Give the Orange credit: SU games have been exciting (or too exciting depending on which half you watched on Saturday), and the ‘Cuse continues to expand its recruiting outside of the Northeast.
While Schiano and co. is locked into a “State of Rutgers,” the Orange is busy putting footprints all across the nation. Why settle for just the radius around your school when there’s talent to be had a few hours beyond that?
The latest addition to the Class of 2011 for Syracuse football is WR Keenan Hale of the McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He’s 6’3”, 187 pounds and runs a 4.51 40-yard dash. Normally that’s just a football number, but Hale is also a track star too. In 2009, he finished second in the state decathlon. Yes, that is a whole ten events.
He says he was getting looks from Syracuse, Stanford, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, and Duke among others. Let me tell you something: Duke football = Great tailgate, Terrible game. I was down there this weekend (dressed in the “business casual” look you see above) to watch them play Alabama and I left after the first quarter. That‚Äôs after four years of watching SU play.
The biggest thing to take away about Hale is his size and his speed. He’s a leaper from track and has the natural speed to excel in both sports.
This class has a bit of a southern feel to it with two players from Florida, two from Georgia, and one apiece from Virginia and now Tennessee. Four New Yorkers and a Pennsylvania product round out the eleven right now.
Hale was looking for a school with academics (he’s planning on majoring in chemical engineering) but also where he could play right away. If his speed translates to the college game, he could find himself on the field at the Dome in no time. There’s still not a big deep threat in the Orange lineup. If Marcus Sales can’t do it Рnobody can.
Should Syracuse play well and potentially be bowling Рand we’re thinking slightly above .500 this season Рyou can expect to see the class of 2011 continue to surge.
Posted: Mike Couzens
