After getting spurned by Rutgers, Barringer's Wise signs with UMass

Zamar Wise won’t exactly say that it was his dream to play football at Rutgers University, but he was elated about the opportunity when the Newark native and Barringer High School standout received a scholarship offer to play for the Scarlet Knights three years ago.

Wise received the offer from then-Rutgers head coach Chris Ash and offensive coordinator and quarterback coach John McNulty.

“I was pretty excited,” Wise said of the Rutgers offer. “I knew that if I stayed home, I would get more support from family and friends. I’d rather play at home in my home state. I thought everything was perfect. Rutgers was going to be my home.”

Wise was an electrifying player at Barringer, a talented and diversified kid who lined up as a quarterback, wide receiver, safety and a punt and kick returner for the Bears. Wise was blessed with a cannon for an arm, the ability to throw the ball 75 yards effortlessly. He also flourishes in plays outside of the pocket, making either the right pass or run at the last minute. His decision-

making ability is among the best witnessed by a high school quarterback in recent memory.

Former Barringer quarterback Zamar Wise

In fact, even though he was only a sophomore at Barringer, Wise was so certain that he was headed to Piscataway that he told all other prospective recruiters that he was going to Rutgers. Wise had received offers from Maryland and Temple, among others.

Dwayne Williams, the former Bayonne High School All-State player who went on to play at the University of Iowa, was hired by the Newark Board of Education to become the new head football coach at Barringer.

Williams had spent several years as the head coach of Schlagle High School in Kansas City, after serving as the head coach at Marist in Bayonne and before that a long-time assistant coach at Bayonne.

Williams heard of Wise when he took the job in 2018, but had no idea how great of a player the 6-foot-3, 180-pound Wise really was.

“I didn’t know the kind of impact player he was,” Williams said. “I didn’t even watch film of Zamar. I was actually still working in Kansas City and I got a call from coaches from North Carolina and North Carolina State. Then I looked at the film and I was amazed.”

Williams had a long-standing relationship with Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder, who was an assistant coach at Iowa when Williams played there.

“Coach Snyder told me that Zamar was a special player,” Williams said. “That told me how good Zamar was.”

And then Williams developed a close relationship with Wise.

“I found out how great of a guy Zamar is,” Williams said. “I also saw the loyalty he had to Barringer and the loyalty he had to the state of New Jersey. It’s why he chose Rutgers.”

“Since my freshman year, it was all about Rutgers,” Wise said.

So it was a done deal. Wise, the brilliant do-everything signal caller for Barringer, who had 11 touchdowns passing and six rushing in his first four varsity games as a freshman, was headed to Piscataway. Or so it seemed.

A lot of things transpired from the time Wise gave Rutgers his verbal commitment in 2017.

First and foremost, his Newark home burned down, so he was shuttling back and forth from his father’s residence in North Carolina back home to Newark. Because he missed time from school, Wise didn’t have the core curriculum requirements from the NCAA Clearinghouse in order to play right away as a freshman in the fall of 2020. So Wise had to take extra classes, as well as his regular classes, in order to get his paperwork in line.

With that in mind, Wise headed to Milford Academy, a New York preparatory school in order to get his academia in line while playing football.

“It was a good experience for me at Milford,” Wise said. “I’m glad I went. It wasn’t the kind of offense I was used to running, so they moved to me to wide receiver, but I’m a quarterback. I thought that I wanted to play no matter what, so I went along with the move.”

At the same time in Piscataway, Ash was fired as the head coach of the Scarlet Knights, replaced on the interim basis by Nunzio Campanile and eventually replaced by Greg Schiano, the storied former head man on the Banks of the Old Raritan.

Wise got all of his paperwork with the NCAA Clearinghouse taken care of before the NCAA signing day in February.

But before he had the Rutgers National Letter of Intent in his hands, Wise received a series of messages on Twitter that the offer to Wise was no longer on the table.

“He was told that they were going to go in another direction,” Williams said.

Wise never spoke to Schiano at all. 

“After going through everything to get there, I had nothing," Wise said. "I never spoke with Coach Schiano. I tried to speak with him, but I was told he was too busy.”

Wise said he never got a real reason why the scholarship offer was rescinded. The timing couldn’t have been worse. After all, he was already at a college prep school. 

“I was really stressing myself out,” Wise said. “I was really thinking about not playing. I really wanted to stay home.”

Zamar Wise with Barringer head coach Dwayne Williams

Anyway, Wise was left holding the bag, a satchel that did not include a scholarship.

But once word got out – thanks to diligence and contacts Williams made through the years – that Wise was back in the open market, the offers started to come in. Wise received firm scholarship offers from Central Michigan, Hawaii and Temple. The University of Kansas and Tulsa got in late to the Wise recruiting parade, but still made a last ditch offer.

Finally, it came down to a case of loyalty – just like what Zamar Wise is all about.

When Walt Bell was an assistant coach at the University of Maryland in 2017, he was the very first coach to offer a scholarship to Wise when he was a freshman. Bell was recently hired as the new head coach at the University of Massachusetts. The new offensive coordinator and quarterback coach at UMass is a man named Angelo Mirando. Williams knew Mirando from his days as QB coach at Coffeyville Community College in Kansas, when Williams was at Schlagle.

“Therefore by the grace of God,” Williams said. “It was karma.”

Bell and Mirando liked what they saw in Wise, the pure athleticism, the ability to run and throw. That’s the name of the game in football these days. It’s been proven at places like Oklahoma, which produced two Heisman Trophy winners in Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray and almost had a third in Jalen Hurts.

A quick glance around NFL rosters and you’ll find people like Patrick Mahomes of the Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs, Deshawn Watson of the Houston Texans, not to mention Mayfield (Cleveland Browns), Murray (Arizona Cardinals) and reigning NFL Most Valuable Player Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens.

“That’s my guy,” Wise said of Jackson.

Wise has been working diligently with respected quarterback trainer Lamar McKnight, who has a stable of 75 prospective signal callers nestled in his resume. McKnight believes that Wise has the talent to make it big time in college football.

“I’d say he’s a lot like Pat White (the former West Virginia quarterback),” McKnight said. “Zamar has that ‘It’ factor. He can do it all. He’s electrifying. He’s a game changer. He will shine in college.”

So last week, Wise put his signature on the national letter of intent he received from UMass. If the pandemic subsides, then Wise is ready to jump right into contention for the starting QB spot with the Minutemen in the fall.

“I’m ready to go,” Wise said. “It’s a new chapter in my life. I feel like I can make a major impact.”

McKnight, who also doubles as the offensive coordinator at Union City High School, likes Wise’s choice.

“I like the fact he’s going to UMass,” McKnight said. “It’s the kind of offense that he can thrive with. I think it’s a great opportunity. He’s going to get a chance to prove himself. I’m excited for him.”

Wise will major in sports management in Amherst. UMass has one of the top sports management programs in the nation.

Wise said that he wanted to thank everyone in his hometown of Newark that helped him along the way.

“I want to thank everyone in Newark who helped me out,” Wise said. “I wouldn’t have made it without them.”

And as for Williams?

“If he didn’t do what he did, I’d probably headed to a JUCO (junior college) now,” Wise said.

So what could have been a total disaster has worked out well for Zamar Wise. He could have had nothing. But as it turns out, UMass may be a better destination than the one he thought he was headed to for the last three years.