Syracuse Commit Ben Lewis Is Going To Make Fans Giddy, Trust Us
D.A. | Jul 03, 2011 | Comments 16
Ben Lewis is Syracuse’s newest football commit, and interestingly he’s still so under the radar it’s difficult to find a breakdown from any of the major scouting services. It may not matter. Lewis has the size, he has the passion and according to those around him, a work ethic that’s off the charts. This kid has all the makings of a true fan favorite.
Friday afternoon, on his way back from a visit to Syracuse, Lewis committed to play for the Orange. The past month has been a fruitful one for SU, landing 13 players in over the course of June and now the first days of July. The 6-foot-2, 185-pound receiver caught 48 passes for 911 yards and 13 touchdowns for Middletown High in Maryland.
He earned second-team all-state honors and played both ways. As a defensive end for the Knights, Lewis had 73 tackles (52 solo) and eight sacks. His 40 time is clocked at just 4.56, which seemed to scare off some colleges. But who cares about a 40-yard dash when the kid has heart to go with those numbers?
Nearly 1,000 yards of offense? Guess he’s finding enough speed to blow past defensive backs. 13 touchdowns? He’s clearly beating his man to the end zone. Check out this profile from MDHigh.com.
“This is a kid who, when told he needed to add bulk, worked out twice a day in the weight room and changed his diet from McDonald’s to angus steaks. This is a kid who, when told he wasn’t fast enough, began working with personal speed coaches to bring his 40-yard dash time down in the 4.5-second range. This is a kid who, when told he had to play five different positions on offense and defense, shrugged and asked, ‘Can I play special teams, too?’ (For the record, he did. He returned 13 punts last year and played gunner on the coverage team.)”
Orange Nation should start salivating when reading this quote about Lewis: “He ran so hard, with an absolute reckless abandon. He just ran over people, and when he got hit he popped right up and ran back to the huddle. I was like, ‘Man, I wish I could coach this guy.’”
Love this kid already. Lewis might not have had a bright spotlight on him this recruiting season, but sounds like SU just picked up a terrific piece of the puzzle.
Posted: D.A.
Filed Under: FB Recruiting • Featured
Three,four years ago it was almost impossible to get a kid from Florida. Now when Coach Marrone and staff go out they are bringing kids in from MI,MD,NJ,PA,GA,FL, and keeping a lot of the NY kids at home. It’s only a matter of time before we start to penatrate and break the barriers that surround the upper echelon players and have them start coming to Syracuse.
Coach Marrone and his staff are doing just fine. I’m wondering what the next 14-15 recruits will be like! Do you think that there will be any surprises?
GO CUSE
So we should get excited about this not very highly touted recruit? Pick a side if the fence dude.
The kid sounds exciting. But we need the best NYS kids also. I’m quite sure they are out there. Its just that HCDM can’t talk them here or he’s not interested in them!!
Jameson44-
Not quite sure how this is a different side of the fence. Never said it was a huge recruiting win, just that the people around Lewis speak very highly of his intangibles – and that’s an exciting dynamic. Relax and enjoy the holiday weekend, brother.
DA
I agree with Jameson. You chastise our recruits in your article about the kid from Half Hollow Hills in Long Island who is the 2 star we shouldn’t be excited about but can’t wait for this fan favorite who works his tail off and isn’t rated? To play D1 ball isn’t that a requirement to work your tail off if your not the proverbial 4 or 5 star recruit???
I don’t know how many times I can make this point: It is called scouting. Doug Marrone and staff are evaluating the talent that they feel they need to help them win. I don’t know much about this Lewis kid and neither does anyone else posting on this site, but Rob Moore, who was an All Pro and played 10 + years in the NFL, evaluated this kid’s tape,worked him our personally at camp, and offered him a Scholarship. I trust his opinion and HCDM’s over a scouting service that (1) Has not even seen his tape and (2) have never sen the kid in person.
At the end of the day, HCDM and his staff, all have their collective butts on the line, and if they don’t win…….. ( don’t know how to evaluate and coach talent), they are out of jobs… so who has more at stake with these recruits: we the fans, the scouting services, or the Cuse staff? We just have to trust that they know what they are doing. Go Cuse……
I read this post everyday to see who & what is happening with the Syracuse Football program,and not once have I read anyone article chastising a recruit coming to Syracuse to play football. The article on Ben Lewis is telling me that the kid is a real hard worker,has speed and can catch the ball. It tell’s me that he is enthusiastic about the game and will play either side of the b all to help the program out. It also tells me that the kid has something that is needed to play the game. It’s called HEART.
I trust people like Coach Marrone,Tyrone Wheatly,Rob Moore in their decision making more than I trust any scouting organization because they all have played the game from Pop Warner through to the NFL.
I hope that the Fizz keeps on giving us all the information that they can about the players coming to Syracuse.
Coach Marrone and his staff are doing a good job with the recruits and the “FIZZ” is doing a good job reporting on them.
Either way you look at it, Ben Lewis is a welcomed addition to the team.
GO CUSE!
DA, my point is you questioned the recruits we’ve got for who we were beating to get to them “Vandy Akron etc..” and questioned the excitement that has been shown for these recruits saying our fan base consist of a bunch of “pom pom waivers” becuase we are not getting on Marrone for not landing the elite recruit in one article then tell us we are gonna be giddy about a kid know one has ever heard of… Makes you sound like a hack when you write your articles from whatever side of the fence is most convienent for you at that time. It’s not that Marrone can do no wrong it’s that he’s winning with what he was left with and what he’s been getting ie 2 3 stars and if he continues with that then the 4 star kids will start coming. Robinson couldn’t win with Bama’s roster, Coach P’s last few years were an embarrassment and your obsession with the elite recruit is getting old. Ishaq is gone get over it Perkins was waiting for ND so it’s not a surprise when they offered he jumped on
it and Kelley is elite in name only and we’ll be just fine without him. Enjoy your holiday weekend too bub
I agree with Jameson and MC. I don’t know what is going on with this recent articles D.A. lets look at the timeline of recent articles.
The article on Washington pretty much stated that “he is no big fish of a recruit for ‘Cuse.” The kid was getting looks and offers from SEC, Big 10, Big East schools, etc. Listed as a 2/3 star player. Nothing in that article talked about his potential/work ethic/excitement, it mainly played the devils advocate to a positive article that the PS wrote about him and what a strong recruit he could be for the ’12 class.
Macfarlane and Emerich were also downplayed later that week, which both were rated 2/3 star recruits and had other BCS offers, not to mention, Macfarlane was a big time, in-state recruit. The article questioned how “excited” we should be as fans.
Now on to Ben Lewis. Lewis is NR in the star system and had an offer from Towson and some interest from UCONN and East Carolina, not to mention a few D1-AA schools. Yet you find away to talk about his “heart” and how we should be excited.
Bottomline, i’m excited for all the recruits we are going to get because i feel this coaching staff will make these under-the-radar players into 4-5 star college athletes.
Lets just find a way to put a positive spin on to the players who want to be part of our program.
The Fizz better
This is all really funny. We have DA over here trying to give us good info and be positive about the program, yet readers always criticize stuff just for the sake of it. If you dont want good up to the minute articles on SU sports, take yourself elsewhere. Thanks DA for all the info, love hearing about these new recruits. Fizz has been on a roll recently.
Jameson- quit whining. Sounds like you belong on the Post Standard website with those complainers.
No one is complaining about the quality of information “The Fizz” is providing. This website does a great job of giving fans good, free information about recruits. I think people are just finding it interesting how less than a week ago there is a post “How excited should Cuse fans be about Davante McFarlane’s commitment” basically saying he can’t believe that people are excited and not up in arms that we just signed another proverbial 3 star recruit. Then within the same week we should all be on the edge of our seat because we signed a receiver who works really hard but only had an offer from Towson. Jameson’s not whining and neither am I. We’re just pointing out an obvious contradiction.
I agree with Jameson and MC. Yes, we love to hear about recruits, but you guys surely have thin skin when it comes to anybody calling you out.
Kevin, MC, thanks you sound like intelligent sensible people.
Evan your an idiot and need a friend.
DA love the site love most of the articles just felt you put your foot in your mouth with these two
Jameson- appreciate what you got, kid. DA and Fizz team works hard to provide info and inform SU fans of recruits. He just wrote an article about how we should be excited about this recruit, yet you relate it to other stuff hes written and complain.
Ya your 24 and saying how I am an idiot and need a friend on an SU blog. Keep it up kid!
Obviously, I love the feedback. That’s why I run the Fizz. It’s certainly not to get rich. I love having a forum for SU fans to debate this kind of stuff. But the idea that I’m playing two sides of the fence is beyond me. Washington signs – PS calls him the most sought after recruit of Marrone’s tenure – I clarified that wasn’t the case. I’ve often stated beating MAC and Sun Belt schools to recruits is not reason for excitement for me personally, but you’re obviously free to believe what you want. You don’t have to agree with everything I write. Hell, I hope you don’t – it means we have critical thinking and not mindless following. On Lewis, I’m not excited about beating D-1AA schools to him – I’m excited because every piece I read on him, I hear about all of these great qualities he has. I’d say the same thing about Washington if he was talked about in those terms. The pieces on the Fizz are not meant to tell you how to think – merely state what I think. And I definitely appreciate Evan and Rob giving the site props, because we do work hard at it every day. It’s basically another full-time job for me, but without the pay. But I love it, because I love to hear the thoughts of fellow SU fans. So keep them coming – but hot damn, just remember that I’ll never be a blind follower of SU because I have a degree from there. I hope that my staff and our readers all have individual thoughts on everything – not one sweeping belief system. Keep rocking the Fizz – we love ya!
DA
Dear da, I’m not trying to soumd impatient, just merely curious and interested on how you would weigh in on the most recent slew of players, if you could please post an article on them. Love this cite, keep up the good work, and go cuse!