As the summer rolls on, nobody in the SU Athletics office has been working harder than Dino Babers. While running his football camps, the second year coach picked up yet another recruit. Class of 2018 wide receiver Taj Harris made his commitment to the Orange official yesterday via his Twitter account.
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— Taj Harris (@jadinzaki) June 24, 2017
Harris’ commitment showed two things: one, Babers has a sweet office. And two, wideouts are not afraid to commit to SU despite the volume of players at the position. Babers’ system after just one year has shown that it can attract recruits with the potential for video game-like numbers for multiple receivers on the roster.
Harris is a three-star recruit who hails from New Jersey, a state that has previously produced a lot of Syracuse talent, but one that Babers has not targeted as much as his predecessors. The only notable Garden State recruit under Babers has been four-star quarterback Tommy DeVito. Harris’ commitment makes him the third wideout in his class, alongside Anthony Queeley and Cooper Lutz, and the seventh wide receiver Babers has added in the last two years.
However, there is a catch to Harris’ commitment. He also wants to play basketball at SU. This is an interesting twist for Harris, who stars at Palmyra High School on both the gridiron and the hardwood. He averaged 25.2 points per game along with 7.4 rebounds. This would make Harris the most notable two-sport athlete at SU since Mike Williams, and would also put him in a class with Donovan McNabb as football players who also played for Jim Boeheim. There were previous talks that Jamal Custis could play both basketball and football at Syracuse, but that never ended up happening. Custis did have an offer to play both basketball and football at SMU.
If Harris’ grades are in order, the potential as a two sport athlete could benefit both Babers and Boeheim. However, he is probably better suited on the football field in Babers’ receiver friendly offense.
