When it rains, it pours. The Syracuse football squad just picked up a big time recruit in Cornelius Nunn, here’s the tale of the tape breakdown.
Syracuse stayed hot on the recruiting trail this past Saturday, when they beat out college football blue bloods for the commitment of Cornelius Nunn. According to 247sports, Nunn is a three star prospect and rated an 86. The Sunshine State DB is considered the 632nd best player in the country and 58th best “athlete” in his class.
Credit Syracuse DB’s and Florida recruiting coach Nick Monroe for the duties to pick up Nunn. In addition to the Syracuse offer, Nunn had offers from the likes of Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Miami, among others.
The Miami native plays at Miami Palmetto High School, and has visited the Syracuse campus three times now. His commitment came while he and his mother were visiting the campus.
He announced his college intention via twitter:
Let’s take a look at the tape:
At the 1:03 mark of the tape, Nunn is playing close to the line of scrimmage. And while the 6-foot 170-pound Nunn, certainly has to put some weight on before coming to Syracuse, he is certainly formidable. On this play Nunn, shows off his speed on a stretch run play called by the offense. The Florida native tracks the ball carrier, gets around a blocker, and then makes a nice open field tackle, to limit the yards picked up.
The 2:06 mark is an incredible play made by Nunn. He is lined up at more of a nickel back on a goal-line situation. He is responsible for covering one of the two running backs on the play, instead they elect to help out in pass blocking. The always alert Nunn, recognizes this and then reads the quarterbacks eyes and helps out his corner on the edge in 1-on-1 coverage. He shows off great speed closing the gap quickly and timing his hit at the correct time to knock the ball loose from the wide receiver.
BOOM-SHAKA-LAKA
At the 2:35 mark, the opposing team is lined up in a punt formation. The punter attempt a rugby-style kick where he runs to the side, then kicks it. However, he will not kick this one far as Nunn beats his blocker and turns on the jets to come up with the punt block in the end zone, scoring points for his team.
All throughout the tape, Nunn is running back kicks, punts, and on this play he is on the line to come up with a punt block. He excels in these situations and will be a special teams ace for the Orange.
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While Mr. Nunn is listed as an “Athlete” I would expect the Syracuse coaches to use him as a safety when he gets on campus.