Head coach Scott Shafer has consistently preached quality over quantity in the recruiting class of 2016, and it looks like it’s starting to pay dividends.¬† After a crazy week of Orange recruiting, hybrid back Moe Neal became the fourth three-star player to commit to SU over the last couple days, although it remains to be seen if Devon Clarke‚Äôs commitment will be accepted.
Neal, long pursued by the Orange, is a teammate of Robert Washington and has been primarily recruited by running backs coach DeAndre Smith.  When Washington first committed to the Orange back in May, fans hoped that he would use his talent as leverage to convince better players to play up in Central New York.  And for the first time, Washington pulled in a talented backfield partner, Neal, to lineup alongside him in two seasons.
Neal originally named his top five which included ACC rivals Duke, Boston College, Wake Forest and Mississippi State.  Eventually, the decision was between the Orange and hometown Wake Forest.  After visiting SU in mid-July, however, Neal was hooked on Syracuse’s program.
Neal chose the Orange on Saturday, obviously, and will provide a huge boost to a developing position in the offense.  The hybrid back has been an interesting position of late for SU, with running back Erv Phillips transitioning to the spot for the upcoming season and hybrid back Ashton Broyld being dismissed from the program earlier in the week.
Through his first three years at Forestview High School in North Carolina, Neal has tallied 74 total touchdowns, including 29 in his junior season.  He also put up over 2,000 yards on the ground last year.  Neal is looking to enroll early at Syracuse and hopes to arrive on campus in January with Washington and QB recruit Rex Culpepper, who recently tore his ACL.
Looking ahead, Washington and Neal will attempt to flip the commitment of defensive tackle and longtime friend Christian Colon, who committed to Penn State at the end of June.  Neal becomes the 15th commitment in the recruiting class, with spots filling up quickly.
4 responses to “For Syracuse Football, Moe Recruits? No Problems”
It’s getting reported that Syracuse is only going to have 18 spots to fill for the class of 2016 and with Moe Neal committing to the Cuse on Saturday leaves 3 maybe 4 scholarships left to fill.
I ask what about losing Broyld,Funderburk and Williams getting tossed from the program,do those three scholarships now become available and added to the class of 2016,raising the numbers from 3 maybe 4 scholarships to 6 or 7?
Ron,
I’m probably wrong and too darn lazy to look stuff up, but I THINK Williams and Broyld would have used up their eligibility THIS season
and thus have no impact on the number of scholarship athletes.
ORANGEINVA; I appreciate you response and thank you for your input. I guess maybe I asked the wrong question or maybe didn’t expand on my thoughts enough so I’ll try again.
According to the NCAA we’re allowed 85 scholarship players on a team,with the three players that I’ve mentioned gone,Syracuse is now at 82 scholarship players. If Syracuse has only 18 scholarships to offer for the 2016 class to bring it to the max of 85 players,then I feel we have 3 extra scholarships to offer.
For me,as usual the recruiting process is very confusing and I’m just guessing/wondering what’s going on.
Ron… the recruits we’re getting now are for the fall of 2016. Williams/Broyld would have graduated or used up their eligibility.
The fact that they are gone now has no impact as they would have been gone at the end of THIS schoolyear. The 18 # is the same whether they left or graduated.