Timbers! Orange Land Another Recruit

Woodland Hills High School running back/defensive back Dom Timbers has received interested from Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Cincinnati and Syracuse but only the Orange had made an offer to date.  Timbers was done waiting for the rest of them to pony up and decided to verbally commit to the Orange.

Timbers (5-10, 185) played in six games last season as a junior for Woodland Hills. He missed the first five games of the season after transferring from Pittsburgh Central Catholic. According to Woodland Hills head coach George Novak, Timbers rushed for more than 1,000 yards and scored 18 touchdowns in helping his team reach the playoffs.

Not that Donnie wrote "According to Woodland Hills head coach George Novak" there.  Cause if you check the actual stats, Timbers didn't even play until game 5 of the past season due to transfer rules and accumulated a little over 500 yards and 11 touchdowns.  My guess is that Coach Novak is playing it a little fast and loose by combining Timbers' rushing stats with his kick return stats.  Overall, nothing to sneeze at, especially on the TDs, but slightly misleading.

Timbers made his commitment to the Orange as part of field trip with four other Woodland Hills teammates, three of which also have offers from Syracuse on the table.  They include DT Khaynin Mosley-Smith, TE/LB Mike Lee, OL Bruce Atkins and RB/DE Richard Gray who has not yet received an offer.  Gray is coming back from a head injury and the Orange are going to wait and see on him.

So it begs the question...what are they putting in the water at Woodland Hills?  They're a good program but not overly-dominant.  They're coming off a 13-5 season (18 games!?!  And college teams can't get a playoff???) and lost in the first round of the AAAA playoffs.

Orange Fizz tries to get to the bottom of why SU is so hooked up with Woodland and can't find a definitive answer.

Don't try Googling Woodland head coach George Novak and Doug Marrone on one line. The Fizz tried that and no luck. Let us know if Bing brought any success.

Looks like the Marrone staff has garnered an "in" with Woodland Hills and having five-plus prep teammates at SU would make a gang bigger than the Koreans in Gran Torino.

To be fair, SU has recruited Woodland Hills before.  Remember Madei Williams?  Before he transferred to Southern Illinois, he was the heir-apparent to Donovan McNabb.  Amongst many others...