SU Signing Day Report | Page 2 | Syracusefan.com

SU Signing Day Report

Thanks, Tom. As usual your analysis is amazing. With the defections, it is hard to get excited about this class, but there certainly seems to be a lot of opportunity for positive surprises among these young men.
Your comparison to of SS to Coach Ben is interesting. I hadn't thought of it, but I think you are spot on.
 
Thanks, Tom, for the good reports. Almost as good as being there . . .
 
Great report and thread Tom. Most likely they now need to get their collective heads together to answer some of those questions that posters asked in this thread. Most of these coaches haven't seen the young men play who will be their charges. In time we will learn the answers this staff has and more.
 
What's the knock on Batten? There has to be something because how they heck could he not be recruited by every major power down South?
 
Tom - awesome report, thank you.

A couple of additional player comments I picked up from the press conference:

Josh Kirkland – they were watching film on other players at Butler CC and while watching these tapes they couldn’t help but notice another kid kept making plays all over the field. That kid was Kirkland. So they went out to Butler and actually watched him practice in person. They believe they’ve got a steal here.

Marquez Hodge – they were down in Florida this past May scouting when they noticed Marquez. Watched him play in person. Loved him. Ran a 48 sec 400m which Shafer said is flying.

Isaiah Johnson – they invited him up to the Maritime camp and didn’t think he was going to be there because of bad traffic. Shafer said he was watching the d-lineman and left the drill. Went to watch DB’s or something. Came back and notice some new kid just blowing by people. The new kid was Johnson. He seemed thrilled. They knew they wanted to offer him and the impression I got was the camp sealed the deal – sounds like they were really impressed with this kid.

Corey Winfield – Said when you see him run he looks slow but is actually pulling away from people. He’s a glider. They seemed to really like the prospects of Corey’s play making ability. Said his vertical is the highest he’s ever seen outside of Rob Moore’s.


McDonald notes:

Said he needs to communicate on Twitter, Facebook or Skype because that’s how the kids communicate nowadays. Made an interesting comment about twitter – to paraphrase – “to get the fans engaged” in the program. Obviously, that is exactly what happened. Look at how engaged we became over his twitter feed. Great job by him. The man gets it.

Thoughts:

***Seems like this event could get back to the old days with Coach P. When Shafer mentioned several times to “go watch the film” I thought it would be really awesome if he qued up some film and showed the people in attendance just what he was talking about. Break down some of the film and point out things they like about it – like Estime at CB. Is it because he reads plays and jumps routes or does he have great hips and is able to turn and run with ease?
 
Great question. I know from my amateur eyes I cant see anything.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2
 
Thanks Tom, great job. Thanks to those who also attended and offered additional info. You guys are great.

I am encouraged by the OC comments that teh offense will not change much. I understand running more than last season with a new QB and WR corp, but he plans to keep the tempo up. Leaves me with the impression that the door is still open to open up a game if the QB/receivers can gel.

Love the idea a punishing defense. Many teams underestimate the Orange because our recent past but conveniently ignore that big name teams comment on how hard we hit. Clemson and FSU are in for a rude awakening. They have deeper talent, but our guys will scrap and punish and be in a position to pull off upsets. No, I'm not expecting 10 wins, but I am expecting to be in most of the games and not be blown out.
 
sutomcat said:
Batten

Can play on both sides of the ball, George really wants him for offense. Very fast, ran a 48 second 400m in HS. SS thinks he can get to 250 pounds and still run like they want him too.
Expand...

Interesting on Batten. If his frame is 250-ish I would think he'd be destined for the defensive side of the ball. Seems an ideal weight for a really good athlete with speed to play defensive end.

sutomcat said:
Marqez Hodge

Said he was an Army kid, so he was more disciplined and responsible than most kids his age. Said he is less than 6 feet tall and people say he is too small to play at this level and that this kid is really tough, he loves him and that he is going to prove all the doubters wrong. He is just going to play his ass off the whole time he is here.

Isaiah Johnson

Said he is a really good athlete, much better than he realizes right now, another big kid that can really run, hasn't been playing for long but has tremendous potential.

Kendall Moore

Said Moore is an amazing athlete who runs like a WR but has the big frame that allows a lot of growth. Really young, has a world of talent. Said he has taken 3 or 4 players from Kendall's neighborhood and that all of them worked out great. Also said Kendall's mom is a great lady he really respects.

Chauncey Scissum

Has been coming to the SU camp since he was a frosh. Scott has been following his all along, likes him a lot and the first thing he did once he was named HC was to call Scissum and offer him a scholarship (so he and DM disagreed on him). Says he was underrecruited because he played QB in HS to help his team but he is fast, strong and has a build where he is going to continue to fill out through his college years. Says he will start as a CB but will grow into a safety and maybe even a LB.
Expand...

I know this class isn't highly rated and everyone is excited about the potential of this staff bringing in a top 30 class or something next season, but I think the bolded statements about underscore three things about Syracuse football recruiting:

1) These types of kids -- that is to say kids that are maybe new to football (Johnson), or athletic but young and raw (Moore), or not the NFL prototype size-wise (Hodge), or fell through the cracks a bit by playing out of position for a school that's not exactly a football factory, etc. -- are still the lifeblood of this program. And before everyone accuses me of selling us short, it's simply a matter of playing at a private school in the northeast, in upstate NY, without a massive slush fund for athletic facilities and coaching salaries, etc. Whether we pull in a few four star kids or not next season or the year after, we need to continue finding the types of kids listed above.

2) The importance of development -- taking athletes and making them football players is, IMO, of far greater importance than beating out a couple of big boys for one gus edwards and one ogundeko every year.

3) There's absolutely no reason kids like these above can't become not only good players, but absolute studs some of whom may go on to have excellent NFL careers. Off the top of my head, Morlon Greenwood had played football for like two years, right? Kyle Johnson had a bad knee injury and lost a lot of offers b/c of it, IIRC. Keith Bullock was a fairly lightly regarded safety from LI, I believe, who became an animal at MLB. Mark Baniewicz came in as a lightly regarded TE, I believe, and left as an NFL tackle.

Other guys become really good college players even if the NFL is not necessarily in the cards. Derrell Smith may not be an NFL guy but he literally had no other legit offers (unless you count Delaware) and was the ultimate "b lister" (term I hate), who developed into an excellent MLB. Dee Brown played a bit in the league but came in as an unknown at QB and became a really, really good RB (I won't mention the NC State game). Nate Hemsley came in as a safety and developed into a really productive LB.

Anyway, the point is, there are plenty of kids who don't get much pub or as many stars b/c they live in the wrong geography, or don't have the ideal measurables, or don't have much polish on their games. They can still end up being really, really, really good players. I like this group, particularly given all the stuff that happened in January.
 
PhatOrange said:
Tom - awesome report, thank you.

A couple of additional player comments I picked up from the press conference:

Josh Kirkland – they were watching film on other players at Butler CC and while watching these tapes they couldn’t help but notice another kid kept making plays all over the field. That kid was Kirkland. So they went out to Butler and actually watched him practice in person. They believe they’ve got a steal here.

Marquez Hodge – they were down in Florida this past May scouting when they noticed Marquez. Watched him play in person. Loved him. Ran a 48 sec 400m which Shafer said is flying.

Isaiah Johnson – they invited him up to the Maritime camp and didn’t think he was going to be there because of bad traffic. Shafer said he was watching the d-lineman and left the drill. Went to watch DB’s or something. Came back and notice some new kid just blowing by people. The new kid was Johnson. He seemed thrilled. They knew they wanted to offer him and the impression I got was the camp sealed the deal – sounds like they were really impressed with this kid.

Corey Winfield – Said when you see him run he looks slow but is actually pulling away from people. He’s a glider. They seemed to really like the prospects of Corey’s play making ability. Said his vertical is the highest he’s ever seen outside of Rob Moore’s.


McDonald notes:

Said he needs to communicate on Twitter, Facebook or Skype because that’s how the kids communicate nowadays. Made an interesting comment about twitter – to paraphrase – “to get the fans engaged” in the program. Obviously, that is exactly what happened. Look at how engaged we became over his twitter feed. Great job by him. The man gets it.

Thoughts:

***Seems like this event could get back to the old days with Coach P. When Shafer mentioned several times to “go watch the film” I thought it would be really awesome if he qued up some film and showed the people in attendance just what he was talking about. Break down some of the film and point out things they like about it – like Estime at CB. Is it because he reads plays and jumps routes or does he have great hips and is able to turn and run with ease?
Expand...


Nice job Phat! I'm really intrigued by Kirkland too, but the suathletics website is listing him at like 190lbs?? He's gonna need some time in the weight room this spring!
 
jr4750 said:
Nice job Phat! I'm really intrigued by Kirkland too, but the suathletics website is listing him at like 190lbs?? He's gonna need some time in the weight room this spring!
Expand...

suathletics has Kirkland at 6-3 215. Shafer said he fell in love with him after watching practice and called him a “country strong kid”.


look at his neck

xsmall_Kirkland,_Josh.jpg


Paired with Luke Arcineaga (who Shaf said was 250/255 pounds)

xsmall_Arciniega,_Luke.jpg
 
One additional note on Kendall Moore.

Shafer said after watching they tape they were surprised he was still available. Questioned maybe he wasn’t that tall. Got him in on the visit and there was no doubt how tall he was. Shafer was “looking up at him”, they have him listed at 6-5 but might actually be taller. Which means he probably is taller because they weigh and measure these kids on their visits.
 
PhatOrange said:
Tom - awesome report, thank you.

A couple of additional player comments I picked up from the press conference:



Isaiah Johnson – they invited him up to the Maritime camp and didn’t think he was going to be there because of bad traffic. Shafer said he was watching the d-lineman and left the drill. Went to watch DB’s or something. Came back and notice some new kid just blowing by people. The new kid was Johnson. He seemed thrilled. They knew they wanted to offer him and the impression I got was the camp sealed the deal – sounds like they were really impressed with this kid.




McDonald notes:

Said he needs to communicate on Twitter, Facebook or Skype because that’s how the kids communicate nowadays. Made an interesting comment about twitter – to paraphrase – “to get the fans engaged” in the program. Obviously, that is exactly what happened. Look at how engaged we became over his twitter feed. Great job by him. The man gets it.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

On Isaiah -- Johnson was late as you said and didn't even have time to warm up. He just joined right in when they were doing OL vs. DL drills and "absolutely blew up" a kid who had been dominating the competition before Johnson showed up. That was when Shafer asked Daoust who the hell the kid was. They offered him before he got back in his car.

On McDonald and Social Media -- I specifically wanted to meet him last night for exactly that reason and to tell him how refreshing it was to have a coach on staff that "gets it" and embraces technology. He reiterated what you said about reaching the kids that way and great way to interact with fans. We also discussed briefly how he needs to get more of the coaches active now. There are some holdouts he said, but he will get them there.
Expand...
 
PhatOrange said:
suathletics has Kirkland at 6-3 215. Shafer said he fell in love with him after watching practice and called him a “country strong kid”.


look at his neck

xsmall_Kirkland,_Josh.jpg


Paired with Luke Arcineaga (who Shaf said was 250/255 pounds)

xsmall_Arciniega,_Luke.jpg
Expand...

Weird, I could swear I saw 190lbs.

edit: now I remember, he was listed at 6'3 195lbs on the SU Football FB page... Obviously they don't know what they are talking about!
 
One additional note on Kendall Moore.

Shafer said after watching the tape they were surprised he was still available. Questioned maybe he wasn’t that tall. Got him in on the visit and there was no doubt how tall he was. Shafer was “looking up at him”, they have him listed at 6-5 but might actually be taller.

Which means he probably is taller because they weigh and measure these kids on their visits.


One other general recruiting mention from Shafer:

Shafer said they did a good job adding what he called ‘middle weight body guys’. He said paraphrasing “middle weight body guys” are essential to special team success.
 
One question for Tom or DC who were in attendance. Give me your best guess at which head coach position he turned down a month ago?
 
PhatOrange said:
One question for Tom or DC who were in attendance. Give me your best guess at which head coach position he turned down a month ago?
Expand...

I had heard rumors that it was Western Michigan, but not from last night.
 
I know he interviewed for the WMU job. I have to assume that's the one he turned down.
 
Thanks for the summary, the insights, and the back stories.

I've always enjoyed listening to Shafer speak, and I was always a little disappointed that he wasn't interviewed on camera more often. Then he goes and quotes Wooden at his introduction saying he would be quick hiring his staff but he wouldn't hurry! Love it.

Shafer seems authentic to me, and his values seem rock solid. When he spoke yesterday about facilities I agree with him all the way. Shiny and new facilities have a nice vibe and they are important, but people come first and relationships come first because football is a people business. Developing quality relationships is the first priority as the program and the school work to make important improvements to the house.

I like this class, and I'm impressed with what the new staff was able to accomplish both keeping kids and landing some new kids. Good to know that Wilson and Kimble are gym rats. At the QB position in college I want guys who lead by example.

Also, I enjoyed Shafer's thinking when he was asked about whether he was surprised on signing day. He spoke about some of the indicators that may or may not mean anything about what a recruit is thinking, and then he ended up saying if you analyze that stuff too much you end up making yourself insane. HCSS seems grounded, and he always has seemed that way. I'm excited to see the product he puts on the field!

I laughed when Shafer mentioned that until this recruiting class he's never met an offensive lineman who could play golf.
 
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