Top 2018 North Carolina lacrosse commit offered by Syracuse football

The lacrosse world has reveled in the recent success of Chris Hogan in the NFL. Hogan, a wide receiver with the New England Patriots (author note: GO PATS!), played lacrosse at Penn State before getting on the football field at Monmouth as a fifth year senior. However, there is another player who is gaining attention on both the football and lacrosse fields as a high school junior. Ricky Miezan is one of the top-rated lacrosse recruits for the class of 2018, but the North Carolina Tar Heels commit recently received his first football offer from the Syracuse Orange.

Miezan is rated as the No. 3 player in the 2018 class by Inside Lacrosse while Recruiting Rundown has him as the top player in the class.

Ty Xanders of RR had some great things to say about the midfielder:

“In many ways, Miezan was a no-brainer to overtake the No. 1 spot. He’s always passed the eye test with a 6’3, 220-pound build and remarkable athleticism reminiscent of a young Myles Jones. Looking less and less raw as time goes on, the Alexandria native has polished his game a noticeable amount over the past year to get to where he is, developing his ability as a feeder and on defense. Miezan put up 35 goals and seven assists last year, also standing out in soccer and track.”

If you are into lacrosse recruiting give Xanders a follow (@tyxanders). He runs RR and does a heck of a job following the recruiting movement and goes in depth with a lot of the high school players.

Miezan had offers all over the place for lacrosse, but his final decision came down to Virginia, Johns Hopkins, and UNC. He chose Carolina back in 2014, when he was a freshman.

Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Recently, early recruiting in the lacrosse world has come under fire with bans on early recruiting gaining steam amongst college coaches. This upcoming April, the NCAA Division I Board of Directors will decide whether or not to impose proposed legislation that would ban contact with recruits prior to September 1 of their junior year.

US Lacrosse Magazine ran an article a few days ago about former Maryland Terrapins commit Curtis Zappala and his decision to walk away from the game. Zappala committed to Maryland in the summer going into his sophomore year of high school.

It’s unclear whether or not Dino Babers would allow a student on his roster to be a two-sport athlete, but there is certainly precedent for that happening at Syracuse (Hi, Jim Brown). It would be interesting to know if John Desko had anything to do with this offer. Maybe he slipped a note under Babers door or asked Jim Boeheim to pass along a cryptic message.

Miezan would undoubtedly be a bigger net for the lacrosse team than the football team but the fact that he is getting looked at in both sports speaks to the junior’s athleticism.

Below is a current list of 2018 commitments to Syracuse lacrosse. There have already been some changes to this list including the de-commitment of midfielder Chase Scanlan who committed to Loyola. The list also includes recent commit Owen Hill (according to a Casey Vock tweet, but he is still listed everywhere else as an Albany commit), yes there is an Owen Hill and an Owen Hull.

If Miezan were to open up his recruitment that would be huge news, but there’s always the chance that Larry Fedora finds a spot open for him to be a dual athlete at UNC.