Pennsylvania already had seen its top tight end prospect of the 2011 recruiting class make a verbal commitment earlier in the year (Oil City’s Ben Koyack committed to Notre Dame in April).
Now, another top tight end prospect, this from the eastern half of the state, has made his verbal commitment to a Division-1 program.
Downingtown East’s Tyler Kroft, a 6’5, 210-pound senior-to-be, verbally committed to Rutgers Friday, according to Scout.com. Kroft had a number of scholarship offers in addition to the Scarlet Knights – Boston College, UCONN, Northwestern, Syracuse, Vanderbilt, Virginia and West Virginia -Scout.com reported.
Rivals.com also listed Cincinnati and Temple as having offered scholarships to Downingtown East’s star prospect. Maryland, Notre Dame, Pitt, and Stanford had expressed interest, but did not offer Kroft a scholarship during his recruiting process.
Kroft is Pennsylvania’s eighth verbal commitment in this 2011 recruiting class and is the second prospect in this class to commit to the Scarlet Knights. Cumberland Valley’s Kevin Snyder is the other Rutgers commit.
Kroft, who runs a 4.71 40-yard dash, ranks as the 36th-best tight end prospect in the 2011 recruiting class. He caught 36 passes for 667 yards and eight touchdowns as a junior, helping Downingtown East to a 10-3 overall record and a berth in the District 1 “AAAA” semifinals against Ridley, where the Cougars were eliminated, 28-7.
Verbal commitments are non-binding until the player signs a letter of intent in February.
