Syracuse recruiting: Orange add preferred walk-on RB Luke Erickson

The Syracuse Orange have found some diamonds in the rough in the form of preferred walk-ons in recent years. Perhaps they’ve found yet another in the latest recruit added for 2017. On Tuesday afternoon, Greene High School (in Greene, N.Y.) announced that he’d be walking on at SU this fall.

Erickson, who’s 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds, was on the NYSSWA Class D All-State Team for 2016. As a senior, he ran for 811 yards and added 11 touchdowns on the ground before getting injured. During his junior year, however, he ran for 1,318 yards and scored 15 TDs. He played defense last year too, and collected 42 tackles (and two sacks). A full rundown of his stats, for those interested. Erickson also played a bit of basketball earlier in his high school career.

Once he gets to campus this summer, Erickson will join a pretty crowded backfield -- including fellow preferred walk-on running back Otto Zaccardo. Some of the other walk-ons you’ll see on the 2017 roster include Jeff Chan, Austin Chandler, Jesse Conners, Kevin Nusdeo (among others) -- and those are just the new guys for this coming season.

Welcome aboard, Luke. May you follow in the footsteps of walk-ons-turned-scholarship-players before you.