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Syracuse Football Recruiting: 3-Star QB Rex Culpepper Verbals Orange

On paper, Syracuse's 2016 offensive backfield is looking pretty damn good.

By Sean Keeley

A day after Scott Shafer said he'd leave the door open for the possibility of adding more quarterbacks, he landed another quarterback. Of course, he meant it in terms of transfers, but, if 2016 recruit Rex Culpepper is as good as the hype, we won't have to worry much about somebody else's leftovers.

The Plant High School (Tampa, FL) recruit verballed to play for the Syracuse Orange during an unofficial visit to the campus Tuesday. You can credit Tim Lester, who was the main point of contact, with getting Culpepper excited about SU and making the move.

Culpepper is rated three stars by 24/7, ESPN, Rivals and Scout. Scout has him as the sixth-best quarterback out of Florida, 24/7 says he's the 26-best pro-style QB in the class, ESPN thinks he's the 17th-best QB in the class and Rivals thinks he's the 15th-best QB in the 2016 crop.

Depending on who you ask, Culpepper had offers from Clemson, Ohio State, Florida, Miami, Mississippi State, Virginia Tech, West Virginia and more. So just going by the company you keep, it's a huge get for the Orange. Especially when you consider that he'll be coming to SU as part of the same backfield that will include RB Robert Washington.

Curious note of interest that may or may mean anything at some point...his mother, Monica Culpepper, was a contestant on Survivor. His father, Brad Culpepper, was a defensive tackle for the Florida Gators who played for nine years in the NFL. He too was on Survivor for one season. Point is, we're going to make a lot of Survivor puns.

So what kind of quarterback is Syracuse getting in 6'2", 230-pound Culpepper? Scout got a first-hand look last year and liked what they saw. Able to run and create on his own, Rex also could air it out, showing off strength and nice touch. More recently, Scout praised his overall strength, leadership and smarts, while raising concerns about his short passing game. It's a curious issue for the Orange, considering recent years have been all about the short passing game with little to no long attack.

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