Thursday morning tidbits

I have a story on Joe Martinek in today's paper and let me tell you: this kid is enormously fun to watch, he's tremendously polite and he makes a tough interview. Joe really, honestly does not like talking about himself. That 45-yard direct-snap touchdown run on the first carry he'd gotten in five games? He kept bringing it back to the way wideout Timmy Brown sold the fake. The way he manages to juggle the regular offensive playbook with all the film he has to watch to mimic the opponent's back, for scout team work? He kept talking about how hard Kordell Young and the other backs work and how they set the example. It's easy to root for a kid like that. 

So a visit to Tampa two years ago meant a major homecoming for a big chunk of the Scarlet Knights, but this year, there are only 15 Floridians on Rutgers' roster, the fewest in recent memory. With only one Floridian on the incoming recruits commit list, it was an easy leap to wonder if the Sunshine State is no longer really part of Greg's famous "State of Rutgers." Well, stop wondering, the coach said. "I don't agree with that. I think it's very much a part of where we want to recruit," he said. And then, after a brief little pause, he confidently reminded us: "This class isn't over yet either."

After following a 5-0 start by dropping three of four, South Florida found itself in a players only meeting last week. Asked about the practice generally, Greg just shrugged and said, "It's not an uncommon thing." He said there have certainly been players only meetings in his eight-year tenure, some that he was told of beforehand and others he wasn't. Fans and the media, he said, "make it out to be a bigger thing" than it actually is.

And lastly, because it's completely useless to even try pretending Gary Brackett and Eric Foster are two of my all-time favorite Rutgers players ever... check out this video of Gary talking about Eric. Gary was an undersized walk-on whose (now deceased) parents twice mortgaged their house for tuition money and who ultimately turned into a two-time captain. Eric was on scholarship, but he too was undersized at d-tackle, he too was a two-time captain and, just like Gary, he too was signed to a free agent contract by the Colts after graduation. He too, also just like Gary, then started for the Colts as a rookie. In case you missed it Monday, here's the video of Eric's goal line stop against the Steelers. Tell me you don't smile when you hear Gary credit the move with, "I think it's partly the school he went to. He just has the desire to go out there and overachieve."

Comments

[rutgersguy]

I gotta say time and time again when I read these things over and over about player after player it just makes me smile. It's a tribute to the type of players Schiano recruits and also how they mature as men in the program.

[Mike Abromitis]

Great story on Martinek! Nice video w/Brackett and Foster as well!

[DJSpanky]

Don't forget: the Florida connection suffered a major setback with the "Schiano" rule that the NCAA instituted a year or two ago. GS and staff used to garner a lot of attention with the camps they held down there, so much that other coaches campaigned successfully to get them shut down.