As the weather gets hotter so does the recruiting season. Big weekend for Syracuse, as Colton Moskal became the 4th¬†commit in the ’14 class. Moskal is a hard-hitting, 6‚Äô1‚Äù, 215-pound linebacker who attends Lake Zurich High in Illinois. Moskal is part of the group A.J. Long and George McDonald have been¬†trying to attract via social media. Moskal chose Syracuse after visiting the Hill along with Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Cincinnati.
Moskal‚Äôs commitment shows a continued effort from the SU coaches to recruit¬†the state of Illinois. Mitch Kimble and Kendall Moore were both reeled into February’s class from the Land of Linvcoln, and recruit Matt Domer is also considering SU. The pipeline to Illinois is forming because of the new staff, many who have ties to the area, Scott Shafer (Northern Illinois), Chuck Bullough (Western Michigan), Tim Lester (WMU), George McDonald (NIU, WMU, Minnesota) and others have worked an area of the Midwest that used to be a dead zone for the Orange. The state offers more raw talent than the northeast, and SU is building a pipeline that is destined to grow with more commitments each class.
One of the Moskal’s most impressive traits is his balanced attack on both sides of the line. He accumulated 98 tackles last season, with 8.5 sacks. The versatility Moskal brings to the table can be a useful asset to Bullough when figuring out where to place him. Likely he’ll be an outside linebacker to begin, but many believe he has the skills to take the middle linebacker position at some point. Moskal and¬†Zaire Franklin have the potential¬†to create a strong linebacking corps once they hit the field.
For another summer chemistry is building before Orange players even meet each other. Last year, former SU commit Zach Allen tried his best to get top talent to look at SU, and now the power of social media on recruiting has been showcased by Long and Franklin. One of the major factors that led Moskal to SU was the relationships with the other three commits. SU sometimes has to find unorthodox ways of reeling in big recruits and with commits like K.J. Williams and Chad Maverty still deciding their college fate, winning another important recruit is a great way.
Posted: Zephan Mayell
19 responses to “Midwest Menace: LB Colton Moskal Proves Syracuse Building Illinois Presence”
This could be a great get for SU!! The tape shows he’s playing against decent sized talent to.
Some interesting info. Just playing around with this(worked this weekend even on fathers day) asked boss if we get double time for working a holiday=she had no sense of humor!! Looked at recruiting standings and saw a few things. 1st- there are (16) much better to same quality programs as SU ahead in recruting of SU!! There are (6) the same quality programs below SU in ranking for recruits. Kentucky-the Temple of the SEC(come on) is in top 20 higher and Standford(one recruit)is ranked lower than SU. There is time to get some more verbals, but losing that PA TE was a huge loss. SU in its best times always had a quality TE and they need one terribly. Thompson going to DE is going to hurt the “O” passing game for that QB whom ever he is-in my opinion!! PS Howard in some places is rated higher that the other verbals-no way!!
@Zephan Mayell;
Up until recently,Syracuse always had trouble recruiting the midwest. If the,old timers can remember,recruiting Donovan McNabb was huge and his story/legacy is still being written and talked about today.
Coach Shafer has brought in Kendall Moore and Mitch Kimble for the class of 2013. The doors to the midwest have opened a little wider allowing us to walk through and pick up Colton Moskal for 2014. I’m sure more of those 25 recruits offered from Illinois wil surely follow.
Zephan,your correct in mentioning,chemistry between players starting to form already. It’s great to see it happening and will only make the team a much stronger unit.
How did Franklin who lives in PA and Moskal who lives in Illinois meet? Have they played together in camps before? Do you think it was social media that has brought these two players together in Syracuse?
@Terry;
Losing Trey Klock to GA. Tech stung a bit. I really thought he was coming to Syracuse. Oh well,it didn’t happen and it’s not the end of the world either.
Worked on “Fathers Day”? It should have been triple time.
Williams to PITT!!! WHAT???? What goes here. I know SU wasn’t really super hard after this guy, but PITT is no Alabama,ND, PSU,Florida or USC!!! Come on, DA find why SU misses out on these upstate, NYC and LI kids year in and out. Rated higher again than Howard too!!
What do you mean “Williams to Pitt” ??? KJ Williams? I havent heard that anywhere or is this another Williams?
@Terry – I heard rumor that Williams didn’t show fast enough at camp, and that was why the staff didn’t put on the full court press. As to your true point, I worry too about the draw SU has in it’s back yard. I am glad to see some swing in PA and NJ even if we didn’t get Klock. I think there is a big thing that we miss with these kids wanting a true change of scenery. Central NY may not have a lot to offer a kid from Central NY. As to the downstate issue, I am not totally clear on that except to say that bigger names will always have more pull for kids coming out of the sea of humanity and obscurity that NYC can be. Around here, High School Hoops gets headlines, but not FB. That’s saved for NJ and LI (more NJ). Big programs like FSU, Alabama, ND calling on you is like validation for these kids, it’s a shot at attention finally. That is likely the case anywhere, but more so in NYC.
Perception is the thing too. We are not domionating the press in part due to PSU, RU, UConn, Pitt and even BC sharing a piece. I think the ACC move will get us in the papers more, but for now, a mention in the paper for us and for even Maryland are not the same. We are “local”, we are supposed to get mention. They are not (perception) they must be doing more if they are getting mention in NYC. Tired of second class status as a NYC FB player, I want to go where they are doing more to get attention.
@BKCuse – I assume Terry means Jalen Williams, a target for Safety out of Newburgh Free Accademy.
Its not just Moskal and Franklin that will be new and exciting for the backer unit. Don’t forget Alryk Perry and Marquez Hodge are new and coming in this year for Bullough and SS.We gotta hve KJ and Mavety for this to be a super year in recruiting. Add to these Erv Phillips and or Ollison at the RB position.Must gets are required for the secondary as well.
Terry,Klock was never really coming here!!I thought we might get lucky but RU/BC was all the buzz with Temple and GT as next then us ONLY if PSU don’t offer but we don’t appeal to everyone…even ND and Alabama lose a few!Let’s be happy were getting much better kids now and our team can win with what we have..Heck we got 4* Ron Thompson last year as example…..outside of our own board no one predicted Klock to “Cuse’..that’s why I wasn’t counting on him!
@Ron,I had problem’s getting on the Fizz site yesterday and last night! I kept getting “database error” but I got back after 7am b4 this thread was up!!Don’t anybody check the previous threads anymore for questions or comments?I’m posting to read only my own comments?I keep checking the same 52 comments and all of a sudden dead??
@Terry;
KJ Williams hasn’t committed to any one yet?
Terry,@Malone was correct when he told all of us,it was Jalen Williams that has committed to Pittsburgh. It was bad enough to read about Trey Klock,you shouldn’t post things like that to upset me,so damn early in the day.
@Russell MacEachern;
I had problems too last night getting on the website. Must be they were writing a new article and was proof reading it before they put it out in cyberspace for us to read and condemn if needed.
You know how unstable all of us are,don’t you?
If Illinois is going to be a prime area of recruiting,fine I see no reason to be upset. I don’t think that reruitining NYS and Illinois are mutually exclusive in any way.As long as we are paying attention and loving the kids close to us ,go for it SS. The rest of the current board list are very impressive and accomplished names that must be properly dealt with by this staff I speak of KJ Mavety Ollison and Phillips along with a few others I can’t recall at the moment but these kids are extremely important to Scott and the program. Fizz ,start speaking to these guys for their latest story. By guys I mean the kids
@chris;
I agree with you whole heartily. when I read this post I felt that there was another story to be told here.
Wouldn’t it be nice to read a story on a kid(Franklin)with so much upside/promise,also humble enough to reach out to another recruit(Moskal)from a different part of the country and convince him to join him at Syracuse University.
I think that it would make an excellant story.
Malone-Yes the Williams kid from Newburgh!! He seemed fast enough for Pitt. If he went to Colgate, U MASS,Stoney Brook, Fordham, Or Rolling Rock U I would believe that rumor!! But I doubt Pitt would waste a spot for him. But again if your info is correct then great for HCSS and Staff!! I still feel that Klock was a huge loss. After all GT is an option team if my memory is correct. So his blocking was important to GT. That kind of skill at TE wouldn’t hurt SU at all now would it!!
speed I say speed, damn this kid looks like he was shot out of a cannon. I had to look twice to make sure the highlight reel wasn’t on ffwd. Can see this kid at safety for the Orange and wrecking havoc on wide receivers in the ACC. Nice, very nice!!
@Terry,GT recruited Klock as a DE/DT!!They liked (as I do) his nastiness!!All the rest wanted him as a TE!!TE’s at GT wouldn’t get many passes to display to the NFL!!The other school’s ran Pro sets I believe!I’m surprised at his choice…he IS HARDNOSED!
Russ any hard-nosed player or coach is OK to me!! It still looks HCSS is building around speed. The ACC demands that to be competitive. But I still like that 6’2″/200lbs FR at start and graduates at 6’2″/220.
Terry,have you read the article on Syr.com today about Coach MacDonald going after(Sean White)another QB for 2014 out of South Florida?
Sean is rated a 4* QB who operates out of the pocket. Leaning towards Syracuse.
If you haven’t,then you need too.