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Message: [QUOTE="billsin01, post: 526835, member: 837"] 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. 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. [/QUOTE]

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