Size, Speed, Smarts: Syracuse Nabs Shafer’s First Verbal in Corey Winfield
D.A. | Jan 23, 2013 | Comments 18
Scott Shafer just closed his first deal. Syracuse lands its first verbal commitment of the new era, with St. Louis wideout Corey Winfield. What does he bring? Size, he’s listed at 6’2″, 185 (although many places have him at 6’1″). Speed, he’s been clocked at 4.47 in the 40. Smarts, he carries a 3.5 GPA. Winfield had committed to Northern Illinois in July, but Shafer made an in-home visit just days ago and made the switch happen.
On the surface, you might think SU should always beat a team from the MAC. But after the magical Orange Bowl season the Huskies had, nabbing an NIU commit isn’t a lock. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch named him one of the best wide receivers in the state, and a top 20 recruit in St. Louis. Keep in mind, there’s some excellent talent that comes out of the Show Me (Blaine Gabbart, Jeremy Maclin, Dorial Green-Beckham).
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Scout.com rates Winfield as a two-star recruit, while Rivals gave him three. With George McDonald taking over the offense, hopefully it draws a higher level of skill position players. The backfield is excellent and deep already, but play-makers on the outside are lacking. Winfield also had offers from Purdue, Ball State, Western Kentucky, Wyoming, Arkansas State and Miami-Ohio. He also drew interest early on from Wisconsin.
Last year the Post-Dispatch covered his performance at the Elite Football Combine at Rams Park:
“Winfield was among the top performers in several categories, including the 40-yard dash and L-cone drill (6.75). He turned in the combine’s best mark in the vertical leap (39½) as well as the broad jump (10-4).
Winfield already had an impressive highlight film on YouTube that had garnered some attention. As a result of putting that together with his performance at the combine, he has seen increased attention from college coaches throughout the Midwest – including his first offer.”
While there’s ample concern about how the new staff will hold on to the strong pipelines the previous staff built in New York City, here’s an area where Shafer’s contacts helped. He was the defensive coordinator at Northern Illinois from 1996 to 2003, and recruited the surrounding states. St. Louis is about a four-hour drive from the NIU campus.
Winfield becomes the 15th commit for SU’s Class of 2013 with just two weeks to go until National Signing Day. He took an official visit to the Hill this past weekend, but would not commit until his family met with Shafer. The new head coach flew there on Tuesday, and locked it up.
It’s safe to say Winfield would not have been anywhere near the Orange had Doug Marrone stayed. While SU may lose players like Laray Smith and Gus Edwards, the good news is Shafer is paying his own dividends at a critical time.
Posted: D.A.
Filed Under: FB Recruiting • Featured
D.A.;
I believe that the new coaching staff is better/stronger than the one that just left. Coach Shafer is a straight to the point when discussing a point of view. I don’t think that he believes in political correctness and will tell you to your face just how wrong your are at any given time.
He’s put together what I call a “blue collar” staff that is going to work hard on getting good recruits and in my opinion will win over the respect of the “blue collar” working folks in the upstate area.
This morning reading an article on the Syr.com web site,that we have 6 recruits already attending class at Syracuse University and will participate in spring ball. After reading all of the articles on recruits changing their minds and going to “soft verbals”,I came to the conclusion that everyone was leaving and following Coach Marrone to other destinations. I guess the people who was doing the reporting didn’t know what they were talking about.
I’m looking forwards to the Spring Scrimmage Football Game and meeting the coaching staff. I hope all that has been written about this new staff is true,that they all share the same goals and have just as much intensity and enthusiasm as Coach Shafer.
The future looks bright for Syracuse,real bright.
Go Cuse;
Ronette congratulations you finally made sense!! The soft verbals are what they are. And yes not all are flipping. Others are just playing the “woe is me” game. And that shows what their real charactor is!! HCSS is picking up the dougie pieces and molding his team. Give him a chance to do that. I’m in his corner. The only thing bothersome to me is trying to change a recruits mind from one school to SU. I know it would pissed me off if someone did that to SU!! I guess that’s recruiting, but that method just stinks to me!!
I agree terry though this looks like a god pickup as well as o Korn (would be) I feel that Lea will be able to grasp carter and hodge if he wants them and same with smith on Edwards after Allen left I thought this class was done looks like he will be the only one and will be the only non benefiter because of that
Based upon that work out shirt, if Mizzou offers the kid he’s gone.
It does suck for the school that a kid flips from, but I’m glad we’re on the winning end of some of these things.
I’m very optimistic about this staff as well, and think they have the potential to take this team to the next level, perhaps one that even Marrone couldn’t bring it to, but we haven’t seen them do anything yet, so we’ll have to wait until spring ball to get our first glimpse. We probably really won’t know until next Fall though.
Geographically, I think we now have a staff that can recruit from a much broader talent pool than we’ve had in a very long time, maybe ever. Even Coach Mac and Coach P recruited mostly regionally. If we can continue to win battles in NY, keep our pipelines in PA and FL, and keep branching out to other recruiting hotbeds, this staff might just bring in the best talent we’ve seen in years.
It’s going to be very exciting to watch this new staff and team develop.
Go Cuse!
I have to say that I love the selection of Scott Shafer as head coach as well as his selection of assistants so far. The staff is young,but accomplished and this will appeal to recruits. Mcdonald has a rep. as a top notch national recruiter(Top 25 according to Scout) and coached at Miami, which means he has those valuable florida connections that we will need going into the ACC. We have already established a Georgia presence that we need to continue and our reputation has already been enhanced in NYC…and a guy like Rob Moore can continue that. I like where we are right now!!!! With this staff, we have a chance to keep rising!!!!! Stop with the gloom and Doom…Marrone left and took all the great coaches with him…Blah ..blah…blah. Good for Doug, he served us well, wish him luck in his new venture….Now, let’s go Cuse!!!!!!!
Let me state this first, I really was a huge Marrone fan from day one. I drank the dream job Kool-Aid each day for four years -even in 2011.
That said, I never got the feeling that King Doug was this great recruiter. Yes, Anselmo got us back on the map in NYC without question but FWIW, none of our classes under HCDM were rated all that highly (towards the bottom of Big East rankings – I understand it is an imperfect science but lets assume it is directionally accurate).
Yes, Marrone could coach up players…look at Nasib, Pugh, Lemon…each a two-star GROB recruit. However….over the medium-term, it seems like that this staff has way more recruiting upside than Mr. Buffalo Bills’ staff had…
Not only does it appear that the kid has great work ethic and smarts but he blocks down field. That tells you that he is team oriented. Also love that he uses his superb athletic ability to get the ball at it’s highest point.
This kid is a huge get and only the start of things to come. Loving HCSS prowess out there! Missouri no less!
I agree with jtcuse44, I to drank the kool aide with Marrone. I love what I have been reading regarding who this staff is going after. If we can keep Smith and Edwards that would be awesome. NYC boys stay with the other NYC boys and play for the cuse. I think McDonald could end up being the best recruiter we have had in a long time. We do need some pipe line to NYC as that was one of GROBS biggest issues. Hoping the next named assistant has some ties to NYC/Long Island.
The #1 WR in the state of Missouri. Not too shabby at all for openers. Now let us hope the rest of the haul is as good. He sure is a leaping lizard.
i’m behind this coach and trust him with his recruiting ability. i saw the film and felt this kid is a good player. go orange
Is it just me that finds this recruiting business a little funny and weird? We get a new coaching staff at Syracuse and all of a sudden we start hearing about recruits like (WR)Corey Cooper from Raleigh NC, (ATH)Chauncey Scissum from Henrietta NY, (QB)Mitch Kimble from Jerseyville ILL,and (OT) Kendall Moore from Chicago ILL. We get the #1 WR Corey Winfield out of Missouri. My question is this,why are we only now getting to read and hear about these players this late in the game? Didn’t the last coaching staff look at any of these recruits? If not,then why not? Now don’t get me wrong,if other colleges are looking at these players,then it’s only right that we do also. Is there going to be any other surprises coming forward that we don’t know about?
Syracuse has entered a new territory in recruiting, We are now in the Midwest bringing players from Kansas,Missouri, Illinois and the West Region from Arizona and California,New Mexico. Who would have thought? Keep up the good work Coach Shafer,the class of 2013 should look pretty damn good when all is said and done.
[...] wins first battle by nabbing Corey [...]
Ron,who says Corey Winfield is the #1 receiver in Mo?I read in the article hes only a top 20 player in St.Louis at 2/3 *s between Scout and Rivals!!I cant see the #1 wr in Mo. commiting to NIU? Werent most of his offers non BCS?He looks like a great get but not a cant miss type!Im hoping we can keep AE out of Fla and DCarter home!!Now DGB was a #1 WR out of MO!!
I hope I dont sound sour cause I think the staff is doing great under tough circumstances but lets see how our class shakes out on NSD….do we improve from #72 where we were when Dougie left?Lets give them a year to organize and settle in!!I like where HCSS and staff are heading,its like a cloud is lifting over the program and some sun is peeking through!!!
@Russell MacEachern;
I see great things happening at Syracuse with Coach Shafer in charge. I agree another year under his belt and things will get more interesting.
Ron,Ill be back upstate next mon/tues..looking forward to NSD on the 6th!!after that or for spring practice we can make arrangements to meet!!