Sometimes you build your program out of a mixture of local talent who want to represent their state and top recruits whom your staff has built a relationship with and convinced to take a chance on you.
And sometimes you build your program by stockpiling California Junior College players.
Sometimes I can't tell which one the Syracuse Orange are doing more of.
We learned on Sunday that Syracuse was considering bringing in East Los Angeles College's Christopher Clark on scholarship to bolster the receiving corps. Doing so would make him what I believe is the fifth-such player (possibly more) to take that route to SU.
Today, Dave Rahme expanded on this unknown quantity that had so impressed Greg Adkins that the invited the wideout across country to possibly play for us (assuming he qualifies). How does a guy who is unknown by the recruiting services, didn't play football until two years ago and finished third on his community college team in receptions end up with a scholarship?
Turns out, its the story of his entire football career.
"We didn’t recruit him out of high school," Mojarro said. "He ran track at Dorsey High School (in Los Angeles), a school that produces some pretty good Division I talent. He came out with a couple of kids we had recruited from there and was kind of like their ball boy, running around carrying their pads and stuff. Out of necessity we needed another wide receiver for our scout team and we knew he had run track and played a little football in high school."
"He is a 4.3 (second) 40 guy," Mojarro said. "A legitimate 4.3. He runs the 100 in the low 10s. And he knows how to control his speed. He runs crisp routes and can really accelerate out of the break. I’m telling you, he is really fast."
Sounds like Clark could be the deep-ball threat we've been missing, if not a fantastic weapon on kick returns. With the Quinta Funderburk situation up in the air and Marcus Sales remaining a possible question mark, we'll take all the wide receiving talent we can get.