A story from WHAM in Rochester has elite recruit Jarron Jones no longer considering Syracuse, but his coach tells The Fizz the Orange is still in the running. According to WHAM, Jones has narrowed his schools down to a list of four after taking back his soft verbal to Penn State. Those four schools are PSU (still in the running despite the change in verbal), Virginia Tech, North Carolina and Notre Dame.
Syracuse fans have had a roller coaster summer on the football recruiting front. While SU has picked up a host of commitments over the last five weeks, the biggest names have signed elswhere, including Chad Kelly and David Perkins. However, ¬†it looks like there could still be hope for the Orange. A text from Jones’ coach, Chris Battaglia to The Fizz says “Talked to him yesterday. Said PSU and ND were head to head and SU, UNC and VT were still being considered”
Chuck Wade, the WHAM reporter who wrote the Jones story, said in an email to The Fizz: “In speaking with Jarron today, he did not mention Syracuse as one of the schools that he was considering.¬† Our conversation was brief but I was also able to gather that he is planning to visit Penn State this summer and then Virginia Tech in the fall.”
Jones recently visited Notre Dame and liked what he saw, saying it reminded him of his high school, Aquinas, in Rochester.
“Notre Dame is a smaller school and that’s the kind of place I need to be.¬† Aquinas is a smaller school and I’ve been doing a lot better there.¬† It’s just a better way to explore my options.”
Battaglia recently told The Fizz that Jones would soon narrow his list down to 5 schools and expected Syracuse to be on the list. The Fizz predicted Jones might be different than someone like Ishaq Williams who chose the Irish because he liked a smaller football spotlight and was worried about being changed to offensive tackle from his defensive line spot
The Irish is already becoming the biggest villain on the recruiting trail for SU. If¬†Notre Dame¬†does pull off Jones, the Irish¬†would have stolen an elite recruit from the¬†Orange for the 3rd time in 6 months. Same song. Different verse. Someone make sure all these kids are watching highlights of Groobers’ win¬†in South Bend¬†a few years ago.
