Blacknall caps off Rutgers downfall with Penn State commitment

What once seemed as a promising and talented recruiting class loaded with highly recruited prospects from the East Coast no longer exists for Rutgers.

Saeed Blacknall, a consensus four-star wide receiver from Manalapan, N.J. capped off the near nightmarish collapse of Rutgers 2014 recruiting class by committing to Penn State on Sunday night.

Since mid Oct. Rutgers has had 11 decommits from its 2014 class. None have returned to the New Jersey school. Blacknall initially stuck with Rutgers as his college choice. He did not announce his decommitment in the recent weeks after Rutgers late season collapse like the other recruits. The irony of this story is that Blacknall continued to reach out to Rutgers commits in an effort to keep the 2014 recruiting class in tact. That was until Sunday when he committed to Penn State.

Rutgers lost New Jersey recruits in David Njoku, Adonis Jennings, Kiy Hester, and Jonathan Hilliman prior to losing its top recruit in Blacknall. Njoku went on a visit to Penn State for their home game vs. Michigan, and re-opened his his recruitment on Oct. 13. Jennings wanted to take as many official visits as he could, and Hester followed with the same choice. Then Boston College won Hilliman over when he took an official visit to Chestnut Hill on Dec. 14. Njoku has yet to choose a school. At this point, Rutgers does not look to be in the picture.

Blacknall (left) pictured with Manalapan teammate Anthony Firsker (right). Photo by shoresportsnetwork.com/

Blacknall originally committed to Rutgers over LSU and Alabma in August. Penn State coaches visited him in Manalapan two weeks ago and he visited the Penn State campus last Sunday (Jan. 19) for an official visit. Blacknall’s visit to Penn State was his first trip to a school other than Rutgers since he went down to Alabama in July. He did not formally announce his decommitment from Rutgers at any time in the process until he verbally committed to Penn State on Sunday night. Blacknall joins Antoine White (Millville) and Mike Gesicki (Southern Regional), and Jason Cabinda (Hunterdon Central) as 2014 Penn State commits from New Jersey. He has become Penn State head coach James Franklin’s seventh commit since taking over on Jan. 11.

Rutgers doesn’t have a single four star recruit in its 2014 recruiting class. Ever since their late season collapse, Rutgers lost control of its recruits. The ball was in the prospects hands from then on. The Scarlets Knights schedule will be tougher in the coming years as a Big 10 school. You look at a school like Rutgers, who has done an impressive job of landing highly recruited prospects from New Jersey in past years, and ask, how could this happen?

The answer is rather simple.

Recruits want to take as many official visits as possible. The Rutgers coaching staff did not approve of its commits visiting other schools. That caused the tention between many of its commits (at the time) and the Rutgers coaching staff. Many of the former Rutgers recruits saw their friends visiting other schools and wanted to do the same.

The essential problem when it comes to football recruiting depends more on the time that schools get involved with players. In other words, schools have verbally offered recruits in middle school. Many players don’t get the chance to take official visits because schools get involved so early in the process. Schools cannot extend official visit invitations to the players that they recruit until their senior year.

This whole sequence of events should teach us fans, critics, and coaches that recruiting is really unpredictable. No one is truly committed to a school until they sign their national letter of intent. And listen, you can’t blame Blacknall for his decision. He’s a high school senior trying to find the best fit for the next four years. In this case, Penn State capitalized when Rutgers was falling apart. When Franklin took over, he said he was going to dominate recruiting New Jersey. After making Blacknall flip, one can assume Franklin is well on his way. Blacknall’s move from Rutgers to Penn State really emphasizes that Rutgers is nearing rock bottom when you compare their 2014 class in November to what they have now.

As National Signing Day approaches, I guess no one really knows besides the players themselves where they will end up. That is until the dotted line is signed and the fax goes through to the school of their choice.