Dino Babers may be known for his offense, but the Syracuse football coach knows how crucial defense is and landed six big commits last weekend.
The 2016 recruiting cycle is almost at an end with National Signing Day coming up next Wednesday, and the Orange had a huge weekend of official visits, getting all nine players who came to campus to commit. Yesterday, I talked about the three new offensive weapons for Syracuse’s arsenal, and today we’ll take a look at the six defensive prospects who are the latest to commit to the Orange.
The Orange have been on a roll on the defensive side of the ball of late, with nine of the last 13 recent commits brought in for defensive coordinator Brian Ward’s Tampa 2 scheme. This past weekend, the first of the six defensive players to commit was lineman McKinley Williams.
The Fort Lauderdale native is 6-foot-4, 255 pounds and is a defensive tackle prospect who’s been flying under the radar despite playing for a well known program, Dillard, which also gave Syracuse Kenneth Ruff in this year’s recruiting class. Williams is a raw, athletic tackle who has been transitioning to the middle of the line after playing a lot of linebacker and defensive end in the past.
Williams was also being pursued by Pittsburgh and was originally set to visit the Panthers this weekend, but canceled his trip and is solid to the Orange. One player who might not be quite as solid who committed last weekend is Jaquwan Nelson.
Nelson was arguably the most high profile recruit to visit last weekend, and the former Miami pledge was a bit of a surprise to pull the trigger on committing to the Orange during the trip. The 6-foot-4, 230 pound defensive end fills an area of immediate need and could get a lot of playing time right off the bat, but the trick will be keeping him.
Georgia and head coach Kirby Smart have been chasing Nelson hard recently, and even convinced the talented defensive end to take an official visit this weekend. With the lure of the SEC for a Florida kid like Nelson, it might be tough to hang onto this talented prospect through National Signing Day.
Fortunately, the Orange landed another defensive end to provide some size and depth on the line in Joshua Black. The Illinois native was originally committed to his home-state Illini before opening things up just before taking his official visit to Syracuse. The 6-foot-3, 250 pound lineman is already physically ready to compete for the Orange, though he’s still fairly new to the position after having played mostly offensive tackle prior to his senior year.
Black was leaning toward the Orange for awhile and was an easy commitment to predict, just like Evan Foster. The 6-foot-2 safety from Michigan also pledged to Syracuse this past weekend after having originally committed to this same staff at Bowling Green. He quickly opened up his recruitment once Babers left for Syracuse, and the Orange became the decided front-runners.
Foster is a big, physical, hard-hitting safety who gives the Orange a lot of size and length in the secondary, particularly when paired with Devon Clarke, the 6-foot-3 safety who committed during his visit the previous weekend. Purdue and Iowa were chasing Foster as well, but there was never much mystery about where he’d wind up.
Likewise, it seemed easy to predict that Rashad Smith would jump on board with the Orange on his official visit after having been committed to Florida Atlantic. The 6-foot-2 outside linebacker played safety in high school but will make the switch to LB in Ward’s defense. He’s a punishing tackler with good speed who will do well in coverage for Syracuse.
The final commitment from the past weekend just came Tuesday, officially, from former Illinois commit Tim Walton. The 6-foot-2, 225 pound middle linebacker from Detroit was a surprise visitor this past weekend but quickly fell in love with the program, and after decommitting from the Illini on Monday, was all in with the Orange on Tuesday night.
Next: Syracuse Football: Looking at the Recent Offensive Commits
Walton immediately adds terrific size to Syracuse’s defense, and when put alongside Ruff, the Orange now have two of the biggest freshmen middle linebackers they’ve had since the days of Clifton Smith. Walton is very good in coverage, as well, making him a perfect fit for the Tampa 2.
This year’s recruiting class is nearly full, with the current number of commitments sitting at 21 pledges (following the decommitment of Jamal Holloway yesterday). It remains unclear just how many more players the Orange will take, but there are a few names they’re still waiting on, and two visitors will be making a trip to campus this weekend with the Syracuse staff hoping to add them to this year’s class.
Tomorrow, I’ll talk a bit about those visitors, and how the rest of this year’s class could shake out as we get ever closer to those letters of intent being signed and faxed, officially sealing the deal on the class of 2016.