With National Signing Day upon us, it’s time to look back on the ups and downs of Syracuse’s 2016 recruiting cycle. Players that did not enroll for the spring semester can turn their verbal commitment official on Wednesday by signing paperwork to join the Orange.

Here are five things to know about Syracuse’s 2016 recruiting class.

The shakeup

Following head coach Dino Babers’ hiring, Syracuse’s 2016 recruiting class shook significantly. At the time of Scott Shafer’s firing, 16 players were committed to the Orange. None decommitted while SU was in search of a new coach, but after Dec. 5, when Babers took over, 11 players left the class. That number includes Sadiq Palmer, whose offer was pulled due to academics, and Taylor Riggins, who was reportedly told the new staff wouldn’t have a spot for him.

After Shafer was fired, members of the athletic department told recruits their commitments would be honored by the new staff, but that was only the case for certain players. Only five players who committed to Shafer are left in Syracuse’s current class — quarterback Rex Culpepper, athlete Moe Neal, safety Scoop Bradshaw, offensive lineman Sam Heckel and preferred walk-on quarterback Tyler Gilfus.

In a frantic effort to fill the class, the new coaching staff has picked up 17 verbal commitments in the past two months, including nine from players who visited SU during the weekend of Jan. 23. All nine were uncommitted when the visit began and within three days, each had verballed to Syracuse.

The rankings

Syracuse’s 2016 class is ranked as the 60th best in the country and 19 of SU’s 21 commits with scholarship offers are ranked with three stars, according to 247Sports.com’s composite rankings. That puts the Orange’s class second-to-last in the Atlantic Coast Conference, ahead of only Boston College.

The 5-foot-11, 160-pound Neal is the highest-rated player in the class. He chose SU on Aug. 1, 2015, and stuck with Syracuse despite the coaching change. In his senior year at Forestview (North Carolina) High School, Neal rushed for 1,381 yards on 251 carries and caught 27 passes for 519 yards, per MaxPreps.com. He has enrolled early and could play either running back or wide receiver.

The flips

Of the 17 players that originally committed to Babers’ staff, 13 were recently committed to another school. Two of those 13 — safety Evan Foster and linebacker Andrew Armstrong — were previously committed to Bowling Green, the school where Babers and six assistants previously coached.

At his introductory press conference, Babers said he wouldn’t pursue Bowling Green commits unless they first decommitted from BGSU. Both Foster and Armstrong opened their recruitments back up before choosing the Orange.

However, running back Jo-El Shaw and defensive end Kendall Coleman flipped from Western Michigan to Syracuse without ever decommitting. Running backs coach Mike Hart and defensive line coach Vinson Reynolds both previously coached at WMU before joining SU.

The geography

Babers also said on Dec. 7 that he would focus on local talent and prioritize players from New York. Syracuse only has one player in its 2016 class from New York, preferred walk-on quarterback Tyler Gilfus.

Riggins, who attends Aquinas (New York) Institute in Rochester, was the only other 2016 commit from New York.

In total, Syracuse has no commits from the states of New York or New Jersey and has just two from Pennsylvania. The Orange has picked up five commits from Florida in the Babers era.

“You need to start in your backyard,” Babers said. “We need to take care of the state of New York. We need to get over to New Jersey. We need to start to work near Philly, we need to shoot down that corridor to Pittsburgh, Chicago, Detroit, and then we got to hang down there and go back to Florida and cross our T’s and dot our I’s. But we’re always going to start close to home.”

Check out all the committed players here at the Daily Orange recruiting tracker.

Published on February 3, 2016 at 12:53 am

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