Rutgers' collapse is perfect for Addazio

For years New Jersey was a free for all in College Football recruiting. Penn State took a ton of players, but programs like Nebraska, Miami and even Wisconsin used the Garden State to build programs. BC was also one of the programs that looked to New Jersey for key talent. All the while Rutgers was a mess and never really a factor with the state's top players. That started to change with Greg Schiano. He threw himself into recruiting and also built relationships with the high school coaches. And with that talent upgrade came Rutgers' only sustained period of success in decades. Years and two head coaches removed from Schiano, things have reverted to old and BC is taking advantage of it all.

The latest New Jersey verbal is OL/DL prospect Khris Banks. He is not some five star, must get, but he is the type of solid prospect BC has always developed. More importantly he is the type of prospect Rutgers used to get under Schiano. In fact, Rutgers offered Banks before BC did, but he still decided to leave the state.

As provincial as it may seem, Rutgers main problem in New Jersey is a lack of Jersey assistants. It is all outisiders. BC is hitting the state with former Rutgers assistant Anthony Campanile. As noted many times, Campanile is also a member of one of the most prominent New Jersey football families. That history and local knowledge is the first step in finding kids and getting their coaches and parents on board.

I don't know much about Rutgers coach Chris Ash. I don't know if he will adapt or make changes to help local recruiting. Let's hope he's stubborn and determined to do things his way. It will make our recruiting that much easier.

New Jersey Media picking up on BC connection

Plenty of BC fans ask, "who cares?" when we talk about where we get our players. In theory I agree. I don't care if an athlete comes from Newton or from Alaska. As long as he or she can play and represents BC. But that is not the reality of college sports. Geography plays a huge role in the process. The majority of prospects want to stay close to home and want to play near family and friends. That mentality can be a challenge for BC since we are not in a hotbed of football. However, we are not far from some good pockets of talent either. The nearest hot spot is New Jersey. 

Addazio has boosted New Jersey recruiting so much of late that it is now getting noticed by local media. NJ.com put out a slide show of the Garden State talent that came to the Heights They also pointed out that despite perception, the BC pipeline is bigger than Big Ten schools like Michigan.

Obviously if getting New Jersey talent were all it took for success, Rutgers would be a perennial power. But developing pipelines is important. Now we just need Addazio to turn that talent into Top 25 teams. Once he has that sort of success, there will be players from all over the Northeast wanting to play at BC.

BC adds New Jersey Linebacker

Paul Theobald is the newest member of Addazio's 2017 recruiting class. He verballed Tuesday via Twitter and gives the class more defensive talent and continues the push into New Jersey.

A Seton Hall Prep product, Theobald carries 3 stars from 247 and 3 stars from Rivals. He is unranked by Scout. Other than BC, his best offers were from Rutgers and Northwestern.

Things won't stop now. Other rumored verbals are looming and should come in the following days.

Rutgers implosion good for BC

Kyle Flood keeps shooting himself in the foot and is probably on his way out. Although Rutgers is not in our conference, what happens in the Garden State still impacts BC. New Jersey is a critical recruiting territory for BC. If Rutgers is in chaos, we can pick off some of their current recruits and get in with future recruits before the school finds a replacement.

But it is not just recruiting where BC will see the benefit. I don't think Addazio will be a serious candidate to replace Flood. I think the Temple and BC connections will disqualify him to some Rutgers people as too small time with limited upside. Yet a few ACC coaches might get interest (Doeren? maybe Golden looks for a safe landing). Those potential shake ups might disrupt current and future opponents. There might even be some Big Ten and ACC coordinators who get in the mix and hurt their current team's recruiting and bowl prep.

In an ideal world Rutgers will always be a mess. BC needs to address many of their own issues to reach the next level, but a BC-friendly New Jersey certainly won't hurt our rise to the top.