Syracuse Football Recruiting Class
The rankings are not kind to this year’s SU recruiting class and rightfully so. However, Syracuse, even when good, has made a living out of developing the 3 star players. As I noted last week, the coaching change was creating havoc. On the negative side, Syracuse lost some verbal commits to Marrone and company such as Augustus Edwards RB/NYC (Miami), Malik Brown DE/Florida (Tennessee), Devan Carter LB/Rochester (Rutgers), and Zach Allen QB/Texas (TCU). These were all highly sought players and are losses that certainly hurt. However, kudos to the new staff, and especially new OC George McDonald who pulled in some fine players from various parts of the country all at the last minute. Notables added late thanks to the new staff are Mitch Kimble QB, Brisly Estime WR, Corey Cooper WR, and Corey Winfield WR.
It looks like Scott Shafer’s new staff avoided disaster, because had they not been so good with the late additions, it could have been worse. They get the benefit of the doubt here. Unfortunately, it looks like SU fans who were just starting to see recrutiing getting to another level, have to accept the pitfalls of the current HC leaving for the NFL.
I think the new staff’s success cherry picking these fine players late is a good sign. However, as noted in last week’s posting, the core of the recruiting area has to be the 250 mile radius around the school. This class only got one player from the coveted NYC metro area and SU still has not added a coach with ties to this area.
SU and Boston College at one time owned NYC and NJ and now neither program is getting players from the area. For either SU or BC to get back to their glory days they have to get their base area back.
New Jersey has several national powerhouse programs – Don Bosco Prep, Bergen Catholic, St. Peter’s Prep (Jersey City) and St. Joseph (Montvale) outside NYC that churn out Division 1 players. These players are going to Rutgers and to schools outside the area. BC and SU used to be in the running for these players. Ironically, Steve Addazzio has ties to the area from his days as a Syracuse assistant and now more recently at Temple so I wouldn’t be surprised to see BC make a comeback in NYC/NJ.
The ideal situation for Syracuse will be for them to take advantage of the “national” reputation of George McDonald to supplement their core base. The challenge is going to be getting back into the core northeast programs that Marrone had just started to accomplish.
The Confidential 
Losing Gus Edwards was a blow. It goes to show that recruiting rankings aren’t perfect. He’s considered a 3-star by all major services. FSU and UM, however, were all over this kid and made a few in-home visits to upstate NY. You don’t do that for run-of-the-mill kids. Edwards will be special and while it’s good to see Syracuse is on these kids, they have to work even harder to keep them.