Syracuse football: James Pierre fails to qualify with NCAA

After a long, extended wait, the NCAA has ruled on incoming freshman defensive back James Pierre. Unfortunately, the Florida (Deerfield Beach) product has failed to qualify and will not join the Syracuse Orange football team this season.

As you may recall, the three-star talent was committed to North Carolina, but was denied admission, leading to him committing to SU. Worry started to build around Pierre’s arrival in August when he (along with JUCO transfer DB Michael Moore) had failed to arrive on campus when camp started. Concern ramped up even more when Moore failed to qualify this month.

Along with Moore and Jo-El Shaw, Pierre is the third incoming player this year to fail to arrive on campus. While that leaves some extra scholarships around for the class of 2017, it certainly creates a few holes as well. With several injuries in the secondary right now, Syracuse could have used the help from both Moore and Pierre this year. Shaw was supposed to be the lone “power” back for the Orange, who now will likely lean on Jordan Fredericks the most in short yardage.

Good luck to James (and Jo-El and Michael) on continuing their careers elsewhere for the time being. Perhaps we still end up seeing one or two of them in Orange down the road.