Syracuse football recruiting: 4-star LB Lee Kpogba commits to Orange

While the Syracuse Orange on-field football product has been great this year, we haven’t necessarily seen the recruiting upswing to go with it... yet. But perhaps things are about to trend upward there.

Late on Tuesday night, four-star linebacker Lee Kpogba announced his commitment to Syracuse:

The Winston-Salem, N.C. product is 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds, and plays outside linebacker at Parkland High School. He was previously committed to West Virginia until he reversed course in early October. Kpogba took some visits to Mississippi State and UNC, as well as Syracuse (November 9 against Louisville), but the Orange showed him what he needed to see, apparently.

Rivals spoke to Kpogba’s high school Coach Martin Samek, and he shared some background as to why the standout linebacker chose Syracuse:

“When Lee went up for the visit I think he felt really comfortable with the coaches and he likes the way the program is going right now. It seems like Syracuse has turned a corner. I think he likes the fact that, even though he won’t be in North Carolina, he’ll actually play in North Carolina several times a year. They have a lot of things he was looking for, plus they can give him a very good education.”

Kpogba is a high three-star according to 247Sports’ composite, but for once we’ll ignore that rating in favor of the four-star mark he gets from Rivals. Among the long list of offers: Florida State, West Virginia, Duke, Maryland, Indiana, Tennessee, Purdue and most of the Mid-Atlantic G5 teams, too.

Adding the linebacker makes for 11 commits in the 2019 class, and seven on the defensive side of the football. He’s the second outside linebacker, joining Geoff Cantin (from Quebec City).

Excited we broke the silence on the recruiting front? Looking forward to making soccer references for the next 4-5 seasons? Share your recruiting HOT TAKES below...