9″, 185 lbs, he is one of the most electric kids in this class. Miami’s Lamar Miller decided to go pro, so that will leave the door wide open for Duke to come in and win a role right away.

The rest of the top ten goes as follows:

(N.C.) Keith Marshall, (Tex.) Jonathan Gray, (Ohio) Brionte Dunn, (Penn.) Rushel Shell, (Tex.) Trey Williams, (Okla.) Barry Sanders, (Ala.) TJ Yeldon, (Tenn.) Brian Kimbrow, and (Fla.) Mario Pender

A few kids also committed recently. J.J. Denman from Pennsylvania committed to Rutgers. If there is one school that would benefit from Penn State’s sanctions it’s….well, Ohio State, but Rutgers is right up there. They landed the talented Denman from the Keystone state.

The other commitment came from Cornerback Yuri Wright to Colorado. Wright has been in a lot of trouble recently, as he was expelled from the prestigious Don Bosco Prep in New Jersey for his Twitter. That scares most teams off, but when your as talented as 

’12 OH HB Brionte Dunn

’12 AL HB TJ Yeldon

’12 PA OT J.J. Denman

’12 NJ CB Yuri Wright

Tillman Not Going to Stanford

Louisiana ATH Jontrey Tillman will not be going to Stanford like he planned since last June. The Stanford coaches told him he wasn’t accepted. Jontrey, while disappointed, now has to look for a new school. Scout.com reports Tillman having offers from SMU, Southern Miss, New Mexico, and Memphis. Tillman, who runs a 4.3, will probably pick up a few more offers now that he isn’t committed.

Class of ’13 Ohio Quarterback Malik Zaire recently stated he has a Top Three. Those are Nebraska, Pittsburgh, and the home state Ohio State Buckeyes. The Nebraska coaches compared Zaire to current star quarterback Taylor Martinez, however with a better arm. At 6’1″, 190 lbs, Zaire has an impressive arm. He is a lefty with a lot of potential. His video is linked below.

UCLA landed the commitment of talented defensive end Jeremy Castro. UCLA was Castro’s first scholarship offer, but it hasn’t been his favorite the whole time. He has spent time committed to both Washington and Oregon, but now plans to sign with the UCLA Bruins after an official visit to sunny L.A. Castro has offers from big time programs like Oklahoma, LSU, and Boise State.

The Penn State Nittany Lions landed four more commitments yesterday. The most notable was New York running back Akeel Lynch. The, 6’1″, 205 lb Lynch has a good chance to be a star for the Nittany Lions, especially saying they still don’t have their head coach on the job. Lynch makes it seven commitments in the past week. The others include CB Da’Quan Davis, S Trevor Williams, WR Jonathan Warner, WR Malik Golden, LB Nyeem Wartman, and S Jordan Lucas.

’12 CA DE Jeremy Castro

’12 NY HB Akeel Lynch

WR Jones, OL Wilson Make it Official

Two big time players from the class of ’12 have committed today. Aledo (Tex.) Aledo HS Offensive Lineman Michael Wilson committed to Oklahoma State and Pittsburgh (Penn.) Penn Hills SHS Corey Jones committed to Toledo.

Both kids were previously committed elsewhere. Corey Jones was most recently a Pitt commit, and Michael Wilson was previously committed to Texas A&M. Wilson almost brought another Texas Offensive Lineman with him. Houston (Tex.) Westside HS OL Germain Ifedi, who was committed to Texas A&M since October 26th, recently took an official visit to Oklahoma State. Before that Ifedi was committed to Missouri.

WR Corey Jones joins teammate and safety Chaz Whitaker as a Toledo commit. The pair become the 4th and 5th Toledo commitment from the city of Pittsburgh.

’12 PA WR Corey Jones

’12 TX OL Germain Ifedi

Kline Rounds Out Top 5 Quarterbacks

This isn’t as good of a quarterback class as we have seen in the past, but it is better than the class of ’10 and the class of ’11.

Hueytown (Ala.) Hueytown High School Quarterback Jameis Winston is our top Quarterback in this class. He is committed to Florida State for football. However the 6’4″, 200 lber is going to be a top pick in the MLB Baseball draft. It’ll be interesting to see if he decides to play at Florida State, or goes to join whatever MLB team drafts him.

Coming in second is Jesup (Ga.) Wayne County High School Quaterback Greyson Lambert. Lambert is committed to Virginia. Our third ranked quarterback is Columbus (Ind.) Columbus High School Quarterback Gunner Kiel, who had quite a lot of Drama recently. After being committed to both Indiana and LSU, Gunner Kiel enrolled at Notre Dame a few days ago.

Rounding out the top five are Concord (Calif.) De La Salle High School Quarterback Bart Houston and Danville (Calif.) San Ramon Valley High School Quarterback Zach Kline. Houston is slated to join the Wisconsin Badgers after their Rose Bowl appearance. Kline is going to try and turnaround the Cal Golden Bears program.

The Top Ten Finish Out Like This:

Connor Brewer (Ariz.), Anthony Alford (Miss.), Cyler Miles (Colo.), Tanner Mangum (Idaho), Maty Mauk (Ohio)

The nations top…

The nations top recruit, Dorial Green-Beckham (DGB), is still on the large. Many suspect he will come down to Missouri and Arkansas, however every team involved is throwing the kitchen sink at him.

Alabama, Texas, and Oklahoma round out his top five. 

Tuerk Commits to Trojans

Santa Margarita (Calif.) offensive tackle Max Tuerk has made his college choice.
“I committed to USC,” said Tuerk. “I’m 100% committed to USC.

The four-star offensive tackle becomes the second offensive lineman to commit to the Trojans in the 2012 class, joining a class heavy on skill players.

One of the all-time greats at USC, Carson Palmer, was a Santa Margarita alum, so the Trojans and Eagles have a nice history.