Gravesande commits to Purdue

Purdue picked up a commitment last night from Irvington, N.J. wide receiver Waynelle Gravesande. The 5-foot-10, 155-pounder gave his verbal pledge to the coaches over offers from East Carolina, Toledo, Michigan State, Cincinnati and others.

"I committed last night to coach Anarumo and he sounded really happy and pleased," he said. "He was excited that I decided to commit and went on to say that he was going to run and tell Joe Tiller."

For a while now, Gravesande was favoring the Boilermakers. What finally pushed him to pull the trigger?

"I had a long conversation with my head coach and parents," he said. "My original plan was to wait and commit after the football season, but then I realized I wouldn't have that much time and I do right now. Purdue had been my favorite and my head coach said something big to me. It's my decision and my life and it's where I'm going, it doesn't matter what anyone else says because you have to do what you want to do and so I decided."

The three-star prospect likes a lot about Purdue.

"Basically I really like their offense because it's very similar to ours at Irvington," he stated. "I think I have a good chance to start as a true freshman since I know all the adjustments and coverages I'll be seeing because I run in this offense now. I don't think it'll be that hard to adjust. The coaches have told me that they think I could possibly play as a true freshman too and I can say I'll be confident when I arrive.

"I also like the coaches. Coach Anarumo recruited me very hard and was straight forward the whole time. He wasn't putting on a front and treated me with respect. I like that a lot. Finally, I like that they are in the Big Ten. That's a difficult conference where I'll see a lot of challenges and opportunity to play against big-time teams like Penn State, Ohio State and Notre Dame."

Now with a decision behind him, the No. 15 player in the Garden State is set for his senior season.

"It's my goal to take my team to a state championship and I'm going to focus on that now," he said. "As for myself, I would say I'm never completely satisfied and I know I need to work on things and study offenses more to continue to get better."