DE James Washington Commits to Syracuse, But No Big Fish Yet
D.A. | Jun 24, 2011 | Comments 6
Syracuse fans have been waiting desperately for The Dougie to land a big fish in recruiting, and some may view the commitment of James Washington that way. The Winter Park (FL) defensive end had offers from Purdue, Illinois and South Carolina. The Orange beating Big 10 and SEC schools to a kid must be a major coup, right? Not necessarily.
Look, SU adding a player who was respected by bigger football programs is always a positive. And The Fizz has forever banged the drum for Marrone and Co. to keep plucking those speedy athletes from Florida. We just can’t get too carried away that Washington’s commitment somehow is the turning point for the program’s recruiting battles.
The Post-Standard wrote: “With an offer sheet that features more than 20 schools and includes the likes of South Carolina, Boston College, Purdue, Illinois, Pittsburgh, West Virginia and Cincinnati, Washington is likely the most sought-after player the Orange has landed since Doug Marrone became head coach in December 2008.”
Well, is that actually true? Not that scouting services are the gospel, but Rivals has him ranked as a three-star commit, Scout has him listed at just two stars. While Central Florida produces plenty of high-grade talent, the Orlando Sentinel had him listed as just the 12th-best prospect in the area. Both Brandon Reddish and Max Beaulieu were more highly-regarded than that. And the timeline of his offers is intriguing.
From the Sentinel: “In April, Washington was wondering if he would even have a choice to make between colleges. He had offers from Duke and Cincinnati, but wasn’t hearing much from any other schools.
Florida International extended his fifth offer and from there, Washington could hardly keep up. Now he has 17 offers, including South Carolina, West Virginia, Illinois, Pittsburgh and Purdue, among others.”
So, it looks like he was hardly on the radar until the spring, but after the FIU offer teams flocked to him so they wouldn’t be left looking like whiffed completely. Washington even admitted he was concerned about the lack of attention.
“Kinda because I felt like I wasn’t working hard enough. But then when they started finally coming in, I felt kinda relieved and so then I started wanting to work harder.”
In fact, Washington admits he’s still not 100% sure he’s headed to Syracuse.
“I just wanted to make an early commitment. I’m going up there next week to visit and I just decided to commit early. Right now I’m like 85 percent committed because I want to see the campus, but they pretty much got me. I’m pretty sure I’ll fall in love with the school once I get up there.”
Picking up Washington’s commitment is a solid addition, certainly if he develops into a solid pass rusher. Services are not the end-all, be-all and getting in late on a kid is better than not getting in at all. But we shouldn’t misguide Syracuse fans into believing this was the big fish SU had been hoping to land all along, because that’s just not true.
Posted: D.A.
Filed Under: Featured • Recruiting
This is definitely a nice get as James is larger than the majority of LB’s we’ve brought in to date. The enjoyment of the signing however was considerably muted by Rutgers signing of Chris Muller. Who would have ever have imagined that Rutgers would out recruit Syracuse.
I seriously don’t understand how bat sh#t crazy Schiano does it. I mean we missed out on Quentin Gause who’s priority was to attend a school with a good broadcast journalism background.
Oh wait, that’s right I suppose it has to do with the fact that Tom Cruise’s locker room in, “All the right moves” was more refined than the current digs Syracuse is forced to operate in. Geez, I almost forgot, let’s also give some credit where credit is due to Greg Robinson for setting the program back a decade or so.
D.A. Why so down on a hot recruit? When has SU gotten so good that we can’t celebrate a 3 star Florida recruit with offers from:South carolina, West Virginia, Purdue, Vanderbilit,Pitt, Illinois, among 17 offers? That is SEC,Big Ten, and Big East… I agree, that I don’t think he is the most highly regarded recruit of the Marrone era(I think Max Beaulieu was),but he still is a good pick up for us and is a sign that our recruiting is light years ahead of the Grob years.
The big fish is coming, if not this year(I am hoping for Jarron Jones),
then it should happen next year…. but I like what I have seen out of Marrone since his first recruiting class, which he signed on such short notice: Look at the quality starters from that first group…. that showed me all I needed to see to know that Marrone could recruit. Go Cuse….
Check out the video of SU running back malcolm Thomas on Troy
Nunes website. Donovan is the QB, Check out the O line and the blocking, the running back is getting 10 yards thru the line of scrimmage before he is contacted….. What happened to those days…can we get back to that kind of O line domination?
I hate Rutgers…. She-ano just got a verbal from a 6-6 300 lb OT with offers from Florida, Michigan, Penn State, Wisconsin, Boston college, Tennesse, and a host of others. The Cuse did not offer him. I don’t understand why these kids all want to go to Rutgers… they seem to go and love the place, yet Rutgers stinks on the field. They must have some Awesome facilities, because their coach can’t coach a lick…..
yeah i got that as well Dr. Bill. Why is the article seem like it downplays this kid? I just got the feeling reading this article that nobody is happy with this prospect. correct me if i’m wrong???
Dr. Bill/OrangeCrush22 – I’m not down on Washington. Just wanted to clarify what type of recruit he is that’s all. When the PS says he’s maybe the most sought after recruit of the Marrone Era, that’s misleading. As I wrote, it’s def. a positive to get Washington and pluck more athletes from FLA, we just have to remember he’s a 2-star/3-star guy – not the game-changer we’re all hoping for. Hopefully that was clear in the post.
-DA