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October 27, 2017 - Image 10

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Michigan Daily

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It all started with Jabrill

Peppers.

On May 26, 2013, the

New Jersey native made an
appearance on ESPN, where
he performed a freestyle rap,
pulled out a winged helmet
and officially committed to
play football at Michigan.

Just like that, the No.

1 recruit in the state was
headed to Ann Arbor. The
exodus had begun.

New Jersey wasn’t always

a hotbed for college football
recruits.
Freshman
safety

and
Jersey
native
Brad

Hawkins remembers when
his home was known only as
“the basketball state.”

But eventually — perhaps

while scouting stars like
Peppers — teams saw what

they were missing. Michigan,
along with a collection of
the nation’s elite programs,
began mining for talent and
enticed recruits to play their
college football outside of
their home state.

Chris
Ash
aimed
to

halt that process when he
accepted the head coaching
job in Piscataway just under
two years ago.

He helped coin the phrase

“Fence the Garden” — a
mantra meant to symbolize
Rutgers’ focus on keeping
the best high school football
players in New Jersey to
continue
their
college

careers.

And with the phrase came

an odd rivalry.

At the beginning of June

in
2016,
Jim
Harbaugh

organized one of his then-
infamous satellite camps at

Paramus Catholic — Peppers’
old stomping grounds. On
the same day, Ash brought
in
Urban

Meyer
to

host a camp
of his own
just over six
miles
away

at
Fairleigh

Dickinson
University.

Rutgers

students had
their
own

response,
too.
The

Order of the
Bull’s Blood
— a secret
society at the
university
— claimed responsibility for
acts of vandalism at Paramus
Catholic that occurred in the
days leading up to Michigan’s

camp.

All
past
drama
aside,

though, Ash’s “Fence the

Garden”
mantra, to this
point, appears
to be all it was.

Roughly
a

month
after

the
inception

of the phrase,
Rashan
Gary

— then the top-
ranked recruit
in the nation

committed

to
Michigan.

Kareem
Walker,
the

top-ranked
running
back

in
the
state,

joined him.

A year later, the trend

continued. Drew Singleton,
a Union City, N.J. native

ranked
as
the
fifth-best

recruit in the state according
to the ESPN 300, signed a
letter of intent to play at
Michigan.

They aren’t the only ones

either.
The
list
includes

Gary,
Walker,
Singleton,

Hawkins, Hunter Reynolds,
Joe
Beneducci,
Michael

Dwumfour,
Jon
Runyan,

Juwann
Bushell-Beatty,

Cheyenn Robinson and Ron
Johnson. All on Michigan’s
roster. All hail from New
Jersey.

Some came before Peppers.

Some came with him. But the
majority came after him.

All
it
took
was
an

appearance
on
national

television.

“I think it definitely (opens

the door), because growing
up in Jersey, we looked up
to guys like Jabrill when I

was a kid,” Dwumfour said.
“... When he made the move
here, it definitely opened
the eyes of guys like me in
Jersey.”

***

The logic is simple.
“Jersey
guys,
we
like

to
win,”
Dwumfour
said

of
Michigan’s
increased

presence in his home state.
“So wherever fits us right
and feels like home, that’s
where we want to be.”

Unfortunately for Rutgers,

it has failed to fit that criteria
for a long time now.

Ray Rice was a sophomore

the last time the Scarlet
Knights
had
a
10-win

season. That came in 2006,
when Greg Schiano’s team
punctuated an 11-2 season in
the Big East with a victory
over Kansas State in the
Texas Bowl. Before that, you
would need to go back to 1976
to find double digits in the
win column.

The
Scarlet
Knights

haven’t had a winning season
in the Big Ten since their
inaugural year when they
finished 8-5 and beat North
Carolina in the Quick Lane
Bowl. And in the past two
seasons, Rutgers has finished
a combined 6-18.

It’s for those reasons that

Hawkins and Bushell-Beatty
remember growing up with
little exposure to Rutgers
football.

As a kid in New Jersey,

Hawkins recalls watching
“whoever gets the TV time
pretty much.” The Scarlet
Knights rarely received that
big of a stage.

Someday they might, but

to
Nunzio
Campanile


the head coach at Bergen
Catholic
in
Oradell,
N.J.

— it’s a process that will
inevitably take time.

“I think that success is

relative,”
Campanile
said.

“I think that if they start
getting to the point where
they’re winning five, six,
seven games, I think some
of those higher-level players
might be willing to take that

FootballSaturday, October 28, 2017
4

‘M’ impedes Rutgers’ fight for Jersey

KEVIN SANTO

Managing Sports Editor

FILE PHOTO/Daily

Special teams coordinator Chris Partridge had experience in the New Jersey college football recruiting landscape, as he served as the head coach of Paramus Catholic for five years.

New Jersey has plenty of talent. The problem is that the Scarlet Knights can’t seem to hold on to it.

Growing up
in Jersey, we

looked up
to guys like

Jabrill when I

was kid

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