Syracuse Football Recruiting: Ohio LB Armstrong Commits; New York LB Riggins Decomits

Following a visit to Syracuse this past week, two-star linebacker Andrew Armstrong has officially committed to the Orange. He made it official last night, while confirming this morning via Twitter.

Armstrong was originally committed to Bowling Green's old staff under Dino Babers, but decommitted after the mass exodus to SU. Other than BGSU, he also received offers from Cincinnati and Wake Forest (as well as SU, obviously).

Armstrong's currently a senior at Cardinal Mooney in Youngstown, Ohio, and is slated to play outside linebacker for the Orange once he arrives on campus. He's listed at 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds right now, according to Rivals. Armstrong is the second linebacker in the class of 2016, behind Kenneth Ruff, who's already arrived on campus.

"Second? But what about Taylor Riggins?" you're probably asking. Uhhh, about that...

Unfortunately, Riggins decommitted to Syracuse last night, per his Twitter feed.

Riggins, a two-star linebacker out of Rochester, had the same measurements as Armstrong and had been committed to SU for awhile (June). He also gave us an opportunity to trot out hundreds of potential Friday Night Lights jokes, which is perhaps the biggest crime of all of this. Riggins has three other offers right now, from UMass in the FBS, as well as FCS programs New Hampshire and Rhode Island, respectively. He was the only commit from New York state this cycle, leaving the Orange with zero in its home state and just one combined in the entire Northeast (New Jersey's Jamal Holloway).

Riggins is also the second linebacker decommitment since the Syracuse staff turned over, joining Dymelle Parker, who is getting interest from a lot of Big Ten schools but has yet to make his decision.

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There's certainly some hand-wringing to be had around being largely out of the Northeast, and I wouldn't blame fans for being a little concerned about that development. But the overall talent tradeoff between Armstrong and Riggins may end up being an upgrade if you compare the offers the two have respectively received. In any case, Armstrong is an athletic player with good hands (he also played receiver in high school), and could give SU some needed help in coverage from the linebacker spot.

That makes 13 players thus far in this 2016 class, after all the recent shifts in and out. Plenty more visits to go this month in the lead-up for National Signing Day, however. Babers and his staff have time to fill out the rest of the group before February.