{"id":630382,"date":"2026-04-25T17:25:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T17:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/630382\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T17:25:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T17:25:20","slug":"2026-football-spring-awards-rutgers-university-athletics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/630382\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Football Spring Awards &#8211; Rutgers University Athletics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PISCATAWAY, N.J. \u2013 Rutgers football head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/scarletknights.com\/sports\/football\/roster\/coaches\/greg-schiano\/6284\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"6284\" target=\"_blank\">Greg Schiano<\/a> announced the spring award winners for the Scarlet Knights following Saturday&#8217;s practice.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Jourdin Houston\" height=\"1125\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Houston23_web_W3rWs.jpg\" style=\"display: inline-block;\" width=\"2000\"\/><br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nMark Mills Second Effort Award \u2013 WR <a href=\"https:\/\/scarletknights.com\/sports\/football\/roster\/jourdin-houston\/16412\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"16412\" target=\"_blank\">Jourdin Houston<\/a><br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nNamed in memory of former Scarlet Knight running back Mark Mills and awarded to the offensive player who through determination, dedication and hard work has shown the most improvement during the offseason and spring practices.<\/p>\n<p>Now in his sophomore year, Houston played in two games last season with action at wide receiver versus Purdue and Oregon. The Bronx, New York, native played scholastically at St. Thomas More in Connecticut.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Jesse Ofurie\" height=\"1125\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Ofurie902323_web.jpg\" style=\"display: inline-block;\" width=\"2000\"\/><br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nDouglas A. Smith Second Effort Award \u2013 DB <a href=\"https:\/\/scarletknights.com\/sports\/football\/roster\/jesse-ofurie\/16438\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"16438\" target=\"_blank\">Jesse Ofurie<\/a><br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nNamed in memory of former Scarlet Knight defensive tackle Doug Smith and awarded to the defensive player who through determination, dedication and hard work has shown the most improvement during the offseason and spring practices.<\/p>\n<p>A two-time Academic All-Big Ten selection, Ofurie played in all 12 games last season and enters 2026 with 30 games of experience overall for the Scarlet Knights. From Salem, Massachusetts, the defensive back is in his fourth season in the program.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Logan Blake\" height=\"1124\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Blake22_web.jpg\" style=\"display: inline-block;\" width=\"2000\"\/><br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nFrank R. Burns Award \u2013 TE <a href=\"https:\/\/scarletknights.com\/sports\/football\/roster\/logan-blake\/16383\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"16383\" target=\"_blank\">Logan Blake<\/a><br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nNamed after former Scarlet Knight All-America quarterback Frank Burns and awarded to the player who demonstrates extraordinary mental and physical toughness during the spring.<\/p>\n<p>A two-time Academic All-Big Ten selection, Blake is in his fourth season in the program. A native of Frenchtown, New Jersey, the tight end brings 19 games of experience into 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Follow Rutgers football on X (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RFootball\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">@RFootball<\/a> &amp; @<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RUboardwalk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">RUboardwalk<\/a>), Facebook <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RFootballShow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">(\/RFootballShow<\/a>) and Instagram <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/RFootball\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">(@rfootball<\/a> &amp; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ruboardwalk\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">@ruboardwalk<\/a>) for the latest news and updates. Also subscribe to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCa0ZdhLnjuNsfdNtUdjN6nQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">YouTube<\/a> channel.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PISCATAWAY, N.J. \u2013 Rutgers football head coach Greg Schiano announced the spring award winners for the Scarlet Knights&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-630382","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}