With Rutgers maintaining its current recruiting class despite the departure of longtime coach Greg Schiano to the NFL, the start of National Letter of Intent Signing Day was status quo in New Jersey and New York City.
Photo by Tom LemmingDarius Hamilton, Don Bosco Prep
As expected, the top two recruits from
Don Bosco Prep (Ramsey, N.J.) signed their NLI's declaring themselves Scarlet Knights, with defensive end
Darius Hamilton (No. 29) and wide receiver
Leonte Carroo (No. 90) helping New Jersey's state university land at
No. 23 in the CBS Sports/Maxpreps Recruiting Rankings – their best haul ever, and one kept together by longtime assistant and new head coach Kyle Flood.
Also joining Carroo and Hamilton at Rutgers will be
Timber Creek Regional (Erial, N.J.) linebacker
Quanzell Lambert, the No. 108 prospect in this year's class who was originally thought to back off his verbal commitment before coach Rob Hinson told MaxPreps' Stephen Spiewak last night Lambert planned to sign this morning.
Ryan Brodie (No. 183) of
Long Branch (N.J.) also signed this morning to bolster a class featuring several highly rated offensive linemen.
However, not all of the Metropolitan area standouts are heading to Central Jersey. MSG Varsity first broke that
Erasmus Hall (Brooklyn, N.Y.) defensive back
Wayne Morgan (No. 106) will be headed to Syracuse. Morgan chose the Orange over UConn and Penn State, which made a late push.
Northern Valley (Old Tappan, N.J.) quarterback
Devin Fuller (No. 35) signed with UCLA, which has the No. 18 recruiting class thus far. Don Bosco defensive backs
Yuri Wright (No. 99) and
Elijah Shumate (No. 149) signed with Colorado and No. 16 Notre Dame, respectively.
Also from Don Bosco, offensive lineman
Tyler Samra (UConn) and linebacker
Michael Strizak (Boston College) are headed out of state. Strizak will be joined at BC by
Pope John XXIII (Sparta, N.J.) defensive end
Malachi Moore and
St. Peter's Prep (Jersey City, N.J.) tight end
Michael Giacone, who originally committed to Rutgers before changing his mind after Schiano left.
Meanwhile, St. Peter's Prep running back/linebacker
D.J. Singleton (No. 171) is bound for Wisconsin. And
Seton Hall Prep (West Orange, N.J.) quarterback
Sean Maguire is taking his talents to Florida State.
In addition, the
Montclair (N.J.) trio of
Avery Ellis,
Khalif Herbin (who was said to receive a late offer from Arizona, according to NJ.com), and
Stephaun Marshall each inked with budding MAC power Temple.
However, early verbal commitments such as Montclair defensive lineman
Julian Pinnix-Odrick,
Saddle Brook (N.J.) linebacker
Steven Longa and
DePaul (Wayne, N.J.) athlete
Davon Jacobs (the first to sign early this morning) are each locked into Rutgers.
Meanwhile, wide receivers
Carlton Agudosi of
Franklin (Somerset, N.J.) and
Ruhann Peele of
Linden (N.J.) will join Carroo as players who could potentially fill the void left when all-time leading pass-catcher Mohammed Sanu declared for the NFL Draft.