I can’t say that I’m surprised by today’s announcement that Rutgers’ Running Back Ray Rice is leaving the school and entering the NFL draft:
Ray Rice’s most productive game in a Rutgers uniform will apparently also be his last.
Three days after Rice ran for a school-record 280 yards in a 52-30 victory over Ball State in the International Bowl, he said Tuesday that he would forgo his final year of eligibility to enter the 2008 N.F.L. draft.
Rice, the university’s career rushing leader with 4,926 yards in three seasons, will make the announcement Wednesday at a news conference on campus.
“I have always dreamed of playing in the N.F.L., and I felt the time is right to pursue the opportunity to play at the next level,” he said in a statement issued Tuesday by the university. “Playing three years at Rutgers has been the experience of a lifetime.”
Rice, a 5-foot-9, 205-pound junior from New Rochelle, N.Y., becomes the first player in Coach Greg Schiano’s seven years at Rutgers to leave early for the draft. He was a two-time all-American, and Rutgers went to bowl games in each of his three seasons; before that, Rutgers had gone to only one bowl in the program’s long history.
“He has been one of the elite players in college football during his career at Rutgers,” Schiano said in the statement. “Although we will miss him greatly, we all look forward to watching him play on Sundays.”
Rice leaves a big whole at the running back position that will be hard to fill, but Schiano has done a great job with this team over the past several years. There are two Wide Receivers who pulled in more than 1,000 yards each, and Mike Teel will be back at quarterback. This is much is true, though, Rice will go down as one of the legendary players in school history.
January 9th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
“His decision came three days after he ran for 280 yard and scored four touchdowns in a 52-30 victory over Ball State in the International Bowl. It was Rutgers’ third straight bowl game and second straight bowl win after the school went 27 years without qualifying for a bowl.”
Ray Rice website.
Good Luck Ray….
January 11th, 2008 at 2:36 am
[...] Ray Rice Is Leaving Rutgers For The NFL [...]
January 18th, 2008 at 2:16 am
I just think he is going to be shocked by reality.
No one is talking about him like the others. I wish him well but,I think he is going to need more than words from well wishers. He should have sayed in another year broke some more records and maybe got that Heisman. He would have completed his education and his mother would get the 2009 Escalade not the 2008.