Rising junior RB has Rutgers offer

Philadelphia (Pa.) St. Joseph's all-purpose back Desmon Peoples picked up a verbal offer from Rutgers earlier in the summer and plenty of other schools appear to have him high on their early recruiting boards.

Coaches are hesitant to verbally offer prospects at such an early stage in the process, because it's tough to factor in player development and they also aren't quite sure what their needs will be for each position yet.

Nonetheless, the Rutgers coaches were sufficiently impressed with Peoples earlier this summer to offer him a scholarship.

The 5-foot-7, 160-pound all-purpose back attended Rutgers' camp at the end of June and picked up his offer then.

"The camp went really well," Peoples recalled. "We just went through a couple of drills -- catching the ball, one-on-ones, things like that -- and I liked it a lot. I liked the coaching staff. I really liked the running backs coach. I liked his high intensity.

"I actually really liked the linebackers coach, to. During the one-on-ones he was hyping the competition between me and the opposing linebackers. I really enjoyed myself."

Though Rutgers has shown the most interest thus far, obviously, other schools also figure to factor into the race later.

"Pittsburgh said they should offer me September 1st but they didn't give me a verbal (offer) when I was there," he said.

"West Virginia likes me and South Carolina likes me. Florida ... I'm here right now about to go to this Friday Night Lights camp.

"So far I've seen the home field and their Hall of Fame. It's all pretty nice," he said of Florida. I got to talk to their running backs coach. He seems like a pretty cool dude. He seems to know what he's talking about. He was in the NFL for about three years and he's coached plenty of great running backs and guys that went into the league, like Percy Harvin."

Friday Night Lights will be the last event Peoples attends before the start of his junior year at St. Joseph's. There will be plenty of other trips after that, though. He plans on waiting until his senior season -- or more than a year from now -- to start narrowing things down.

"At this point I'm really just wide open," he said. "I'm going to see what I can get (offers) by the end of my senior year. For now I'm just trying to see what all of my options are."