At the beginning of February, Syracuse football offered a scholarship to five-star prospect Rueben Owens ll, who is ranked the No. 1 running back in the 2023 class, according to some recruiting services.
Naturally, a lot of my fellow Orange fans immediately chimed in, saying the ‘Cuse had little to no shot at landing this elite player. That’s fair.
For me, I almost always remain optimistic, even when the deck is stacked against Syracuse football in attempting to prevail for a top-flight high-school prospect.
In any event, I noticed that in recent days a couple of experts on the 247Sports Web site have logged predictions for where they project Owens will end up. Unsurprisingly, those projections are not in the Orange’s direction.
Credit Syracuse football coaches for trying to land five-star Rueben Owens ll.
The 5-foot-11, 190-pound Owens is a junior at El Campo High School in El Campo, Texas. In his most recent season, Owens rushed for 2,989 yards and scored 46 rushing touchdowns, and MaxPreps named him the 2021 National Junior of the Year.
Throughout his recruitment, Owens has acquired more than 40 scholarship offers from a range of high-major programs, including heavyweights such as Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, LSU, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Oregon, Texas A&M, Auburn, Baylor, Wisconsin, Houston, Penn State and USC.
He was previously committed to Texas, but Owens de-committed from the Longhorns on June 17, 2021, and reopened his recruiting process back up, according to his bio on the 247Sports Web site.
Despite that de-commitment, two recruiting analysts recently predicted that Owens will, in fact, still end up committing to Texas. Those experts are 247Sports director of recruiting Steve Wiltfong and Hudson Standish, who is a recruiting analyst for Horns247.
For what it’s worth, when I wrote this column, there were four other predictions for Owens in the direction of the Longhorns on the 247Sports Web site, but those projections were all logged in February of 2021.
Additionally, there are two predictions on Rivals.com for Owens in the direction of Texas A&M that came after he de-committed from Texas, however, those projections were made last summer.
We’ll obviously continue to monitor Owens’ recruitment to see if the Orange emerges as any kind of viable contender. Assuming the ‘Cuse doesn’t get Owens, Syracuse football coaches have extended offers to 13 running backs in the 2023 class, per 247Sports, although at least two of these prospects have committed to play elsewhere.
One 2023 running back to keep an eye on is Manny Covey, who was offered by the ‘Cuse in late February. The 5-foot-11, 175-pound Covey is a junior at Bradford High School in Starke, Fla.
According to reports, Covey was on the Hill recently for the Orange’s Junior Day. His other offers include from Wake Forest, Washington State, Cincinnati and Iowa State, per recruiting services.