Knight headed to Rutgers

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By Kristian R. Dyer, Special to SI.com

One of the top remaining uncommitted prospects from Florida, Rashad Knight, will sign a letter of intent for Rutgers, SI.com has learned. A 5-foot-10 and 181-pound safety for Trinity Christian in Jacksonville, Knight is rated as a four-star player by Rivals.com. Knight will choose Rutgers over Michigan, where he took official visits. He also made an official visit to Auburn in December.

"I sat down with my family and talked about it -- I called the coach at Michigan to let him know," Knight said. "I just felt too comfortable at Rutgers to not go there."

Knight played safety in high school but says that Rutgers envisions him as a cornerback. Among his many offers were Auburn, Georgia Tech, Ole Miss, Purdue and West Virginia. He said that the recent trend of Rutgers producing NFL players helped sell him on the program. It didn't start very well, however, for the Scarlet Knights in trying to land Knight.

"A lot of coaches from a bunch of schools called here and there, but he [Rutgers' secondary coach Ed Pinkham] kept calling me so much, it started to get annoying," Knight said. "Then, after awhile, I began to feel real comfortable with him and what he was saying and our talks."

Perhaps it got to be a little too comfortable.

"I really like what they're doing there and how they do things," Knight said about Rutgers. "I like coach Pinkham and coach Schiano a lot. In fact, coach Schiano reminds me a lot of my mom."

According to Rivals.com, Knight is the No. 19 player at his position nationally and the No. 46 player in the state of Florida. He is the highest ever recruit from Florida to commit to Rutgers.

Kristian R. Dyer can be reached at KristianRDyer@yahoo.com.