Fla. recruiting impresses Tuberville

Tommy Tuberville has coached in college since 1980, but only recently he noticed the Rutgers football program’s resurgence.

The Scarlet Knights went to seven bowl games in the past eight seasons, including last season when the Knights lost to Virginia Tech, 13-10, in the Russell Athletic Bowl.

But Tuberville, who is now head coach at Cincinnati, remembers Rutgers when it was an afterthought to many kids during his time as a recruiter in the southeast.

“Oh my gosh, it’s night and day. For years, Rutgers was a lot like Cincinnati — a team nobody paid any attention to,” Tuberville said Monday via teleconference. “There was not a big push toward football.”

There was even a time when Tuberville was at Miami (Fla.) from 1986 to 1993 as an assistant when the Hurricanes had a bigger New Jersey presence than the Knights.

“I can remember at Miami we would go to New Jersey and try to recruit players to come to the University of Miami, and very few of the players were even interested in going to the in-state school in Rutgers,” Tuberville said. “But that’s totally changed over the last eight to 10 years. They’ve become better and better.”

Part of Rutgers’ improvement was because of former head coach Greg Schiano’s belief in obtaining players from the state of Florida.

The Knights have 13 players from the Sunshine State, including senior defensive end Marcus Thompson, junior cornerback Gareef Glashen and senior free safety Jeremy Deering, who were all recruited while Schiano was with Rutgers.

Tuberville remembers the billboards Schiano used to put up in South Florida to try and gain a presence there.

“I coached at the University of Miami for 10 years and you didn’t see that kind of presence of a school that really recognized that, ‘Hey, we’ve got to come down here and recruit some day, so let’s put some billboards up,’” Tuberville said. “I thought that was pretty unique, [that Schiano] recognized it.”

Two players — Gary Gibson and Jonathan Freeney — represent Florida and Rutgers in the NFL, while a third, Jawan Jamison, is currently on the Washington Redskins’ practice squad.

Head coach Kyle Flood maintained the tradition of finding talent in Florida.

Four verbal commitments in the Knights’ recruiting class are from Florida, including fullback Jacob Kraut. The three-star recruit, according to Rivals, is the top-ranked player at his position.

Tuberville believes Rutgers’ continued efforts in the Sunshine State will provide the Knights with talent to compete in the Big Ten next season.

“Coach Schiano coached [at Miami], so he knew that you’ve got to go to South Florida and recruit some,” Tuberville said. “So there’s been a lot more effort in the last decade of Rutgers making their presence known, and they’re moving to another league and they’ve done a good job.”

For updates on the Rutgers football team, follow Bradly Derechailo on Twitter @Bradly_D. For general Rutgers sports updates follow @TargumSports.