Rutgers returns to gridiron as players report to training camp

When the Rutgers football team made its grand entrance to this position last year after it abandoned the sinking ship that was the American Athletic Conference, the bright lights that came with the allure and prestige of the Big Ten could have been understandably blinding.

As a near unanimous decision to finish dead-last in the seven-team East Division that featured the likes of eventual national champion Ohio State among others, reporters fired off rounds of questions on those predictions pondering how the Scarlet Knights would fare in their first year at the big kids’ table.

After raising some eyebrows with an 8-5 overall record and a 3-5 mark in conference play, all eyes are on Rutgers as the program enters its sophomore season amongst the nation’s elite.

That started last week in Chicago, Illinois, at Big Ten Media Day.

And it takes another step today as players report to training camp, with practice set to commence tomorrow afternoon.

“I think when you play in the Big Ten Conference, you’re gonna get a lot of attention,” head coach Kyle Flood said last week in front of reporters at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place. “You’re gonna get a lot of exposure, and our players know that.”

The Knights’ fourth-year head coach didn’t stack up lofty goals at media day, electing to stick to his trademarked mantra of going 1-0 every week.

Leonte Carroo, meanwhile, wasn’t as coy.

With a red carnation pinned to his blazer, the senior wide receiver told ESPN.com’s Austin Ward that he expects Rutgers to have at least 10 wins when it enters Pasadena, California, to contend for the Rose Bowl.

“Well, you know, ultimately the highest goal is the national championship,” Carroo told Ward. “And after our bowl game last year, one of our leaders, Paul James, stood up and said, ‘Hey, next year we want a 10-win season.’ That’s our goal, we want a 10-win season. But my goal is a 10-win season plus the Rose Bowl. That’s where I want to go.”

The Don Bosco Prep product, who returns after a career junior year where he hauled in 10 touchdowns for 1,086 yards on a nation-best 19.7 yards per reception and First Team All-Big Ten honors, elected to sign with Rutgers over the nation’s elite as an integral piece of the 2012 recruiting class that enters its final season at High Point Solutions Stadium.

As time in the Big Ten passes beyond the Knights’ second season in their new conference, Flood feels the exposure to collective growth for the program is inevitable.

“I think when you attach yourself to a brand like the Big Ten and you play in what we think is the premiere academic athletic conference in the country and the most competitive division in all of college football, if you’re recruiting the right kind of players, they wanna play that kind of football,” he said. “I really believe there’s no doubt that’s elevated our recruiting over the past two years.”

In order to capitalize on that continuity, Flood noted how key it is to keep building the brand of the program on and off the field.

Jogging through the memories of the historically successful seasons that led to electrifying undefeated starts as recent as 2006 and 2012, respectively, he pointed to the blueprint of transforming the home recruiting turf from the State of New Jersey into the State of Rutgers.

“Recruiting always begins at home, and I think that’s critical. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that,” Flood said. “For us, we’ve always recruited the State of Rutgers. The State of Rutgers begins in New Jersey. And if you look at our rosters … I think what you see is we’re generally between 75 and 85 percent of our players come from the State of Rutgers, and those guys are right at the heart of the State of Rutgers and New Jersey.”

Seniors like Keith Lumpkin, who now embarks on his fifth year as a Knight, will be looked at as one of the leaders under Flood to carry that pride out on the field.

“That’s one of the biggest things you get when you come to Rutgers,” the offensive tackle told Big Ten Network. “Everyone sticks together. We’re a big family. We don’t just wear it to wear it. It’s something that we really pride ourselves on.”

For updates on the Rutgers football team, follow @GarrettStepien and @TargumSports on Twitter.