Wednesday is 2012 National Signing Day and that means it's time for a lot of grown men to lose their s**t over a group of boys. You'd like we'd have talked about that enough around here.
The Syracuse Orange have put together a pretty decent recruiting class so far but they still have the chance to make it something special. Right now we have 23 verbally-committed players to the Orange but there is still a lot of room for other quality recruits to sign on. Syracuse is currently battling for a bunch of them and if the cards fall right, some of them will be sending their fax Doug Marrone's way Wednesday morning.
Dan and I will be up bright and early to provide you with posts for each commit as they come in, so that you know what each of the major recruiting scouting services (ESPN, Rivals, Scout and 247) thinks of each prospect. We'll also provide you with a comprehensive summary at the end of the day so you know at a glance just who we got and what everyone thinks of London's second class.
As of today, January 31, 2012, Scout.com ranks this as the No. 54 recruiting class in the country (sixth in Big East) with two four-star players and nine three-star players. Rivals.com ranks this class outside their Top 50 (seventh in Big East) with no four-star players and 11 three-star players. Things will get shaken up tomorrow, and even in the course of the next few weeks, as some of the elite players announce their decisions.
So who are Syracuse's best recruits right now? Depends who you ask, but...
Ron Thompson, the tight end out of Michigan, is considered by many to be our best get as the heir apparent to Nick Provo. QB Ashton Broyld has been waiting a while to join the Orange and he'll finally do so this year after a season with Milford Academy. Defensive end Myles Hilliard was a huge late get out of Ohio while JUCO transfers Zian Jones and Mark Garrick are expected to make immediate impact. RB George Morris has turned some heads and could find himself in the SU backfield mix sooner than later.
And who are we hoping to hear good things about on Wednesday?
The biggest one is Wayne Morgan, a defensive back from Erasmus, NY. The ESPN four-star recruit is deciding between SU and UConn. The good news for us is that he enjoyed his visit to SU and he's a childhood friend of SU corner Brandon Reddish:
We’ve been wanting to play together since high school because we went to different schools. So we just want to go to the same school. We played Pop Warner together, and it’ll be great to play with him in college again. Brandon is one of the main reasons [I’m looking forward to coming to Syracuse]."
Next up is Josh Glanton, a Haines City, Florida linebacker who is deciding between SU and FIU. Had Mario Cristobal taken the Rutgers job, that might have officially shifted the race our way (or Rutgers), but alas. It's a battle of proximity (Florida) versus status (BCS confernece).
And then there's Julian Pinnix-Odrick, the No. 23 ranked defensive end prospect by Rivals, who is a "soft" verbal commit to play for the Rutgers football program but did make an official visit to Syracuse this past weekend. He's said to be "heavily" considering Syracuse now, though he may not make his decision until after National Signing Day.
Finally, JUCO defensive end Marcus Pierce Brewster was here as part of the recruiting weekend a few weeks back and the Orange are considered a decent shot at landing yet another big hoss lineman from Cali.
Scout also has a list of players who theoretically have offers and/or interest from SU and could commit tomorrow as well.
For general recruiting news, updates and pre-reading, here's some article to get you up to speed:
- SBN Recruiting guru Bud Elliott put together his list of the top 25 uncommitted players in the Class of 2012. The article was published on Friday, so some of these kids may have since committed.
- The incomparable Spencer Hall helps you not lose your mind when following along tomorrow.
- Bill Connelly takes a look at the stars debate, through the specific quarterback position. As expected, more stars = higher Passing S&P+ (a Football Outsiders stat line). Dr. Saturday also tackles the stars debate.
- John Garcia from Scout answered some Syracuse-specific questions a few weeks back.