The Syracuse football squad isn’t satisfied with a 9-3 record, they continued their recruiting efforts this week in a huge way.
Last week was a big recruiting week for the Syracuse football coaching staff. It was the first week after a two-month dead period, where coaches weren’t allowed to be in contact with recruits. And the Orange certainly reaped the benefits of this.
Lee Kpogba was the first domino to fall. Kpogba plays his high school football at Parkland high school in Winston-Salem. Give the Syracuse coaching staff credit for an impressive recruiting win, as Kpogba was originally committed to West Virginia and also has offers from the likes of Florida State, Tennessee, and Maryland.
The 6-foot-2 210-pound outside linebacker took an official visit to the Syracuse campus on November 10th along with Mikel Jones, and James Hudson. Jones is now a Cuse commit while Hudson is an OT transfer from Michigan.
According to 247sports, Kpogba is the 374th best player in the class of 2019 and a 4-star recruit. He is also listed as the 20th best player at his position. Kpogba, Mikel Jones, and Geoff Cantin-Arku are all linebacker commits in the 2019 class.
Let’s look at the tape:
The first play I want to look at occurs at the 1:05 mark of the tape. Kpogba projects as an outside linebacker in the Syracuse defense, so it will be imperative for him to be able to cover pass catchers.
Earlier in the highlight tape, he shows off his ability in coverage. But on this particular play, he is lined up on the slot receiver, but the opposing team calls a run. Kpogba shows off his true linebacker abilities coming up and punishing the ball carrier on the end-around. Kpogba shows good football IQ to maintain the edge and use his speed and strength to come up and deliver a vicious hit.
The next play I want to look at occurs at the 3:09 mark in the tape. The North Carolina native is lined up in a traditional linebacker stance and is spying on the opposing team’s read-option play call. On his way over to the ball carrier, Kpogba absolutely blows up a wide receiver who is trying to get a block on him. Kpogba also shows the speed that he is going to bring to this Syracuse defense, tracking down the ball carrier in the open field to push him out-of-bounds before the end zone. This is a good hustle play and something that Syracuse has lacked over the past few years, fast linebackers that can still lay the boom.
At the 3:42 mark and for the next two plays, he shows off his ability on the line of scrimmage in blitzing situations. On the first play Kpogba uses his strength to get by a tight end to get to the quarterback and bring him down for the sack. The second play, Kpogba zooms by an offensive tackle, who simply did not have the speed to block Kpogba, who takes advantage and brings down the ball carrier for a loss in the backfield.
Overall, it looks like Syracuse is getting linebacker with great coverage abilities. The Tampa-2 defensive scheme asks their linebackers to stop the run, cover pass catchers, and rush the quarter back at any given time. Kpogba has the instincts and the athleticism to provide these abilities.