Recruiting Roundup: La Salle’s Sam Brown is back in business, and St. Joseph’s Jada Byers gets noticed

While his sophomore season on the football field has been exceptional so far, La Salle running back Sam Brown had already experienced huge success at the end of his freshman school year off the field.

After a freshman season in which Brown rushed 43 times for 438 yards and five touchdowns and made 13 catches for 164 yards and two scores, the 6-foot-3, 190-pounder got a half dozen college scholarship offers in June and July.

Then things got quiet. Brown still made noise this season. He scored five touchdowns in August against North Penn, and he broke through for a 73-yard touchdown run against Malvern Prep that ignited a comeback victory. He scored more than one touchdown in three straight games. But the scholarship offers stopped coming.

But Brown was not deterred. He kept grinding out top performances, and, after scoring three more touchdowns in La Salle’s win over Father Judge on Saturday, he received a seventh offer, this one from Baylor.

Brown’s offers in the summer came from Temple, William & Mary, Michigan State, Bowling Green, Maryland, and Pittsburgh.

Also at La Salle, sophomore running back Abdul Carter announced two scholarship offers over the summer.

An outside linebacker as well, the 6-2, 220-pound Carter announced offers from Syracuse and Pittsburgh in July and August.

According to Jada Byers’ Twitter bio, his motto is “heart over height.”

And he proves that every time he steps onto the field. The senior running back from St. Joseph of Hammonton is listed at 5-7, 170 pounds. And while that may make some college coaches question his ability to compete at high levels, Byers’ three-touchdown performance in a win over Haddonfield on Friday showed again that he can indeed deliver.

So far, Byers’ only announced scholarship offers are from Massachusetts and Sacred Heart. And though he’s appreciative of their interest, he’s also bothered that they have been the only schools to appreciate his talent.

“Nobody gives me respect out here," Byers said last month. “You give me three inches of height right now, and tomorrow I’d have 15 offers."

Late last month, Byers announced, though it wasn’t a scholarship offer, that he has received a preferred walk-on offer from Northern Illinois. That guarantees him a spot on the 105-man roster on Day 1 of camp.

It’s common that preferred walk-ons end up on scholarship before their careers end, so Byers may decide to go that route.

Coach Preston Brown has said that quarterback Devin Kargman has a chance to break his brother’s passing records at Woodrow Wilson.

Brown said the two are very much alike.

“He’s all business, always studying the game," Brown said of Devin in May. “He works at it. His anticipation skills, even now, are like Nick’s.”

Nick Kargman, Devin’s older brother, who signed with Western Michigan in December, passed for a state-record 3,963 yards last season in leading Woodrow Wilson to a 9-4 record and the South Jersey Group 3 title. Nick Kargman also set a state record with 539 passing yards in a game and a South Jersey mark with eight touchdown passes in a game.

Devin, a sophomore, added to his own totals on Saturday when he passed for 255 yards and four touchdowns in a win over Seneca. Devin also added to his scholarship total when he received his fourth offer, from West Virginia on Sept. 23.

Kargman’s previous three offers came from Rutgers, Massachusetts, and Temple.

Javon McIntyre’s phone was ringing off the hook in April and May, and he received five scholarship offers each month.

Among the offers the 6-1, 187-pound junior safety from Imhotep Charter received were from Tennessee, Penn State, Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh, and Maryland.

McIntyre got news on Tuesday that he received another offer, from West Virginia, according to his Twitter page.

Last week, he got an offer from Iowa State, he said.