Get To Know Your Orange Man - #88 Jarrod West

Last year we counted down every SU football player from Chandler Jones (#99) to Phil Thomas (#1), as you can see here. Well both of those guys (and a few more in between) are gone and it's time to profile the entire 2012 Syracuse Orange football roster starting with the highest number and working out way down. Let's get to it...

Player: Jarrod West

Number: 88

Position: Wide Receiver

Year: Junior this fall

Height: 6-2

Weight: 204

Hometown: Bethlehem, PA

High School: Liberty HS, PA

2011 Status: West played in all 12 games for the Orange this season. His best game came against Toledo when he snagged two catches for 59 yards. Overall, a decent year for what was his first season after sitting out his entire freshman campaign with a foot injury. The official stats read 19 catches for 151 yards and one touchdown.

2012 Projections: West is among the walking wounded for Cuse but he enters this year in a similar position to his sophomore season: talented bunch ahead of him with far more experience. He looks to be the the third/fourth wideout on the field this year depending on when Alec Lemon comes back and the performance of Jeremiah Kobena. This could be a big year for West if the Orange passing game opens up and goes with multiple receiving packages. If not, expect the same numbers from last season.

How'd He Get Here? As documented in last year's GTKYOM, West was a Stanford boy until little things called grades got in the way. Marrone snagged him from other colleges like Cincy, Mizzou, Pitt, and Northwestern and before he attempted to become academically-eligible through Mercersburg Academy.

What did Scouts/Rivals Say? A lot actually, enough for 3 stars. Not a speed guy but still a downfield threat with great hands, kind of important for a wide receiver.

Runs very solid routes and can turn the defensive backs the wrong way, allowing him to separate from the defenders. Demonstrates the ability to tip toe the sideline on out and comeback routes in order to stay in bounds. A long strider with good speed, once he makes the reception.

Obviously, West has some major potential. The only issue is playing time because some guy named Marcus Sales is ahead of him.

Money Quote: Mr. West doesn't like to talk to the media (or the media doesn't want to talk to him). In fact, most people don't talk about Jarrod West a whole lot. But when someone does, it is usually Ryan Nassib saying how much he loves West.

That was big. We knew Jarrod [West] was going to play a big role for us this year. He was able to come up and make some big third down catches, and it’s been a long time waiting but we are really excited about it."

Links of Wonder: Jarrod's story has been covered from losing the Stanford scholarship to SU and his unfortunate incident back home with illegal substances. So here is the Max Preps profile on him, showing of more of what we all know: tons of potential that we'd like to see hit the field sooner rather than later.

What Does Marrone Think? From last year, but it does speak volumes if West wants to leapfrog Sales:

I think Jarrod West has been a little bit up and down at times. I think there are some good things. He has the ability to make plays. He can do some things well, but I think from a standpoint of consistency . . . he’s a young kid. He missed all of last year. He was very limited practice-wise in the spring, so he hasn’t been around us as much as if we were talking about a third-year player like Van Chew.

Interesting Nugget O'Intrest: West was a senior class officer at Liberty and was a tremendous athlete as seen below. According to SU, he is a good student working hard on a Political Science degree and was named to the 2011 Big East All-Academic Team. Who said student-athletes didn't exist?!

Let Us Get A Good Luck At You: I can't seem to find anything from the Syracuse-Toledo game except that extra point we don't speak of, so here is Jarrod dunking and showing off his skills. (Maybe he'll get a call from the Knicks for tonight!)

Jarrod West (via BethLibertybball)