Syracuse football has a great chance to land 2021 QB Riley Leonard
By Neil Adler
Syracuse football is prioritizing 2021 quarterback Riley Leonard, and the Orange appears in solid shape to potentially win the recruiting battle for him.
Riley Leonard, a two-sport star at Fairhope High School in Fairhope, Ala., received a scholarship offer from Syracuse football coaches about a week ago, and the Orange could prove in line to ultimately secure his services as part of the team’s 2021 class.
The 6-foot-4, dual-threat quarterback, rated as three stars by Rivals.com, told Stephen Bailey of Syracuse.com in a recent article that the ‘Cuse is prioritizing him.
“They’ve told me I’m No. 1 and that’s the truth,” Leonard, who also excels in basketball, said in the story. “They told me I was their guy so that’s really important to me as a player.”
According to 247Sports and Rivals.com, he currently holds additional scholarship offers from fellow Atlantic Coast Conference member Duke, Nebraska, South Alabama, Southern Mississippi, Tulane and Vanderbilt.
Nebraska, which plays in the rugged Big Ten Conference, would have likely amounted to among the stiffest competition for the Orange as it relates to Leonard, although he surely could snag other offers in the near term.
However, Syracuse’s position with Leonard certainly improved after word broke over the weekend that the Cornhuskers got a commitment from Heinrich Haarberg, a 2021 three-star prospect who attends Kearney Catholic High School in Kearney, Neb.
The 6-foot-5 Haarberg is slotted by 247Sports as the No. 15 dual-threat quarterback across the country in the 2021 recruiting cycle. So one would assume that Leonard will eliminate Nebraska from his list of collegiate contenders.
Maybe, just maybe, the biggest competitor for the ‘Cuse to land Leonard is, well, Leonard himself. I say this with a hint of sarcasm, yet this talented athlete is a stud at hoops, too. Might he opt for basketball over football in college?
On May 4, as several high-major football offers began to come in for him, Leonard told al.com that he is about 75 percent likely to go with football rather than hoops.
“It’s probably 75-25 football right now,” Leonard said. “What can I say after these past couple of days? I would be stupid not to say football. My basketball recruitment could pick up after AAU season and maybe that will change some things, but right now I can tell you – finally after three years or so – that I’m leaning toward football.”
Hey, Orange basketball boss Jim Boeheim could offer Leonard a scholarship, and perhaps that could seal the deal for him to end up on the Hill.
Then again, Syracuse.com’s Bailey wrote in his May 7 piece about Leonard’s football future that he “plans to make that choice within the next week or so. He previously considered waiting in hopes of attracting Division I offers as a basketball recruit. But the pandemic has postponed his AAU season and Leonard understands many Class of 2021 quarterbacks have already made their commitments.”
If Leonard went with the ‘Cuse, he would only overlap with starting quarterback Tommy DeVito, a redshirt junior, for one stanza, unless the upcoming season is cancelled because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. And that could very well happen.
One thing is clear. Leonard would seemingly fit right in with the Orange’s fast, high-octane offense. “I love it,” Leonard told Syracuse.com. “No huddle, no mercy is big. I love the spread offense, being able to throw the ball all game long. I love to play fast.”
Hopefully, at some point soon, Leonard will decide to suit up in Central New York for the 2021 term and beyond.