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Per CuseNation.com’s Mike McAllister, the Orange offered defensive tackle Jalen Harvey Sunday despite his recruitment shuffles in recent weeks. The Pinson, Ala. product plans to join nine other prospects on the Syracuse campus January 31 for a visit.
From the start, Harvey was committed to South Alabama, but flipped his school of choice to WKU as of January 19. He officially visited Western Kentucky as well as Boise State on the 17. Now with SU in on his services in the last 24 hours, Harvey couldn’t help admitting he was “surprised” and “excited.”
Evidence proves Harvey is a bit of an undecided recruit. However, this time around could be for real. The 6’2”, 305-kb defensive tackle is on record saying his recruitment is shut down. Harvey told AL.com on January 20th his decision to pledge with the Hilltoppers is set and stone:
¬†”I am going to go ahead and call it quits and sign with Western Kentucky. They got happy and actually Coach Holt (WKU defensive coordinator) kissed me on the head when I said I wanted to commit to Western Kentucky. I just feel that Western Kentucky was that best place for me to go play college football.”
Just a week and a half remains until National Signing Day, so it’s no surprise Harvey attempts to show some certainty during the stretch run. Obviously Syracuse just offered him yesterday so he needs some time to soak in the information. Depth at tackle on both sides of the ball needs to be a top priority for the Orange next season. Harvey was selected to the 2013 Birmingham News All-Metro football team and finished his senior stint at Clay-Chalkville HS with 61 tackles (10.5 tackles for losses) and three sacks.
Watch DT Jalen Harvey’s highlights here: http://www.hudl.com/athlete/
With opportunities for immediate playing time and the program’s appreciation for underrated talents, Harvey fits the mold to join the 2014 class. He provides bulging size similar to another ’14 recruit, Zeek Rodney, and strongly resembles a member of last year’s recruiting class: offensive line pickup Alexander Hayes. The ‘Bama resident Harvey has the make-up to help Tim Daoust build a strong defensive line as a true leader in Jay Bromley departs.
Late, last-minute offers to players such as Harvey may continue to fly in from the Orange. Shafer and company are trying to take the next step in the ACC from being just good to great. So from South Alabama to Western Kentucky, don‚Äôt sleep on Harvey. A decent pitch from Syracuse probably has him pondering, “Now what?”
22 responses to “Western Kentucky Commit Jalen Harvey ‚ÄúSurprised, Excited‚Äù by Syracuse Offer”
Another 2 star hope and pray!! He seems to be really unsettled. This years class news so far is who SU lost more than who they got!! There’s a feeling I get from this staff that they are panicking because of all verbal players from other programs(that shoot them in the foot if HCSS keeps that up) they are going after!!
DO NOT FORGET THE KIDS OF PSABUSEDU!! The NCAA did!!
i liked the film on hudl. i was wondering what happened to lance mcdowell? i hope we bring in 2 d tackles this year . i think the 2 dt were recruiting are both under the radar types and will be better than expected.
Relax man there not panicking rodney was expected to stay close to home he would have a Case of home sickness . Wilbon has had a recent history of injurys an where in line for some killer rb recruits in 15 when we actually need them! Watson was a long shot he was already pretty firm with Kansas even before his visit. The staff knows what there doing and this sort of thing happens all the time such as the nature of recruiting . O and FYI Jay Bromley was a 2 star recruit seemed to work out pretty well for us! Take the star ratings with a grain of salt it doesn’t mean anything outside the TOP 100 prospects these kids are hardly looked at by recruiting sites that already have a bias. Give the kid a redshirt year with are awesome coach’s and he’ll be more than capable to make an impact.
Remember were talking about a “prospective” recruit not someone who verbaled already Terry…lets see where it all shakes out as we may pick up 1 or 2 unexpected surprises on LOI day?Some schools have over recruited and we might get the spillover effect to benefit us? I’m really starting to get turned off by dirty recruiting but it is what it is.
any word on any olineman converting to dlineman? also wondering about ipf??
This offer does smack of desperation since he wasn’t recruited until now. This must mean that they don’t feel good about one of the guys holding out until NSD. I agree that the whole football recruiting business of “flipping” recruits is totally slimy, but it’s allowed and happens all the time. The best way to combat would for football to also adopt an early signing period. So far the intellectual midgets at the NCAA show no sign of football having an early signing period.
@Russell Dangerfield;
Boy I have to give both you and Malone credit for letting the rest of know about the migration of players away from the Rutgers Football program. The latest to de-commit AND COMMIT to Penn St. was 4* WR Saeed Blacknall. He’s the 15 recruit that’s left the program.
What’s going on down there? I thought Syracuse had problems. Wow!!!!
EB I agree with you!!
Russ really?? I think that most of the real decent talent is already plucked and verbal some place. The ones remaining are either head cases or because of coaching moves or poor grades are still out there. This staff feels to me now they are over reaching on talent. Why all the DBs and no OL/DL talent. They lost more than they got. In the spring/summer of 2013 the staff leaked out many exciting names they were going after. But the joke was on us. A very few names are on SU’s list now. Yes the season was decent, but this recruiting season is disappointing so far. #59 so far!!
Ron don’t you wonder why no Rutgirls skip-outs ended up at SU??? There is a virus down in the NYS/NJ area that just doesn’t like SU!!
Maybe we need to keep a coaching staff in place long enough to give recruits confidence that the coaching staff that made promises to them will still be here.
@Terry;
Malone and Russell had reported that there was a mass exodus from Rutgers. I couldn’t believe it when I heard 15 recruits had decommitted from the team and YES I was wondering why we hadn’t gotten any of those recruits to come here.
It seems funny to me that we haven’t heard a thing about all of those other recruits from Florida and Georgia that we were after earlier in the year either.
So I’m starting to think your right again that something is amiss with the recruiting in NYS for Syracuse Football.
MacPhearson and Pasqualoni heavily recruited the State of NJ. Do you think they ignored the talent in NY by going after the NJ kids? I’ve read articles that we’ve missed out on a lot of good to great NY talent during that time. Do you think by ignoring certain areas of the state that they destroyed all relationships with the local high school coaches? Like you mentioned on another thread,we missed out on a 6’5″ 290 lb OT from LI. Why? Did the coaching staff know about him and didn’t bother talking with the kid? I just don’t understand how it is that we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot.
Maybe just maybe starting with the MacPhearson era through the GROB and finishing with the Malone era,Syracuse has dug itself a hole that’s so deep that they’ll never see the light of day again. Boy I hope I’m wrong when I say that,but I do know that we’ve missed out on some really good talent lately and there’s no reason for it to be happening. NONE
Hey guys,
Thanks for the comments. This does seem like a desperate pitch for Jalen Harvey, but as you all have preached numerous times, this team needs big bodies on the lines. Jay Bromley was a 2-star guy and he turned out awesome. Harvey tackles well and plays big in the moment as his tape shows. What I wonder about is where his head is at…He could change his mind several times in the next week before NSD
Ron…what really stings is RUs class with all their decommits is still rated higher than ours(41?)and in the middle of the B1G.And you wonder why I get depressed and stay away sometimes?We need a couple of BUZZ recruits soon!! Terry is on the right track about downstate problems but this isn’t the proper forum to air it out but Malone would know more than I on that situation.
Ron,I saw a rumor Ralph Fridgen is gonna(possibly)be RU’s next OC? Another NY coach?
I’d like to see Jalen come to the Cuse. Being from Bama and getting passed over by the SEC schools means he would have a lot to prove and have a major chip on his shoulder. My bet is that he will develop into a better player than Thomas Holley anyways. He will see the field here, and who knows it could open up a pipeline to Alabama high schools.
Ron I feel its 2 things about SU and NE(NJ/NYS/LI/PA and Ohio) recruiting. One the staff’s from GROB on must feel the talent they want isn’t in the NE area. And two there has to be an illness out against SU somewhere and NO ONE media or SU staff wants to deal with it!!.
Sorry RUSS this is the place to “air it out”!! Its an embarrassing issue that again NO ONE wants to correct or investigate!!. WHY??????????? I’ve been bitching about the lack of SU getting NYS/LI and NJ
talent for years. Hell PA and OHIO too!! Why no interest?? These southern players will get home sick and some just don’t like the cold(like me)!! Its just sucks how SU is now sliding all over the place ,right now, trying to find quantity(Not Quality)players. And that won’t work. SU has to improve its home life first before it can improve its program. Lack of NE recruiting is a sign of that!!
So I have lots of theories on your concerns Terry, but I feel we are turning the corner. I honestly believe some of it is that Newhouse’s success is SU’s failure when it comes to the press and PR. I also feel the success of the hoops squad hurts SU, especially in the NE. Here’s why (I’ll try to keep it short, but…)
Newhouse has such an elite rep., and there are MANY people in hiring positions from there too. Journalists who have to deal with them, or just plain didn’t get the dream job, or didn’t get into SU because of Newhouse carry an axe to grind. They don’t want to see SU succeed, out of spite. You would think that all those Newhouse grads would counteract this, but they are too enfranchised with their idea of journalistic integrity. The only guy I have heard tout his alma mater with gusto is Mike Toricco. Costas? no. Marv Albert? no. Heck Kenny Albert sits in a booth every Sunday with another SU grad Moose Johnston and I seldom if ever hear them talk about SU.
The other is the hoops success. First and most obvious is the perception that we are a hoops school and therefore, not where you go for football. The other thing however is the perception of pompousness or cocky attitude of our program and fans that people either love, or hate. Where so we seem to flaunt this most? NYC of course. Success can hurt (can you say Duke?) I have the Blue Devils with all I’ve got, and was never happier that I could always fall back on their bad football to balance the order of the world. As I’m older now, I have learned enormous respect for them and don’t seem to hate them as much (but we need to dominate them Saturday of course). I don’t think I am alone in this. Cutcliff is good, but they’ve had Spurrier in the past too. I just think everyone has relaxed on the Duke hating enough to allow them success in football recruiting. I don’t know that this is a large component of our troubles, but this is what I see and feel and it’s palpable. The NY Post guy Brazzler or whatever seems to hate us, but wrote long articles about how great Pasqualoni was when he was with UConn. I kinda think we need to be a little like the Miami of old. Embrace our image. brazen attitude can go a long way.
As for RU, these are kids who were sold that RU was the best the NE had to offer. They convinced kids they had passed PSU. I can’t understate the home town pride NJ people have. I am one. RU used that and used it well. Their PR machine dusted us, and it didn’t help that GROB turned his back for 4 years on them and essentially said to NJ and NY that almost any other state in the union produces better players. Now’s our chance to swing it back and we are in on some good stuff early from NJ.
Russ I had not heard about Fridge in Pascataway. I think it will be very interestign to watch him recruit directly against his one time protege and “coach in waiting” in PSU’s new coach Franklin.
I am not sure about how this is coming together at the end either, but you DO have to look at the BS that is the ratings. RU grabbed a QB with no offers in a panic and now the kid is being claimed as a 4 star.
@Malone,And the RU folks are always crying that the media and espn are against them? I hear some say Gio the new recruit QB from Mich is a better than Weigers? Weigers had better talent esp at WR and I hear MSU is now interseted in him(Gio)? I saw that the fridge rumor was true last night on the crawl.
Oh yeah Malone I forgot….great observation on NJ hometown pride and we should know!!Ha ha
Malone some great thoughts there as usual, but I still feel when it comes down to brass tacks its the family decision. The PR from that area could be a problem, but I still feel its individuals that are bombing the SU program. It started with the Williams recruiting. Word of mouth not word of press is the problem and word of mouth will have to be the medicine to cure the anti-CUSE discrimination!! Someone/thing is polluting the CUSE brand and there’s a story there!! Yet only conjecture is spilled forth instead of real facts. SU is in the NE not on the Atlantic Coast!! SU should have a good shot at the best NE talent, but it is not happening!! It shows in SU’s talent search and it has improve or SU will always be a .500 team at best!!
Welcome to the orangenation Jalen,hope to see you on the field playing this fall.
You mmust have had a great time at the basketball game. If you thought the crowd was something on Saturday wait until we get into the football season and have 40-45K people in the loud house cheering on the Orangemen.
Good luck to you young man.
Ron….did he commit this weekend? I think he’s a real good “sleeper” who would be rated better except for his 5’11” height? Height is overrated but I like the size of his heart!!!
Thanks a bunch for sharing this with all folks you actually know what you’re speaking about!
Bookmarked. Kindly also discuss with my website =).
We could have a link change contract between us