Former Syracuse football commit Jo-El Shaw re-offered by Orange

Dino Babers’s first Syracuse Orange recruiting class in 2016 was a strong group, but it ended up missing out on a few players due to academic qualification issues.

One of those was the desperately-needed Jo-El Shaw, who could’ve served as the team’s power-running option last season when it really could’ve used one (SU averaged just 3.2 yards per carry).

Well, it seems that Shaw may end up making his way to Syracuse after all. According to Shaw’s Twitter post today, Babers and the Orange have re-extended an offer to the Pennsylvania running back.

Shaw is currently playing for the Lackawanna Community College Falcons, and is up to 235 pounds (he’s 6-foot-1). In 10 games at Lackawanna last year, he totaled 601 yards and seven touchdowns on the ground. He also caught three passes for 49 yards.

Back when he committed to SU, Shaw was a three-star prospect whom we flipped from Western Michigan after Vinson Reynolds and Mike Hart came over from the Broncos. An injury late in his high school career prevented the sorts of offers he would’ve otherwise received. Shaw held additional offers from Kansas, Temple and UMass.

If Shaw does join the Orange’s class of 2018, he’d be arriving in a much different backfield than he would have back in 2016. Syracuse had just two scholarship running backs on campus this spring -- Tyrone Perkins and Dontae Strickland -- and two more arrive this summer in Markenzy Pierre and Allen Stritzinger.

SU’s class of 2018 also includes two running back commits — Akeem Dixon and Jawhar Jordan Jr. -- both of whom committed in the last week.

It would be mildly surprising if Syracuse took three running backs in this cycle, unless a few of the players in the mix are eventually moving to the slot (Strickland, Jordan, someone else too?).