Is Rutgers commitment solid

Mays Landing (N.J.) Oakcrest recruit Dakota Walker should be considered a soft commitment to Rutgers at this point.

Walker, a 6-foot-3, 225-pound inside linebacker, made an early commitment to the Scarlet Knights along with his brother, fullback Desmond Walker, back in June. The brothers have every intention of playing on the same team in college, but Dakota is willing to take a number of official visits to other schools before solidifying his commitment.

“I’m looking to take official visits to Virginia Tech, South Carolina, North Carolina, Maryland, and Tennessee right now,” admitted Walker. “I don’t really need to see Rutgers on an official visit since I can make that drive anytime I would need to.”

While Penn State and Rutgers are the only two schools to offer both Dakota and his brother at this point, Dakota admitted that Virginia Tech may be close to offering Desmond. Dakota holds offers from each of his favorites, but unless his brother has an offer from the same school, it looks like it will be increasingly difficult to pull one Walker away from the other.

Regarding the upcoming visits, Dakota has set no official dates for making his trips, but would like to take in some games at each of his destinations to check out the gameday atmosphere.

“Hopefully, I can get all of these trips done during the regular season,” Walker said. “It would be nice to see how the team and their fans react on gameday.”

What stands out about each of these five schools for Walker, and what drove him to make the early commitment to Rutgers?

“With Rutgers, both my brother and I had the chance to go to school together and get on the field early,” explained Walker. “Each of these other schools play in the best two conferences in my mind in college football, the ACC and the SEC. They all play on television a lot which gives you good exposure and they can put players consistently in the NFL.”

Oakcrest will kick off their season September 10th against St. Augustine Prep.