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Although Orange football had a break this week to watch the many exciting conference championship games, it was a big weekend on the recruiting front. Six recruits, including the already-committed A.J. Long and Wayne Williams, made their way up to the Hill. The other four recruits were comprised of the “Midwest Duo” Nile Sykes and Chris Slayton, and two Florida natives: Cordell Hudson and Jaboree Williams.
The Fizz has talked in the past of how important Midwest recruiting has been for Scott Shafer and his coaching staff. With so much experience in the area, it is not surprising to see Skyes and Slayton looking hard at Syracuse. Rivals and Scout list Sykes, a 220-pound linebacker out of Lombard, Illinois, as a 3-star recruit. However, ESPN has Skyes as 4-star prize. Chris Slayton has put Syracuse on the top of his list, according to Scout. The 230-pound defensive end out of Crete, Illinois will take an official visit to Lawrence to visit the Kansas Jayhawks before making a decision. Slayton is a 3-star recruit who is heavily interested in Syracuse, Minnesota, Illinois and Kansas.
Cordell Hudson seemed to have a blast on his official visit to Syracuse. Hudson came into the visit down between Syracuse, Rutgers and Iowa State. He visited the Hawkeyes in September and will make his final official visit to Piscataway on Friday before deciding where to commit. Jaboree Williams also had a solid visit that included a trip to the Dome to see SU basketball.
It did not hurt that two current commits were visiting at the same time as the prospective players. A.J. Long has been recruiting players to the Syracuse program ever since he committed last March. Recruits have seemed to like Long’s early leadership as he tries to bring the best talent to CNY. Wayne Williams also has been vocal in bringing SU to the next level.
Other recruits on the radar are Steve Ishmael and Denzel Ward. Ishmael will be taking a visit to Syracuse in mid-January and has expressed tons of interest in joining the Orange. Coach McDonald had an in-home visit with him a week ago. Denzel Ward is currently committed to Purdue but will take an official visit to Syracuse at the end of January after putting the Orange in his final three schools with Purdue and USF. Another tidbit worth noting was current verbal commit Alin Edouard’s quote in the Syracuse Post-Standard last week: “I’ll be the face of that program soon.” It increases confidence that Edouard will not flip to another school come national signing day. It also will bring an influx of competition to a position that is one of the biggest question marks next year for the Orange.
With downtime before the Texas Bowl, Shafer and the coaching staff took this week to visit current commits Corey Cooper and Erv Phillips, among others. Staying in touch with these recruits can be crucial as we come closer to National Signing Day. As for the others, the staff will now hope and wait to see whether these visits can turn into commitments.
Posted by: Zephan Mayell 
28 responses to “Timing is Everything: Syracuse Recruiting Heats Up Before Texas Bowl”
@Zephan Mayell;
I would like to see Coach Shafer and staff make another try for Jason Cabinda to see if they could get him to come back to Syracuse and be a member of the Orangemen.
That would just make my day/season for me.
Zephan Mayell—-another good article,keeping us all informed. Thank you.
Malone,UConn hit a homerun in grabbing Cedar Grove,NJ’s and ND’s DC Bob Diaco as HC now lets see if his NJ/NY connects will bring UConn local talent? If he does it certainly won’t help us….we HAVE to get someone on staff with deep downstate roots soon!UConn was turned down by P.Narduzzi of MSU earlier in that same day!! Talk about a quick recovery??
Thought Ron would be watching pro fb tonight?
I know I am but I’ll be back early in the AM Ron…about 7?
@Russell Dangerfield;
I guess Russell with all of the social experimenting/engineering that’s going on I’ve lost interest in the NFL. I do watch the playoffs though and had a few laughs watching the Philly/Detroit game last week in the snow.
Really think we are going to land a few of these recruits. Should make for a good class.
As for UConn, we don’t have to worry about what they do at this point. A program that resembles our program a few years back which is also saddled being in a 2nd tier conference. They are on the outside looking in, wishing they were where we are right now. Total steppingstone for Diaco.
@Russell Dangerfield;
Your comment about Bob Diaco becoming HC at Uconn is already having effects on recruiting.
6″1″ 220 4* LB Nile Sykes will be taking an offical to ND this weekend and it’s already being reported he’s not happy with Diaco leaving and may not be interested in ND anymore. He had a real good visit at Syracuse last weekend. Maybe it comes down to UCONN and Syracuse for this recruit.
Wouldn’t it be great if he walked away from ND and committed to play for Syracuse?
Like I said earlier,the winds of change are a blowing across the Campus of Syracuse University.
THIS IS LONG BUT READ IT
It’s mid terms time so naturally I do the most bizarre things to avoid studying tonight I mapped out our recruiting over the past 4 years and I found that the list of commits on espn only finish their time at SU at just under 75%. I dont know how that relates to other schools but for a school whose motto under marrone was a family atmosphere and diamond in the rough players that would avoid the publicity we did a TERRIBLE job. Under Shafer the main focus in recruiting should be putting together a team with depth. Every year syracuse has a handful of players who will be playing on sundays, but the problem has been those weaker positions who are not only under talented but have no depth. Right now wide receiver and cornerback have had injuries lately and how thin they really are has really shown. If we ever expect to be good then we need a better retention rate, because it seems like every year the concern is if we just had this position or that position this year cornerbacks/wide receivers and no tight end use last year DT never got pressure, wide receiver had no depth besides lemon, and our corners got burned if we ever want to compete with the the teams that blew us out (Florida Stae, Clemson, and Georgia Tech) we need to stop worrying about the one big recruit like Thomas Holley THE BIG FISH THEORY where we make one guy the king and get that savior who is the face of the program to build us up has changed to lets just field an all around good team and like that we dont need wayne williams who cant get in 4 times in a row we need jay bromley’s who build depth does anyone else see how this is our problem
Well said…but I wouldve read it without you begging!!! Anyway… some good points, but staying up with those teams that were mentioned is wishful thinking. I’d rather… 1) say congrats to HCSS 2) the entire team 3) concentrate on bowling for the 3rd of 4 years 4) pay attention to the guys that are 98-100% committed to SU! 5) congratulate Holley, Kelly, Edwards, Skov, and all former NY athletes excelling in collegiate sports.
It was an up and down season, but a successful season overall:
The future is looking bright…
1) Custis, Williams, & Cooper are coming
2) the LB corp will recieve a facelift & upgrade
3) Long is a 4star ath
4) Eduard has RG3 speed at QB?!? 4.4 tick rock
5) Williams arrives@ DT…monsterous
6) some very talented DBs have verballed as well
7) and 11-15 spots remain?
* at .500, talented recruits flocking & a bowl game coming….NO WORRIES #watsoever
No worries mate… back at cha.
Russ, as Ira sez, I think UConn is a stepping stone and he’s there 3-5 years. He’s a hell of a recruiter, but UConn is such a dumpster fire that I think he will have all the same challenges we have and then some (AAC is not an AQ for the playoffs and looks even worse without UL and god forbid RU). If UConn can manage to get itself into a major conference, all bets are off on what I said above, and I don’t see the state pouring dollars into the program. They never stopped complaining about Calhoun’s salary and hoops is MUCH cheaper than Fball. You are spot on with one thing though… we need a downstate/NJ recruiter. Doors are starting to open. We need to seize the momentum. As for Sykes, there is a strong debate that Diaco leaving won’t influence Sykes that much. Now if he takes staff from ND to fill out UConn, that may be different. This is a big weekend for us with Hudson at RU and Sykes at ND. Of small note (sorry, but this is gonna sound weird) Hallmon’s mom gave a Twitter shout out to SU for having a great place in her heart. I am wondering if Deon got an in home on the DL. His mother has always said she likes SU. For the record, I am not stalking, she follows me on Twitter.
Listening to the “love of Syracuse being expressed is something that needs to be looked at rationally. For too many years we have listened to this crap and have seen the prospects go elsewhere. until they declare and the sign this whole expressions of “liking the Orange must be considered BS.
@Malone,Ron,If he comes here maybe we can learn to trust him? I get the feeling I’d rather have a “good citizen” like Hudson though!On RU’s continuing woe’s I think they made a BIG mistake(to our benefit)keeping KF and I hear Hilliman is taking a OV to BC this weekend? I hope after all the headaches RU’s been giving our recruiting it don’t just move north to BC? I sense BC has a renewed focus in FB!?! @CDL,Great observations by a growing young mind CDL,you show wisdom beyond your yrs!I’m enjoying watching you progress/grow.
@Chris,I know exactly how you feel and won’t listen much to the words UNTILL NLOI signing day! The last several yrs have soured me on recruiting something I’ve loved following until recently!I’ve noticed a lack of honor in society in todays world that goes even beyond just the kids.
@Cuse Don’t Luse;
Well I just want to know one thing young man. Have you decided as to what college your going to play lacrosse at.
Either one is fine with me,Colgate is only a 15 minute drive from my house and Hobart is about an hours drive.
If you have decided to come to the upstarte area for college I would like to come to some of your games and watch you play.
I still think we lose Sykes to the damn Irish. I hope he sees through the garbage they will throw at him but they have a way of fooling these kids into thinking that Notre Dame is the the ultimate football program in existence. You know its true.
@ron thanks for that I’m not sure yet I do know that Colgate has one attack spot available in my class same with bucknell and that Hobart and Marquette are basically empty in my class those are the schools that have shower the most interest out of the D1s but Boston (university not college) Dartmouth and those types of places
By the way …. Iowa State’s nickname is the “Cyclones” not Hawkeyes (Iowa). Just keeping it accurate
@Cuse don’t luse;
Well no matter what school you pick,good luck to you.
Sykes just committed to Notre Dame today. IN HIS COMMENTS, HE SAID SEVERAL THINGS THAT I FOUND INTERESTING:
1. Graduating from Notre Dame would set him up for life even if he didn’t go to the NFL and that ND is one of the best schools in the country
2. He will have toe opportunity to PLAY BIG TIME FOOTBALL every week.
ACC football is not big time football? Florida State is playing for the national title.
An SU degree will open doors for you as well….I would bet just as many as an ND degree.
@Dr. bill;
Sunday we received another verbal from CB Cordell Hudson out of Florida and a few of our recruits twitted Cordell to welcome him to Syracuse.
Nile Sykes also twitted him to wish him the best while playing at Syracuse. We’ll see who gets more playing time and who receives a degree that is going to open the doors after college.
Ron,Hilliman the kid you liked verbaled to BC this weekend and Fla HS OT 6’6″ 280lb Applefield committed to RU Friday? Was’nt we recruiting Applefield?
Ron & Dr Bill. ND is a higher ranked education right now. Top 15 nationally. SU has dropped and that is a reason a lot of people don’t like Cantor. For a kid from Chicago, the doors he’s interested in are in Chicago. SU doesn’t have the same weight there as in NYC. As to level of competition, he is aware that they play SU next fall. He may not be aware that they are contracted to play I think 5 games against the ACC each year. That’s where it sounds silly, but of all his reasons, the one he isn’t saying is that he plain old loved ND since he was a kid. There is no reason to look past that.
Russ, yes Hilliman flipped. Glad to see RU slip, but not to BC. SU has had to share the region in the past, but never with this many quality options. We need to establish ourselves with NJ and downstate fast, while there is churn at other schools. Applefield was recruited by us and took an un-official. It never clicked and we were out early.
From what I hear, Hallmon is a backup plan at this point, and Mike Johnson is ours to lose.
@Russell Dangerfield;
Listening to others describe Hallman Russell,I came to the conclusion that he wasn’t coming to Syracuse,because he was to wishy-washy. I got impression that(down the road)he could/would be trouble. So good for BC,let them have the headaches.
If @Malone is right getting a kid like Mike Johnson to commit would be great.
Had a great time yesterday playing Santa at a family Christmas Party. Great Time.
Ron,sounds like something I would have loved to seen(playing Santa)Ha ha…Seem’s like Fizz is cooling on the FB talk now that the bigboys “hoops” are back even though we’re going bowling? I guess FB will always be secondary here? I should know better following the team since JB?? Maybe if we start getting some of the same level bigname FB players and have a few 9/10 win seasons the worm will start to turn!?! I like hoops but love FB!
@Russell Dangerfield;
I’ve been Santa for over the past 20 years. Been to a lot of my own and friends family parties,spent 10 of those years going to Nursing Homes and into the Pediatric Ward at the Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse NY,breakfast with Santa at the local volunteer fire company.
I got into helping Santa at the company I retired from years ago. I come home and mentioned it to my wife and she started putting together a beautiful Santa suit that she gave me for a birhtday present.
Through it all Russell it’s been an experience that I’m never going to forget and really proud that I had a chance to be a Santa’s helper. it’s been fun.
Merry Christmas,my friend and Happy New Years.
@Russell Dangerfield;
Are we talking about two different guys here(Hallman/Hilliman)or are they both one in the same person?
Didn’t we get confused last fall on these same two guys?