Name: Otto Zaccardo
Position: Running Back
Year: Freshman
Height: 5-10
Weight: 186 lbs.
Hometown: Subury, Mass.
High School: Lincoln-Sudbury
2015 Stats: Zaccardo's local paper says he ran for 1127 yards and 14 touchdowns in his senior season at Lincoln-Sudbury. Those numbers combined with his times in track and field (10.9 in the 100 and 22.7 in the 200) earned him "2015 Sudbury Town Crier Male Athlete of the Year" honors.
2016 Projections: Zaccardo joins the Syracuse Orange as a preferred walk-on. While that means the coaches prefer him over the other walk-ons, for his freshman year it also means the coaches will prefer he stays out of their way on game days. Maybe Zaccardo's time will come, but we won't see it in 2016.
How'd He Get Here: When he committed, Zaccardo told Syracuse.com's Chris Carlson he wanted the challenge of working at a Power Five school instead of going somewhere smaller. Syracuse was the only P5 program to offer him a preferred walk-on spot.
What'd Recruiting Sites Say: Nada. He's unranked everywhere, and the only thing on him is the testing times ESPN put up in 2014 (4.56 in the 40-yard dash).
Money Quote: Zaccardo told Carlson he's ready for the challenge of competing at a bigger school:
"I know there's the saying about being a big fish in a small pond," Zaccardo said. "I don't mind being a smaller fish in a big pond and seeing how much I can grow."
Links of Wonder: You can read Syracuse.com's full write-up from back when Zaccardo committed here. The Daily Orange did something similar.
Twitter Feed: @ottozone321
Tweets of Wonder: He likes to draw, too.
Quick s/o to my boy @luckyy_20 ....whipped it up during some down time I had.....keep grinding bro ⚒ pic.twitter.com/h288MZG43w
— Otto Zaccardo (@ottozone321) July 26, 2016
What Does The Coaching Staff Think of Him?: As you probably expected, the coaching staff doesn't spend much of their time with the media talking about walk-ons. He'll have to earn that.
Interesting Nugget O'Interest: His name is actually Jeffrey Otto Zaccardo, but it's safe to say he'll never be called by his first name again.
Let's get a Good Look Atcha: