Syracuse Football Recruiting: DE Gus Cumberlander Has Orange in His "Top 5"

Eric White's Twitter activity is definitely noteworthy. When he follows a recruit, you know the Orange are making a big push for that player. Likewise, when he unfollows a recruit, the Orange are out of contention. So when he followed Cedar Grove High School defensive end Gus Cumberlander on Monday, many of us recruitniks took notice. The talented DE has offers from Oregon, Mississippi State, Georgia Tech, Virginia, Cal and Wisconsin, as well as the Orange.

(Ed note: Obligatory Cal joke goes here...)

According to his coach, Chris Hill, he has visits set up with Oregon and Mississippi State, but plans to visit the Orange along with teammate and SU verbal Chris Frederick. He's a January enrollee as well, which would greatly help him try to earn early playing time when Micah Robinson, Robert Welsh, and Donnie Simmons graduate after this season.

For our chances? I think it will be tough to lure a kid away from Oregon when he visits there next week. The best we can hope for is to get him on campus with his teammate and let our staff do what they do best. Gus's whole recruitment rests on what happens next week. If he leaves Nike U's campus without committing, we have a chance.

Let's go to the tape...

Gus is a very tall DE with a good frame. He reminds me a ton of Chandler Jones in high school, as athletically it appears they have the same skill set. He does a good job staying low, which is hard for someone of his size to do along the defensive line. He also has long, active arms and does a good job of using them for leverage and to escape from offensive linemen. I think he'll need to work on his strength and speed off the snap, but with a college strength and conditioning program the sky's the limit, and hopefully he can have a similar trajectory to Chan (with less injuries).