Syracuse Football Recruiting: Craig Watts Decommits from Wisconsin; Are Orange Back In It?

One-time Syracuse target Craig Watts, a four-star safety from St. Petersburg, Fla. (Admiral Farragut Academy) announced his de-commitment from Wisconsin on Friday, opening the floodgates for the large collection of suitors to get right back into the game. Watts met with Orange head coach Scott Shafer back in January, and had mentioned to Scout's Mike McAllister he thought very highly of the process (at the time). Though he committed to the Badgers in June, he headed to Colorado shortly after that and Scout's Benjamin Worgull notes his status with UW never seemed incredibly firm. He's currently ranked as the 22nd-best safety in the class of 2016 by Scout.

This could be the latest in a strange trend of Wisconsin de-commits giving Syracuse some serious consideration. The first was Jake Pickard, who ended up joining the 2015 class for the Orange after leaving the Badgers behind. This past Thursday, former UW commit Cycoby Burch confirmed to the Daily Orange that he'll be visiting Syracuse soon. And now Watts could add a third name to that list, should he allow SU to jump back into things in earnest.

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Like Burch, Watts is another target from the Central Florida (Tampa-St. Petersburg-Orlando) area. The Orange staff has been focusing pretty hard on the area this cycle, already landing Scoop Bradshaw and Red Culpepper from Plant High School in Tampa.

We'll see if Syracuse ends up back on Watts's radar in the coming months...