Doug Marrone is encouraged by his recruiting success, and one state in particular that Syracuse is making waves in is Georgia. While SU has planted its foot in the middle of NYC by reeling in 3-star RB Augustus Edwards, and brought in transfers such as John Raymon to create depth, the Northeast is still limited in its talent.
Last week at Big East Media Day, Marrone said he was pleased where his team stood in recruiting since he took over. He specifically pointed out the recent success in states like Texas. Lonestar QB Zach Allen is a rare Texas win for SU, and he continues to have a fantastic summer as he prepares for the Hill in January. Tapping non-traditional SU recruiting states like Texas and Georgia is now where Marrone can branch out to.
The Peach State is a hot bed for top football talent, and Marrone has focused in on it. He‚Äôs signed 5 prospects out of GA in his last two recruiting classes, and 2 of those were 3-star targets in ’12. In¬†February, SU received commits from Stone Mountain‚Äôs Joshua Parris, Alpharetta‚Äôs Josh Manley and Lawrenceville‚Äôs George Morris. All three are highly touted and will make an impact on the Orange. It’s a new horizon for SU. In Syracuse‚Äôs 4 recruiting classes from 2005-2008, Groobers didn‚Äôt bring a single prospect out of Georgia. Not one.
The move to the ACC makes things much easier on Syracuse, and more importantly on these young recruits. The thought that they will be able to come back south and play road games against teams like Georgia Tech, Florida State or Clemson is a huge plus. Families of recruits won’t have to travel all the way to the Dome to watch them play. They’ll be able to see them close to home,¬†much like the New York City recruits at Metlife Stadium.
The class of ’13 looks tantalizing as well for SU. The Fizz brings you the top 3 Georgia prospects SU has offered.
Greg Toboada: TE, Atlanta, GA. 6’4”, 245 lbs., The Marist School (pictured middle)
Toboada is a big bruising TE that also plays DE. The 3-star product is the 15th best TE ranked by Scout and is a Top 150 prospect by ESPN. SU is one of over 10 schools that has offered Toboada, including Arkansas, South Carolina, Oregon and Alabama. The Tide seems to be the favorite right now for Greg. His agility and versatility is what makes him so valuable. Toboada is a great blocking TE, and has great hands coming off the line. And with that huge frame, Toboada can flat out overpower opponents on the defensive line. Imagine a combo of Toboada and Ron Thompson.
Rakim Peters: DE/OLB, Winder, GA. 6’2”, 225 lbs., Apalachee HS (left)
The 3-star hybrid rusher has offers from nearly 15 schools that include Clemson, Missouri, Purdue and Cincinnati. But no Georgia school has offered the Apalachee HS native. SU wants to take advantage, although now that plenty of big schools are looking at him, the Orange can’t rely on getting an early commitment. Having the ability to play both in the 2 and 3 point stance is what makes Peters so valuable. The rising senior also accumulated 4 sacks as a sophomore a couple season ago for his Wildcat squad.
Kristopher Smith: OLB, Flowery Branch, GA. 6’4”, 205 lbs., Flowery Beach HS (right)
The 3-star Smith has offers from six other schools, but they’re mostly current or future Big East schools. Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and UCF are part of that list. Smith is extremely athletic and has great sideline-to-sideline speed. He has a 4.5 40 yard dash time, and is a very intelligent kid, on and off the football field. Smith is quick at changing directions and has an uncanny ability to outrun tackles on the offensive line. He has a motor that doesn‚Äôt stop until the whistle blows. The Orange has to play the ACC card while battling with Big East schools trying to land Smith.
Posted: Kevin Fitzgerald
265 responses to “Peach State Pipeline? Syracuse’s Top 3 Football Targets in Georgia”
Damn,3rd different story since 8am this morning?What the story don’t mention fella’s is the theme is really about..their inability to recruit NJ/Pennsy well enough in state’s that every school in the nations come to recruit..even Ga/FSU/UF/Miami/ALa recruits NJ/PA and the UConn’s and Temple/BC stock their lineups pretty well too!!C’mon Dougie untill you can recruit NJ/PA we’ll still struggle to remain competitive….kids from GA and Texas’s folk’s aren’t gonna be able to see there kid’s play in person 1000+ miles from home!!!go “Cuse”..I’ll agree its OK for a temporary measure though!!(rec.Tex,GA)..
Our local kid’s want the oppurtunity to know when their turn come’s that they can play for the local school (SU) and they won’t be passed by for kid’s half a country away…especially while PSU is down we should make SU “the place to come”….
i understand the reasons of recruiting the peach state and have no problems with that. i hope we could pick a few more players from that area. doug’s recruiting is starting to show some fruit from the hard work. now syracuse needs to help coach marrone by investing in the football program by more updates to the football wing to make the recruiting a little easier for him.
On Toboada, from espn: “The Tide stand alone at No. 1, but Taboada says he‚Äôs also considering Arkansas, Florida State, South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Virginia. He‚Äôs still hoping to pick up offers from Georgia and Stanford during the season.”
Why do you guys even write about people who don’t even have us on their list? Just because we offered him doesn’t mean anything. You guys do this a lot. You write about a highly rated kid that Syracuse has offered and say he is a top target. Obviously he’s a top target, he is one of the best players in the country. But these kids don’t even think twice about Syracuse. I’d prefer you tell me about the kid with the talent level right for our program, whose name I may hear again affiliated with SU. I’ll never hear about Toboada again unless ESPN mentions his commitment to a top 10 team.
Orange Fizz even said we won’t get Toboada about two months ago. “So where does that leave the Orange? Chadwick says no frontrunners have emerged yet for Taboada. But there have been rumblings that the tight end will favor the more recent additions to his offer list over the less glamorous institutions that were quicker to offer him.” So why bring up Toboada again when even you said yourself we aren’t getting him? I feel like you just talk about people you already know something about so you can do less investigative work.
Yeah Chad make’s a lot of sense,for now I can understand him “Dougie” looking under every rock but looking forward we have to start getting back to our roots NY/NJ/Pa and a little eastern Ohio and FLa too a lesser degree….Ready made local stars we know and can identify with whose friends and families can pack the Dome….I wonder if theirs an USTNYer w/a big mouth who can give us his thoughts reading this thread?…Can you hear me Dipper?…lol..
Russ, I agree it would be nice to get more NJ kids but for some reason it isn’t happening. Now maybe they are still trying to repair relationships that were damaged or abandoned from the previous staff or maybe they just value players from other states more. I have NO clue but I trust this staff so that is where I leave that. We do recruit PA and have gotten some quality players from there recently. I love that they are recruiting GA hard(great HS football there) and the coaches already have relationships and familiarity there with HS programs and coaches. Also have to recruit FLorida very hard because of the athletes. And both GA and FL are now more important with the move to the ACC. Texas is a reach but hey if you can reach and pull in a player like Allen every year or two I am absolutely fine with that! I believe Virginia and Maryland area are two areas SU needs to recruit better with the move to the ACC. PSU use to dominate Maryland so maybe some progress can be made there now.
I agree about these articles about players that don’t ever mention SU though, move on.
Morning Norma,as I said though sure Im alright w/expanding our base.. its great getting recruits in Ga/Fla etc for now…but as we’ve made inroads in NYS let’s start to win back piece by piece the places that we consider our “base” in our glory days….our “traditional” base including MD which also won’t be easy w/Locksley locking it down!!Especially with PSU wounded….we’ll never get a better oppurtunity…
for now I just wanted to air my viewpoints and see if I could find some answers…heck when the “Dougie” arrived we could’nt recruit our own state and still don’t dominate like we should!!its embaressing to lose local kids some of whom would’nt even give us a look….how can we expect a kid from another region too consider us if our own kids won’t…sure theirs work to be done in NJ/NY…is the Dougie up to it?He said he was so am I asking too much for him to roll up his sleeve’s and do it?…we’ll Norma Im gonna move on but it is what it is…ps..I think we could do better in PA too…
I mean of course we could do better in PA, and NJ. But remember Russ that the landscape of college football and recruiting has changed dramatically from SU’s glory days. It really is a national recruiting area now and not just a regional area. But you are right that we should be doing better in NJ and PA.
Ps. Elite 11 first episode was on espn yesterday at 7pm. No sure when the next episodes are.
To tell ya the truth Norma I really don’t care where the kid’s come from as long as their eligible and we win!!LOL..
A lot of the coaching staff have ties to Michigan. Detroit is a direct flight from syracuse. I expect a few pickups from this region going forward.
Great point Aaron! Already started to see an up tick in that area.
Great point as well Russ!
yeah I knew that but did’nt bother to mention as that’s only because of Ty Wheatley… sort of an abheration…its not like were gonna plant our flag their or anything…heck their in worst shape than NY with their population base moving south and west due to the terrible economy and all…you’ll see fewewr and fewer #s of kid’s coming from Mich soon!!!
pardon the spelling guys…
Hey guy’s,as everyone knows there is a lot that goes into recruiting a good player.
We all know that it takes time and doesn’t happen overnight. I believe that Coach Marrone is turning the corner and will start getting 40/50% of the top players in the Northeast region again. We’ve already gone into Maryland and taken a player away form Edsall. I believe that the next couple years will be a time when Marrone and staff shoot for and lands on the moon as far as recruiting goes,and articles about how good a player is will disappear.
In this age of modern technology,when you make a post,it can be reviewed from anywhere’s around the world. Don’t you think that a player that Syracuse is going after reads the comments made by the fans?
I think the negative comments made about a 2-3 star recruit is being read by the young men that the university is going after and if a 4-5 star doesn’t like what they are reading,then what makes you think they would enjoy playing for Syracuse. I’m no angel here folks,when I deem it necessary I will critize. But when the upstate fans start to voice their complaints and put them in print for everyone to read,HURTS OUR RECRUITMENT OF ANY PLAYER,NOMATTER WHAT PART OF THE COUNTRY THEY COME FROM.
Just my opinion folks, just my opinion.
GO CUSE;
What ate you talking about Ron? I mean specifically who talked poorly about a 2-3 star player? Not being a jerk I just am lost on what you are alluding to.
Russell:
Have to disagree. No one should be against recruiting talent in the best in country. Georgia/southern states are riddled with talent and Marrone is starting to bring in more and more from that area. If he is only bringing in NY/NJ prospects, are we going to hammer him for not going for recruits in south? It’s a two-way street here. And let’s remember…ACC. These kids will be able to “come home” once a month or so for road games.
Sackster:
And more importantly, HCDM needs a winning season so we can continue to see him and his recruiting classes improve like they have been.
@Ron,I see your point…that aspect did’nt occur to me…I’ll remember but who was talking about the quality of recruit??Myself and Norma were talking in generalities?…we never mentioned anything about the quality?…..@Kev..you left out PA and E.Ohio..but I get your drift…I love Ga peaches lol..
Of course it never hurt’s to expand your base and cast as wide a net as possible,the way things are looking we should be pulling top 35 classes nationally as the staff continue too improve and expand the brand nationally…thanks Dougie…go “Cuse”..
The point is that no one mentioned anything out of line about recruits or possible recruits Russ! We were discussing what area to recruit and preferences. If Rons comment was directed at our back and forth than that is ridiculous.
Fella’s; I wasn’t referring to any of you. When I made that statement I was talking about all of the fools that post on other web sites and to all of the Terrie’s and Tebow’s of the world.
I really wasn’t talking about any of you REALLY. I apologize for the misunderstanding.
The main message that I wanted to make was that when you post a comment it goes world wide for review and if I were A BETTING MAN WOULD SAY THAT THE RECRUITS ARE READING WHAT THE DIFFERENT FANS ARE SAYING ABOUT THEM.
Ah! I see now Ron. I completely agree and I bet recruits do read some of these sites. It is counter productive to talk mess about recruits, gets SU no where. Good point Ron!
Sorry it took so long too respond…just got back from Drs…Yeah Norma I think Ron just mean’t to be aware of what we say publicly cause it could hurt recruiting if potential recruits see any negativity…but NOT meaning us in particular….I’ll try to be more aware of my comments in that respect,no harm intended..(note last comment)..
Let me put it to u all this way. If u wanna win whogivesashit.com bowls keep gettin all those nj/ny players. If u wanna win bcs bowls u gotta win players from the south an texas. Somone said uconn stocks their team /w nj/ny boyz…ya? how many points did the sooners hang on them? U pick the 4 guys a yr that are good from ny/nj an move on. Winning the south=BCS. Winning the north=crap. End of story.
Real nice Carlton,you just managed too insult 90% of our own team…are you serious?Have you noticed UMiami,FSU.Clemson,LSU and Alabama all recruit in NJ?I wonder why genious!!HCDM spent 4yrs trying to put NY on lockdown and you could ruin it w/one post!!!!
@Ron,where are you now??Did you see this clown’s insults?I hope Ogundeko don’t know that him and Augustus can’t play football because they live in NY!?!?
Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey,NJ is generally the #1 HS team in the nation…recently they’ve gone to Fla,Cal and Alabama and took their highest ranked HSs too the woodshed!!!On The Road!!!
@Carlton;well,well;let’s see here Carlton. Your telling me that the Northeast region only produces a couple of players a year. BOY!!!!! I’M HERE TO TELL YOU JUST HOW WRONG YOU ARE. I remember Syracuse destroying Clemson in the Gator Bowl,kicking butt with the likes of Miami,Georgia Tech,Wake Forest,Wisconsin and home in the dome against the #1 Nebraska Cornhuskers. I was in the stands at Penn State when Syracuse destroyed them in front of what was at the time the largest home crowd ever at Beaver Stadium. Oh!!!!!please don’t forget the 1959 National Championship Game against Texas in the Cotton Bowl.
All of those different Syracuse teams had one thing in common,89% of their players came from the NY,NJ and Pennsylvania Regions.
I don’t care who you are,you shouldn’t be overlooking any of the players wither they be a 2,3,4 or 5 star athlete from the Northeast Region of the US.
Two of the very best inside linebackers ever to play at Syracuse Dan Conley from Pennsylvania and Nate Hemsley from New Jersey both were rated 3 star athletes. Boy was I glad that they both decided to play at Syracuse.
The dynamics of recruiting has changed tremendously and maybe,just maybe, the reason all of the big schools are coming north to get a player is that there just might be more to go after.
I think that Coach Marrone has noticed the talent level in this area and is going full bore after it.
GO CUSE
@Carlton;i forgot all about the Game against Auburn. Syracuse kicked their a$$es and Pat Dye had to settle for field goal to tie us. That was the year Syracuse went 11-0-1 remember.
That team too was loaded with kids from the same region as mentioned before.
GO CUSE;
Thanks Ron,Im glad you finally caught this troll!!I thought he insulted most of our beloved “Cuse” too make a ridiculuos comment!!thanks again Ron…
I looked up bama, the u and fsu rosters for ’12. Bama had 0 players from pa an 0 from ny/nj. Fsu had 3 from nj 0 from ny an 1 from pa. The U had 2 from pa, 1 from ny an 1 from nj. Thats not very many at all bc there is what 85-100 players on the team? Don bosco is 1 school. Outta the top 10 highschool football teams 1 was from the north. All the others where from the west, tx,midwest an south. Ron its not 1959 anymore. Far from a troll. Ive been part of this board longer then both of u to blow hards.
@Carlton,lets let it go…were all getting testy w/the season upon us…but the fact is NJ is one of the top 10 states in the country for recruits and almost every major school recruits there…We know your not a troll…peace and out…it was’nt Ron that called you that word..I in my anger said it…I apologize..OK?..lets get on with the season…
@Carl..btw Bama has one verbal this year already out of Jersey..Anthony Averett -ath/cb and working on DBT Alquan Muhammed-olb/de…between RU,ND and Bama!!
@Carlton, I’m not living in the past,my point was the talent on the National Championship Team was mostly made up of guy’s from the Northeast,just as the 2012 team is.
I think that it’s good to expand the base from which you recruit,but remember GROB ignored the NY,NJ&PA and look what it got us.
here you go, somebody doesn’t agree with you so you start calling them names. You have to be an Obama Democrat. If you are then I feel real sorry for you because neither one of you are worth a s**t.
GO CUSE
@Russ- bleacher report did a great break down of D-1 players from every state from the past 5yrs. 15 was the total # of players from nj/ny in the top 150 from the past 5yrs. I cant recall what the # was from pa but im sure u can use google an look for urself. Also ny ranked 27th an NJ came in tied at 14th(not 10th) for producein d-1 players. The north isnt a hot bed. Sure winning ur state is a start but if the ‘cuse wanna win bcs bowls they need to build pipe-lines to the south an tx.
@Ron, Yes expanding is the only way to win. Look at louisville. They hired clint hurt who played at the U. Thus building a pipeline to FL. They also do a great job in grabbing the few top kids from the metro area. They will be the best team in the BE is yr. This is what the `Cuse should copy.
Oh an I’m not a obama supporter or a democrat. Nore do I see how that even matters. One thing though is clear A. u are a super fan an B. 90% of the time u have no idea what ur talkin about. U should just stick to waving ur pom-poms in the stands.
@Carlton-An SI study determined that between 2004-2008 the teams with the most wins drew more than 50% of their roster from within 200 miles ofthe school. The emergence of Rutgers is usually attributed to Schiano’s ability to keep NJ talent. Penn St. has excelled for years on Penn and NJ talent. The list of NY/NJ/PA/CT players is a who’s who of football, including Franco Harris, Vince Lombardi, Bill Parcells, Tom Coughlin, Jim Brown, Marvin Harrison, Art Monk, Dwight Freeney, Rocket and Quadry Ismail, Dan Marino, Mike Ditka, John Mackey, Joe Montana, Boomer Esiason, Jim Kelley, Floyd Little, Ernie Davis, “Moose” Johnston, Ron Dayne, Jim Ringo… the list goes on (and is peppered with SU greats). Current NFLers like Knowshon Moreno, Miles Austin, Ray Rice, Ryan Grant, all hale from the area. I could go on, but the real point is that there are very few states that can produce enough talent to fill a D1 roster and in states such as Florida, California, and Texas, where it might seem possible, there are many in state schools fighting for the same guys (4 BCS schools in Fla and 3 have won NC in the last 10-15 years). Those schools have to find talent outside of their state to survive and more often than not turn to places like NJ to fill in, especially at skill positions. Guys like Will Hill, Myron Rolle. Schools like Fla, Lousiville (former Fla coach), ND, Iowa, Wisconsin, Georgia. We should turn the tables, but we need to be strong locally first, then fill in the holes with some southern reach recruits or skill players. That is what P did and what GRobb didn’t. That is what HCDM needs (and is trying) to do.
@Carlton;I will be thinking of you Carlton the next time I make a post about something I know nothing about I want you to visualize the pom-poms waiving in the background.
GO CUSE
@Carlton,last year RU picked up a couple of excellent OTs from NJ/Pa…Im not gonna mention them all but they flipped JJ Denman a PSU/Wisc commit and grabbed 4* Chris Muller who PSU wanted 6’6″305 OT and 2 first team All-State NJ Ot/G and the #1 OC in the east Arcidiacono from Philly just to name a few or they might have had to fill in the roster w/players from the South…they even got a 3* walk-on Sean Bergin from S.Jersey who turned down 12 schollys…why can’t some of us take Ron’s good advice and keep their negative comments to themselves?…not to mention R.J.Dill an all ACC transfer LT from Randy Edsalls MD uprising!!!I can’t remember one kid from the South on the #1 recruiting class in the BE!!…only a 20 player class at that…
@Carlton,the fact that you quote the BleacherReport tells me all I need too know…you know as well as I do the BR is written by fans not experts!!!…
Also Carlton you can forget your Texas pipeline…never gonna happen…we’ll take what we can get and who outside of the Texas area has a Tx pipeline?..check back in 10 yrs!!!
I see Malone is one man who understands and has intimate knowledge of football!!
@malone- Ya and look who won those NC’s….USC04,TX05,UF06,LSU07,UF08 and if u wanna keep going the state of AL won the next 3. Also look who the opponent was in those NC games. They where all ethier from the west,south or midwest. Ya all those guys u named are good but how many of them where in the same recruiting class? My point is made u grab the very few good ny/nj kids and u go after TX and the south for the rest. Thanx big guy for driven home my point and doing even more research.
I seehow you think I made your point, but the real point is that all those guys (the one or two good area recruits) are finding their way onto a lot of NC caliber teams. Imagine if they went to SU instead of Fla, Cal, or Tex schools. The playing field and the recruiting trail would be a bit more even. If we make those guys fight for our area a little harder, they may prefer to protect their turf. I am no RU fan, but what they did was just as damaging to SU as GRob. It hurt PSU as well. Long distance recruiting battles are made to be lost, and the study showed that. We should look for Fla.St. scraps when there is Prime to be had inour own back yard. Fill up on that, then have some of that southern for dessert. Coach P used to tell Fla recruits that they could go to the pine at Miami or start at SU, and beat Miami. That only worked because we could match Miami on the field. We did that by controlling the best our own area had to offer.
Dion Lewis, Matt and Chris Simms, Brian Cushing, Greg Olsen…
@Russ,who outside TX has a TX pipeline hmmmmmmm……ND? YA! They do pretty well in that state. Named ya 1 I can name ya more. Negtive comments not at all it was a honest one. I’m sorry if u dont like it but its backed up /w plenty of proof. Also when it comes down to it who really is an expert? We are all fans besides the very few that get to play the sports we follow.
Hey Carlton!your argument is losing it’s luster. It’ looks like your the one that is getting piled on because your the who doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
Just letting you know though,I’m setting here at my computer with the pom-poms being waved as I write.
Priceless bro just priceless.
GO CUSE;
@Malone- Bama had 0 kids from NJ/NY and Pa on their roster this yr and they have won 2 outta the last 3 NC’s an are ranked what 1 or 2 this yr? Look im not sayin the `cuse shouldnt win NY/NJ but this isnt bball if they loose a 3star kid outta the state but pick up a 3star outta GA im cool /w it. The kid from the south plays vs better competition then the 3star outta North. South,West and TX HS football is just on another level. They eat sleep and breath it and if u wanna see SU challenge to be apart of the new playoff system an chance at a NC then they gotta build lines to the south.
@Carlton; I like the comment you made in your last post.
When it comes down to it who really is an expert? Very good question.
As fans we all have our different opinion’s as to what should happen on the field and who we should be recruiting for the team. One thing for certain we are diverse, our thoughts cover a wide range of subject for us to think about.
I just want to say that if I offended you in any of my post I apologize. The statement you made was a strong that I totally agree with.
But Just letting you know the pom-poms are still flying.