Strong Island: Ryan Sloan Picks Syracuse

Long Island, all your football recruits are belong to us.

Syracuse picked up a verbal today from 6-foot-4, 310-pound lineman Ryan Sloan out of Bellport High School in Brookhaven. It's yet another Long Island commitment for the Orange, thanks to former Nassau Community College coach John Anselmo.

"I just committed like an hour ago," Sloan confirmed. "I was talking to coach [John] Anselmo and he also had me talking to another one of the recruiting coaches. I was talking to like five guys in all.

"I think it’s a good school and they’ve been showing the most interest so far. My cousin played for one of their coaches when he was at Nassau [Anselmo] and he was telling me good things about him. He told me he’s a good coach and a good person to talk to."

Sloan plays both OL and DL and Syracuse has told him he can play either, though they'd need him to slim down a little if he wants to play DL. He supposedly also got interest from Rutgers, UConn and UCF.

Not bad for someone who was almost blinded when he was three.