Class of 2022 OL Joe Cruz (NY) SIGNED NLI TO SYRACUSE (12/15/2021)

[AngryOtto]

Big for high school junior and good movement.
Also I like a kid that wants to come to su versus waiting for a better offer.

 

[tep624]

Not every recruit needs to be a a year 1 starting talent. 4 year program guys who start their junior/senior years or provide quality minutes in those years are also needed. This is the guy who gets stashed and helps us down the road. Also it's his acceptance thread...no need slam here. Welcome to Cuse!

I think the issue isn’t this particular recruit or taking sleepers. We take those in every class. The issue is how many higher profile kids we’ve already whiffed on. It gives the perception these are desperation moves instead of simply taking a high ceiling sleeper prospect. Whether that’s fair or not.

 

[kcsu]

If our OL coach who by all accounts is the real deal offered this kid based on a private workout I'm all in.

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

This is a typical NY OLineman that Coach P would’ve landed.

/ the type of OLineman Marrone sought out.

 

[crales44]

Good frame. Good feet. Good aggression. I like it.

 

[Ozone!]

Gotta love his potential and love for Cuse!

 

[cuse309]

I've heard we need to start locking down NY...here ya go.

 

[Orijinal]

Well, you can't argue with the kid's measurables. My goodness. That's one large boy

 

[ForCuseSake]

Yo Joe,

What's not to like about this - a large human with athleticism (in-state) from an area we've historically done well getting talent.

 

[orangencpolice]

You have to take a chance on a kid with his size. Especially since he is a New York Kid. With a little time in the program he may surprise many of us. Good luck Joe!

 

[Chip]

If I might complain about this recruit for a moment...

Having too many OL named Cruz will get confusing to me, as a fan.

Thanks for listening.

 

[Dcuse]

If I might complain about this recruit for a moment...

Having too many OL named Cruz will get confusing to me, as a fan.

Thanks for listening.

To follow up on this...if we have 11 guys on the field at a time that are productive as hell...I'm OK with all of them being named Cruz-1st, middle and last name.

 

[orangepassion]

If I might complain about this recruit for a moment...

Having too many OL named Cruz will get confusing to me, as a fan.

Thanks for listening.

That's actually our strategy for confusing the opponent in future years

 

[Noexcuse]

To follow up on this...if we have 11 guys on the field at a time that are productive as hell...I'm OK with all of them being named Cruz-1st, middle and last name.

Put the OL on Cruz control

 

[Dcuse]

Put the OL on Cruz control

They have been for like 15 years. Time to take the wheel and step on the gas!!!!

 

[RF2044]

I think the issue isn’t this particular recruit or taking sleepers. We take those in every class. The issue is how many higher profile kids we’ve already whiffed on. It gives the perception these are desperation moves instead of simply taking a high ceiling sleeper prospect. Whether that’s fair or not.

Really? Who has that perception? Fans who don't recognize that when you take recruits this early, during the summer, they aren't B or C listers?

What OL higher profile kids have we whiffed on for the class of 2022?

We missed out on an in-state QB that we liked -- that was a miss. Otherwise, this class is shaping up just fine. It's only knee jerk reactionary stuff from misinformed fans.

And Tep, I generally love your posts, so apologies for crossing swords with you like this. I just disagree in any way, shape, or form that this is a "desperation move." Completely the opposite.

 

[721Comstock]

Really? Who has that perception? Fans who don't recognize that when you take recruits this early, during the summer, they aren't B or C listers?

What OL higher profile kids have we whiffed on for the class of 2022?

We missed out on an in-state QB that we liked -- that was a miss. Otherwise, this class is shaping up just fine. It's only knee jerk reactionary stuff from misinformed fans.

And Tep, I generally love your posts, so apologies for crossing swords with you like this. I just disagree in any way, shape, or form that this is a "desperation move." Completely the opposite.

Agree with all of this, 144%.

I’m always a fan of guys the staff has gotten to see in person.
We’ve mined many, many gems over the years in this manner.

This young man seems to have all the necessary tools, and given that we shouldn’t need to see him on the field for 2-3 years, he’s a perfect guy to take for that sorta developmental role.

 

[PhatOrange]

Really? Who has that perception? Fans who don't recognize that when you take recruits this early, during the summer, they aren't B or C listers?

What OL higher profile kids have we whiffed on for the class of 2022?

We missed out on an in-state QB that we liked -- that was a miss. Otherwise, this class is shaping up just fine. It's only knee jerk reactionary stuff from misinformed fans.

And Tep, I generally love your posts, so apologies for crossing swords with you like this. I just disagree in any way, shape, or form that this is a "desperation move." Completely the opposite.

A couple of west coast OL dissed us but that should've been expected. I noted in the fine print with this kids' commitment they gave him a very short deadline to decide. I found that very interesting.

 

[tep624]

Really? Who has that perception? Fans who don't recognize that when you take recruits this early, during the summer, they aren't B or C listers?

What OL higher profile kids have we whiffed on for the class of 2022?

We missed out on an in-state QB that we liked -- that was a miss. Otherwise, this class is shaping up just fine. It's only knee jerk reactionary stuff from misinformed fans.

And Tep, I generally love your posts, so apologies for crossing swords with you like this. I just disagree in any way, shape, or form that this is a "desperation move." Completely the opposite.

Matt Fries and Laakea Kapoi are the two that immediately come to mind. Both were offered and both visited.

Maybe the other 8-10 NE OT's that were heavily recruited, that we offered, that didn't even give us a sniff?

Meanwhile Rutgers lands the #1 OT in NJ and a top 150 recruit. It's frustrating.

When you miss on guys that are committing to P5 schools and you follow it up with guys with offers from FCS and D2 schools it doesn't build confidence. I hope this is just due to Covid and not having camps but if it isn't...I've seen this band before and the show didn't go well.

 

[Chip]

To follow up on this...if we have 11 guys on the field at a time that are productive as hell...I'm OK with all of them being named Cruz-1st, middle and last name.

If we had 11 guys on the field named Cruz C. Cruz, we'd get a lot of much needed national attention. So yeah, I'm all for it.

 

[RF2044]

Matt Fries and Laakea Kapoi are the two that immediately come to mind. Both were offered and both visited.

Maybe the other 8-10 NE OT's that were heavily recruited, that we offered, that didn't even give us a sniff?

Meanwhile Rutgers lands the #1 OT in NJ and a top 150 recruit. It's frustrating.

When you miss on guys that are committing to P5 schools and you follow it up with guys with offers from FCS and D2 schools it doesn't build confidence. I' hope this is just due to Covid and not having camps but if it isn't...I've seen this band before and the show didn't go well.

We got surprised by Kapoi, and thought we had him.

RU is going to end up having that kid decommit, like 99% of their recruits have done in recent years.

Let's focus on Cruz for a minute. 6-6, 275, and athletic. We had him on campus. Hand wringing about us taking his commitment is chicken little garbage.

Want to know why? Because we've never recruited blue chip offensive linemen. Not even back during the "glory days" of the late 80s / early 90s. So, we need to bring in guys who have the right physical tools, and develop them -- which Cruz has. Now, that doesn't mean that Cruz will become the next Justin Pugh -- but he's got good physical tools to work with. And hopefully new OL coach Schmidt can get the job done with respect to player development, because we are never, ever, ever going to be a selector school with respect to OL.

But to complain when we land a decent prospect with a good foundation of physical tools -- doesn't make sense.

 

[SuFTW]

A couple of west coast OL dissed us but that should've been expected. I noted in the fine print with this kids' commitment they gave him a very short deadline to decide. I found that very interesting.

I missed it. Where is the fine print?

 

[tep624]

We got surprised by Kapoi, and thought we had him.

RU is going to end up having that kid decommit, like 99% of their recruits have done in recent years.

Let's focus on Cruz for a minute. 6-6, 275, and athletic. We had him on campus. Hand wringing about us taking his commitment is chicken little garbage.

Want to know why? Because we've never recruited blue chip offensive linemen. Not even back during the "glory days" of the late 80s / early 90s. So, we need to bring in guys who have the right physical tools, and develop them -- which Cruz has. Now, that doesn't mean that Cruz will become the next Justin Pugh -- but he's got good physical tools to work with. And hopefully new OL coach Schmidt can get the job done with respect to player development, because we are never, ever, ever going to be a selector school with respect to OL.

But to complain when we land a decent prospect with a good foundation of physical tools -- doesn't make sense.

I'm not going to get in some pissing match about something that can't be quantified until 2-3 years down the road. Maybe his egg hatches a chicken and maybe it's just an egg. Maybe he becomes Justin Pugh. Maybe he becomes Jon Burton, who also had fantastic measurables. You could say that about any recruit, at any position, irrespective of how heavily recruited they are or not. And landing blue chip recruits and recruiting blue chip recruits are two different things. We've always recruited blue chip lineman, we just do an atrocious job historically of landing them.

But what can be quantified is that, undeniably, we are now landing recruits who are very lightly recruited at positions where we were recruiting multiple heavier recruited prospects that we missed on. WR is the same situation. And who knows what the hell we're doing at QB now. 3 Positions that haven't exactly been strengths lately.

 

[TexanMark]

/ the type of OLineman Marrone sought out.

I thought Doug liked short armed stud OL

 

[RF2044]

I'm not going to get in some pissing match about something that can't be quantified until 2-3 years down the road. Maybe his egg hatches a chicken and maybe it's just an egg. Maybe he becomes Justin Pugh. Maybe he becomes Jon Burton, who also had fantastic measurables. You could say that about any recruit, at any position, irrespective of how heavily recruited they are or not. And landing blue chip recruits and recruiting blue chip recruits are two different things. We've always recruited blue chip lineman, we just do an atrocious job historically of landing them.

But what can be quantified is that, undeniably, we are now landing recruits who are very lightly recruited at positions where we were recruiting multiple heavier recruited prospects that we missed on. WR is the same situation. And who knows what the hell we're doing at QB now. 3 Positions that haven't exactly been strengths lately.

Then don't.

You're the one complaining about us landing a kid who has very solid physical measureables and athleticism. Others in this thread have already pointed out that he's underrecruited as a function of not having camps and the disruption to last year's season due to coronavirus.

If you want to complain about WR recruiting or QB recruiting -- there are threads for that. But there's no reason to overreact to the coaching staff landing a solid in-state prospect.

There's a big difference between landing a guy in the summer, right after he's been on campus and we've had a chance to evaluate him -- and taking a prospect in November because we've missed out on other recruits. The latter is a B or C lister. The summer guy is not.