Sayreville's Myles Hartsfield gets Ole Miss scholarship

Myles Hartsfield, a four-star prospect from perennial New Jersey high school football power Sayreville who previously committed to Penn State University, has accepted a scholarship offer from Ole Miss, which is currently ranked No. 12 in the nation.

Hartsfield, who recently canceled an official visit to Boston College, announced his nonbinding commitment via Twitter Tuesday night.

Hartsfield, who contributed as a cornerback, wide receiver and return specialist this past season at East Coast Prep, a one-semester postgraduate school in Massachusetts, also held offers from UCLA, East Carolina and Temple, according to Brian Dohn, Scout.com’s national recruiting analyst.

Entering his senior year at Sayreville, Hartsfield made a nonbinding commitment to Penn State, choosing the Nittany Lions over Rutgers, Georgia Tech, West Virginia, Pitt, Wake Forest and Purdue, among others. But Penn State withdrew its scholarship offer in October 2014, according to published reports, shortly after seven Sayreville players were charged with the hazing and sexual assault of four teammates inside the football locker room. The scandal generated national headlines.

Hartsfield made an official visit to Ole Miss, along with five other current commits to the school, on the weekend of its Nov. 21 game against LSU. He has been recruited as an athlete. Ole Miss will face No. 16 Oklahoma State in the Sugar Bowl on New Year's Day.

East Coast Prep head coach Dick Bell told NJ Advance Media's Braulio Perez that Hartsfield "has the potential to develop into a National Football League" player and that "God gave (Hartsfield) tremendous spirit and gifts, and he knows how to use them."

Sayreville, which had its season canceled in October 2014 amid the locker room scandal, after Hartsfield had already amassed 732 all-purpose yards and 12 touchdowns through three games, returned to action this year and finished with a 5-5 record. Sayreville has qualified for the NJSIAA playoffs 21 of the past 22 seasons and won a school-record three consecutive NJSIAA titles from 2010-12.

As a high school junior, Hartsfield amassed 1,844 all-purpose yards and 28 touchdowns. Months later, during the 2014 outdoor track and field season, Hartsfield won the NJSIAA Meet of Champions triple jump with a record 49-11.75 leap. Hartsfield fell short in his bid to become the first in NJSIAA history to win both the triple jump and long jump titles as his mark of 23-2 earned him third in the other event.

According to Dohn, West Virginia and Rutgers recently showed strong interest in Hartsfield, but neither school offered him a scholarship.

"On the field, he’s a tremendous talent," Dohn previously told MyCentralJersey.com. “His final year at Sayreville was filled with team controversy, so any school that is going to offer him will do their due diligence to make sure he fits into the program beyond the field."

The cases of six of the seven Sayreville players charged have been adjudicated. As part of a plea deal in which the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office agreed not to pursue mandatory sex offender registration as required under Megan’s Law, the six players were placed on probation and ordered to serve community service after some of them admitted to using their fingers to anally penetrate younger players. The status of the seventh defendant’s case is not known.

Because all of the players were juveniles at the time the charges were filed, their names have not and will not be released in accordance with family court guidelines.

"It's been a long road," Hartsfield told Dohn on Monday, "and I'm just really happy, and my parents are just really happy that it's all over and I finally get a chance to move on to the next chapter in my life and play college football, which I was supposed to do last year."

Hartsfield is the 19th commitment Ole Miss has received for its 2016 class, which is ranked among the Top 10 nationally, according to olemiss.247sports.com, which reported that a visit to New Jersey from Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze impressed Hartsfield.

"I felt if Coach Freeze could come all the way up here to see me," Hartsfield told olemiss.247sports.com's David Johnson, "then I could certainly go all the way down there to play football for him."

NJ ✈️ MS , Oxford here I come ! #HottyToddy #LandShark #OleMissRebels A photo posted by liil_smooth (@liil_smooth) on Dec 15, 2015 at 4:46pm PST

The Clarion-Ledger reported that Hartsfield, as a midyear enrollee, will join seven other commits in Mississippi in January.

According to year-end cumulative statistics posted on East Coast Prep’s website, Hartsfield registered nine receptions for 200 yards and four touchdowns in nine games. He also carried eight times for 82 yards and a score. On defense, Hartsfield recorded 29 tackles, seven pass breakups and two interceptions.

East Coast Prep "is a great place for any young football player who is willing to work hard and dedicate himself to the task at hand to hone his skills, develop his character and gain the exposure needed to make it onto a college roster," the school's website states.

The program's 40-man roster features players from 13 states and Canada.