Neumann Goretti’s Wydeek Collier reclassified to the class of 2025 to join Rutgers this fall

Wydeek Collier was preparing to enroll early at Rutgers in January 2026 to join the football team for spring practice. He had already decided he would not be returning to Neumann Goretti this fall and was deciding between two or three schools to transfer to.

But during Collier’s early-June official visit to Rutgers, which received the edge rusher’s oral pledge in January, coach Greg Schiano proposed something else.

“Coach Schiano asked me, ‘How do you feel about coming up early?’” said Collier, who then was ranked third in the state in the 2026 recruiting class by 247 Sports. “I said, ‘Do I have enough credits for that?’ He said, ‘Yes you do.’ He had one of his academic guys to make sure I had enough credits [to graduate early], and I did.”

After that conversation and weighing his options with his family, Collier decided to reclassify to the 2025 recruiting class, which he announced last week. He had completed his core class credit requirements to graduate and is now 247Sports’ No. 8 player in the state, behind the likes of Matt Zollers (Spring-Ford, Missouri), Zahir Mathis (Imhotep, Maryland), Jalil Hall (Bonner-Prendergast, Purdue), and Cam Smith (St. Joseph’s Prep, Penn State).

Collier became the third player at Rutgers to reclassify to the 2025 class, joining defensive backs Latrell Noel of First Baptist Academy (Naples, Fla.) and Cannon Marshall of Rolesville High School in North Carolina.

“This year, the coaches don’t expect me to contribute this early,” Collier said. “They expect me to maybe get developed to the point when January comes around, I’ll be 245 [pounds] already, definitely bulked up the right way. It’ll be more so my development year, to get the weight on I need to [gain] on, to get the size, strength, and the speed I need.”

At 6-foot-7, 215 pounds, Collier, who has played football since he was 4, has an unusual body type for defensive end. He was a wide receiver and safety at Neumann Goretti, but entering his junior season, he transitioned to more of an edge rushing role and finished last season with 14 tackles for loss and eight sacks for the 5-6 Saints.

The move was inspired by Penn State, which made Collier his first scholarship offer to play defensive end. Deion Barnes, a North Philly native who is the Nittany Lions’ defensive line coach, was Collier’s main recruiter. He told the Saints standout that “you’re still not done growing” and should make the switch to edge rusher.

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“At the time, I was like 6-5, 185 [pounds],” Collier said, “and there was no way I could play defensive end at this size. … They were the first school to offer me at defensive end.”

Up until a few weeks before he announced his commitment in January, Collier was set on Penn State. He took several unofficial visits there last summer and had his mind set on the program. But during the Nittany Lions’ College Football Playoff run, Collier said the communication “wasn’t as consistent as it was [before],” while Rutgers continued to reach out to him. Those conversations were led by Philly-area native and former Temple player Damiere Shaw.

A week before Collier’s commitment to Rutgers, some of the coaching staff, including Schiano, visited Neumann Goretti to meet with him in person and spent an hour talking with the four-star recruit and his father. It led him to “reconsider my decision.”

In an interview with The Inquirer earlier this year, Shaw, the Scarlet Knights’ running backs coach, said Rutgers does “a lot of team recruiting” and that “multiple staff members are assigned to recruit and touch all of his circle of influence.”

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“During the recruiting process with other schools, I’m usually talking to recruiting assistants, directors of recruiting, sometimes a position coach,” Collier said, “but I’d never really been in contact with the head coach like I was getting contacted at Rutgers with Coach Schiano. He would just reach out and call me, just to check in. … It was something different.”

Collier reported to Rutgers for preseason camp on Wednesday. He has enjoyed seeing the “development of the guys they’re bringing in” and is confident the Scarlet Knights are getting closer to building a national title contender.

“I feel like we’re making a slow climb, but we’re definitely getting there,” Collier said. “I feel like we’re building something here. We got ballers in the 2026 class. … I feel like we’re going to be good enough to win a national championship.”