For Antonio Alfano, the scholarship offer from his home state school Rutgers last weekend caught both him and his father off guard after his camp performance at the school.
The Class of 2019 defensive lineman, who checks in at 6’4, 229 pounds, had a strong outing in front of the Rutgers coaching staff during the camp.
Alfano knew had put on a good showing, but the scholarship offer definitely surprised him.
“Well, as soon, as I got the offer, I looked directly to my dad because I knew were both not anticipating me getting an offer,” Alfano said. “We were kind of expecting me to get offers as a sophomore or junior, but not an 8th grader. After he said that, I was like ‘woah’, I didn’t say anything, I was just in shock. It was a very humbling experience."
Alfano and his dad were pulled aside by Rutgers head coach Kyle Flood, who was the one who extended the offer to Alfano.
After dominating in camp drills and showing great leadership, Flood pulled the trigger on the offer, and had nothing but positive things to say about the young lineman.
“The first thing that came out of his mouth was ‘I’m going to offer him’,” Alfano said. “After he said that, he just went on about how he thinks I’m going to have many offers when I’m a senior because of what he sees me doing. He just went on about how good he thinks I’ll be.”
It was the first scholarship offer for Alfano, and it was definitely a special one coming from the home state university. Although it’s a long time away, he could definitely see himself there.
“Yes I could, but it’s still far away,” Alfano said. “So, I really don’t know right now. They will always be in my consideration.”
Now moving forward with the recruiting process, Alfano will try and pick up some more scholarship offers as he moves into high school football. He plans on attending more camps, including one at Penn State next month.
As for schools he would like to see an offer from, are there any specific ones standing out to Alfonso?
“No, not really,” Alfano said. “Basically, I’ll take whatever I’ll get. It just happened to be that Rutgers was the one that offered me first, and I guess that’s where we’ll start.”
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