But those teams were ALWAYS recruiting NJ. I think those decent Rutgers teams were taking advantage of a Penn State swoon and Nebraska abandoning the pipeline into the state they'd had since the '70s.
Maybe, but Schiano wasn't getting the elite guys. He got good players, and a few studs like Anthony Davis or Kenny Britt, but it wasn't like he was getting 5 of the top 10. His last 2 recruiting classes he did very well in that regard, and I believe he'd do pretty well if he had the Big Ten invite to sell.
Just looking at 247 recruiting rankings, in 2002, the top 10 players in the state went to Penn Statex 2, Notre Dame x2, Tennessee, BC, Illinois and Virginia x3. In 2003, the top 10 signed with the same group of schools, 247s site seems to have some mistakes tho, as I'm pretty sure Nate Robinson signed with Miami before ending up at RU cause they wouldn't admit him, and Greg Olsen signed with ND before transferring to Miami. Iowa, North Carolina got a few too.
Rutgers rise had more to do with the fall of Syracuse, plus BC slipping a bit. When Rutgers started getting more higher tiered guys, it was when Virginia started slipping.
But it comes back to Ash not getting anyone. The year he was hired, Rutgers had 2 WRs committed when he was hired, Taysir Mack (whos at Pitt now) and Isiah Wright (who's at Temple). He didn't hold on to either of them, and he didn't get one of the other decent instate options in Hasise Dubois (Virginia), Maurice Ffrench (pitt) or Frank Darby (Arizona State). These aren't superstar recruits, Dubois was 18th prospect in NJ that year and Ffrench and Darby were 26 and 27 respectively. All 5 of those guys have been good college players.