The Recruiting Map is very different these days
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Does it matter if we “fence the garden” or recruit the “state of Rutgers” anymore?
It was in the Chris Ash era that someone started using the phrase “fence the garden”, as in keep Garden State kids home. Clever phrase.
It followed Greg Schiano’s catch phrase of “recruiting the state of Rutgers”, meaning the state and any contiguous states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware….plus Florida. Maybe he figured a lot of Jersey folks lived down there.
So, the question can be asked, in this day of instant information, having every score and result at your finger tips, where every kid knows your every play and post-game comment, does it matter where your players come from? Does it really matter anymore if we fence the garden or recruit the state of Rutgers?
Recently, The Athletic published a story about Nebraska; it looked at its recruiting “map” for both the juggernaut that was Nebraska of the 90’s and the less than spectacular version we’ve seen over the last decade or so. The opening lines were pretty telling about the thrust of the piece:
In the months before and after Nebraska football trended sharply in a bad direction five years ago, the Huskers signed 11 players from their own state in the 2022 and 2023 recruiting classes.
Four remain on the roster. One has played extensively, offensive lineman Gunnar Gottula, with 16 starts over the past two seasons.
In 1997, 58.5 percent of the Nebraska roster (110 of 188 players) came from inside state borders. This season, it’s 27 percent (31 of 115). Among first- and second-stringers on the depth chart, 47.1 percent of Nebraska’s championship two-deep in 1997 graduated high school in the state. This year, that number stands at 16.7 percent, based on a depth-chart projection.
Nebraska built its reputation with the proverbial corn-fed bruising farm kids from within the Cornhusker state. Matt Ruhle is doing it very differently.
And that brought me back to the opening thoughts of this post: how critical is it for Greg Schiano – or any coach – to keep homegrown talent? We’ve heard it over and over, how if only Rutgers could keep the New Jersey kids home, with all that talent inside the state’s borders, that Rutgers could be a power house.
Really?
Greg Schiano opened the door – and Rutgers’ fans’ eyes – when he started heavily recruiting Florida. I never knew it until he did that, but Florida high schools have a shortened spring season for football practice. That meant that a kid in four years actually practiced an additional season; was it any wonder that those kids had more developed skills?
With The Athletic article in mind – and because I have far too much time on my hands – I decided to take a look at just where Rutgers got its football players. And I decided to take a look at three significant years’ rosters along with the current roster. Also, because I’m a visual learner and because it’s easier, I’ll use maps to illustrate the point.
1961, Rutgers’ first undefeated season
It was a very different time. The Knights were 9-0 — yes, only a nine game schedule — and it was against the likes of Princeton, Bucknell, and Lehigh. But that was the schedule, and they won’em all! They outscored their opponents 246-102, holding four of them to just six points. And 82% of the roster (no freshmen) came from New Jersey (42%), New York, Pennsylvania, or Delaware. It was a very regional squad.
1976, the second undefeated season
The schedule had expanded to eleven games and Frank Burns was in his fourth season running the program. The schedule, too, was starting to change as Louisville and Tulane, moreso national names, were on the schedule. Burns did, though, focus on New Jersey recruiting. His undefeated squad had 70% of its players from the Garden State. The rest of the roster was still pretty regional in nature, but there was a player from Florida and two from Canada.
2006, the Ray Rice-Brian Leonard era
It was the break out year for Schiano 1.0. An 11-2 record, a final AP ranking of 12th, the first bowl win ever in the Texas Bowl, a 37-10 victory over Kansas State. Life was good in Piscataway. And New Jerseyans still filled out the majority of the roster: 55% of the 122 players were instate products. And Florida was showing itself more, with 24 kids from the Sunshine State. The State of Rutgers and environs were heavily represented, but other states were being heard from.
2026, a veritable cornucopia of states
It’s a new era. New Jersey? Sure, but only 29% of the players are that “local”. The State of Rutgers along with the DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia) almost total the same number of players as New Jersey. But the biggest surprise was the “other” category. Fifty players – 37% of the roster – come from some place other than Jersey, the “state of Rutgers”, the DMV, or Florida. Rutgers has players on the roster from 21 different states and the District of Columbia.
Recruiting – and now add in the portal – is very different from when John Bateman coached that 1961 undefeated team. I’d say without hesitation that what Schiano & Co. are doing today is very, very different from how they built that 2006 squad. Managing a roster is a full time job; welcome the general manager. And kids looking for an opportunity will go pretty much anywhere for the chance to play and a pay day.
CAVEAT: The percentages are pretty accurate. There were very few definitive lists of where players came from; manual counts off of online media guides were….tricky. Take the actual number with a tiny grain of salt; take the big picture for what it’s worth.
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