Rutgers Football: Why 2018 will be best year of Chris Ash era

3. Ash era recruits are starting to take shape

Rutgers will take the field in 2018 with many underclassmen — and a lot of them were recruited since Ash took over as head coach.

For example, Bo Melton, a sophomore wide receiver, is expected to play a major factor in the passing game this season. Additionally, Artur Sitkowski, a freshman quarterback, is making a bid to become the opening day starter before Sept. 1 rolls around.

Melton committed in March 2016 while Sitkowski originally committed to Miami but flipped to attend Rutgers instead last November. The quarterback-wideout duo has the capability to make immediate impacts but the Ash influence delves even further into the rosters of the future.

To this point, Rutgers doesn’t have any premiere commitments for the 2019 Class but indications are that the outreach of recruiting is expanding.

Rutgers, located in New Jersey, always receives talent from the Garden State but it also recruits fairly well in the mid Atlantic region in areas such as eastern Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland. Florida is another state that tends to attract a good amount of out-of-state recruits.

Meanwhile, the Scarlet Knights have gone global. One punter on the team, Adam Korsak, hails from Australia and a 2019 offensive lineman commit, Anton Oskarsson, is a native of Sweden.