QB Kyle Bolin goes in depth about his decision to transfer to Rutgers
Rutgers landed a key part of its 2017 squad today when Louisville quarterback Kyle Bolin announced his decision to transfer into Rutgers. Bolin will be immediately eligible to play this fall as he is set to graduate from Louisville next month.
He talked with Scarlet Nation about how this transfer process went down.
“When I sat down with coach [Bobby] Petrino and [Athletic Director] Ton Jurich at the University of Louisville, they really stressed to me that I pick a program where I knew I would have a great opportunity to start. I feel like after meeting with the coaching staff at Rutgers, they told me I am going to be able to compete for a starting job. That is a major reason I decided to come to Rutgers.”
Bolin made the trip out to Rutgers this past weekend and that experience played a big part in his decision.
“When I first got to campus, I thought it was a beautiful place,” Bolin said of Rutgers. “I could definitely see myself living there. The location is great, there are a ton of opportunities outside of football. Then, when I met the players and the coaching staff, everybody welcomed me with open arms. I felt like I was wanted and needed. I felt comfortable and felt like I was a high priority for them. It makes you feel special. Experiencing all that, Rutgers was a place I wanted to be.”
The original timeline for a decision was not immediate, although Bolin explained why he chose Rutgers when he did.
“I wanted to make a decision towards mid-May, but obviously plans change. Maybe if I wouldn’t have gone to Rutgers last weekend and gone somewhere else and waited a couple of weeks, I might not have felt at home until I got to Rutgers. I felt comfortable being there and I did not want to lead anybody on. A lot of athletes like to carry out the recruiting process and make a big ordeal about it and get articles written about them. I was cut from a different fabric and raised differently. I was taught to be a man of your word and I wanted to make sure I was honest with everyone. I was completely honest up front and when I found a university I wanted to attend, then I would break the news.”
Bolin was also being courted by other major programs, such as Texas and Cincinnati.
“Everybody I spoke with was a class act. Oddly, I feel like every coach from every branch of the Urban Meyer tree was recruiting me,” said Bolin, who started five games in 2015 before the emergence of 2016 Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson . “I had coach [Tom] Herman and Coach [Tim] Beck at Texas. I had Coach [Luke] Fickell at Cincinnati. Coach [Chris] Ash at Rutgers. It was kind of neat that all of these coaches saw promise in me and it was very difficult to let them know my decision to go to Rutgers because of the relationships I was building with them.”
The Rutgers offense will have a bit of a different look this season under new offensive coordinator Jerry Kill and Bolin revealed what he was told about that new offense.
“I think coach Kill is such a good coach and such a great offensive mind, that he is going to tailor the offense to whichever quarterback wins the job. I am more of a pocket passer. I am athletic enough to make plays with my legs. I am not going to run all over a defense for 200 yards, but I can make plays with my legs if need be.”
Bolin was a former three-star recruit in Rivals.com’s class of 2013 and the No.33 ranked pro-style quarterback in the nation that year.
However, recruiting was a bit different the second time around.
“It is a little different as a grad transfer,” Bolin said. “Coaches know what they are getting themselves into. They have seen my film and what I am capable of. They have been able to communicate with coaches who I have played for. They know exactly what they are getting. Coming out of high school, they are just getting hype based off what a player did in high school. Sometimes, guys come in from high school and perform right away and other times, they don’t pan out. With grad transfers, they know what they are getting. So it was a lot easier to make a decision. I was more in the driver’s seat and I was able to pick a place I wanted to go to.”
It won’t be long now before Bolin is on the Rutgers campus and getting prepared to compete for the starting quarterback job.
“I am going to get up to Rutgers as soon as possible. We are going through the academic side of it now. When everything is finalized, I will have a better idea of when I will be on campus. I know for a fact I will be up there by the end of May.”
