Friday, former Rutgers director of recruiting E.J. Barthel announced he is leaving Temple via Twitter.

I've decided to move on to the next chapter of my life! Thank You for everything! #Philly pic.twitter.com/n6havzbBV9 — EJ Barthel (@CoachEJbarthel) March 24, 2017

According to multiple with sources with knowledge of Barthel's plans, he has accepted a job as recruiting coordinator at Penn State, where he'll be responsible for all aspects of football recruiting.

The role is similar to the one he held at Rutgers from March of 2015 to January of 2016, and at Temple from then until now.

Penn State has long been the beneficiary of New Jersey high school football talent, poaching some of the state's top players for decades. And the addition of Barthel, who has strong ties to high school coaches throughout New Jersey and Philadelphia, shows the program's dedication to recruiting the area.

Barthel played his first three years of college football at Rutgers before transferring to UMass, where he finished out his collegiate playing career in 2008.

He was offered a tryout with the New York Giants in 2009 and later went on to play running back for the Las Vegas Locomotives of the UFL.

While at Rutgers, Barthel was involved in the recruitment of Isaiah Wharton, Kiy Hester, Jawuan Harris, Blessuan Austin, Kevin Wilkins, Jim hogan and Najee Clayton, all of which made contributions as true freshmen.

Barthel was released from his role at Rutgers in 2016 as Chris Ash took over for former head coach Kyle Flood, who was fired ending a 10-year stint, which he began as an offensive line coach at the school in 2005.

Barthel then helped close out Temple's 2016 recruiting class, which encompassed 13 true freshmen.

He played high school football at Becton Regional (East Rutherford, N.J.), and was also the strength coach at DePaul Catholic (Wayne, N.J.) in 2012 and running backs coach for Bergen Catholic (Oradell, N.J.) in 2013.

Todderick Hunt may be reached at thunt@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TodderickHunt. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.