Jae’lyne Matthews: The unusual recruitment story of the four-star Rutgers commit

The story of Jae’lyne Matthews recruitment is certainly an interesting saga with a result that not many were expecting. No matter how it happened, he is committed to play for the Scarlet Knights. With that being said, the story of his recruitment is a bizarre one and its worth a deep dive.

For the sake of clarity, it would be best to hear the story of his recruitment through a rough timeline. Setting the backdrop to the scene, Rutgers has struggled mightily to recruit from the home base (New Jersey) in recent years, especially in the area where Matthews lives down by the shore. In addition, Rutgers has also struggled to land top talent in New Jersey for awhile now. Matthews commitment breaks all of those trends because he is rated as the seventh best player in the state in the Class of 2025 — and he is from Toms River.

He is flanked by another trend breaker in wide receiver commit Micheal Thomas III, who is rated as the third best player in the state and also hails from Toms River.

Back in 2023, Matthews originally committed to playing for Penn State before reopening his recruitment at the beginning of 2024. When he published his list of three finalists, Rutgers was not included. Then came his commitment ceremony, which showed Matthews has a streak of showmanship in him.

During the ceremony where it looked like he was going to go somewhere else, he was interrupted by a staged pizza delivery. Who were the pizza guys? Rutgers legends, and Toms River legends, Frankie Edgar and Todd Frazier, who handed Matthews a Rutgers hat and showed the crowd a pizza with an R shape made out of pepperoni. This was possibly the most “Jersey” commitment ceremony ever as Matthews made his announcement to the family and friends in the audience. It will be interesting to see what his Jersey flair can do when he arrives on the banks in 2025.

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