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Although Orange football had a break this week to watch the many exciting conference championship games, it was a big weekend on the recruiting front. Six recruits, including the already-committed A.J. Long and Wayne Williams, made their way up to the Hill. The other four recruits were comprised of the “Midwest Duo” Nile Sykes and Chris Slayton, and two Florida natives: Cordell Hudson and Jaboree Williams.
The Fizz has talked in the past of how important Midwest recruiting has been for Scott Shafer and his coaching staff. With so much experience in the area, it is not surprising to see Skyes and Slayton looking hard at Syracuse. Rivals and Scout list Sykes, a 220-pound linebacker out of Lombard, Illinois, as a 3-star recruit. However, ESPN has Skyes as 4-star prize. Chris Slayton has put Syracuse on the top of his list, according to Scout. The 230-pound defensive end out of Crete, Illinois will take an official visit to Lawrence to visit the Kansas Jayhawks before making a decision. Slayton is a 3-star recruit who is heavily interested in Syracuse, Minnesota, Illinois and Kansas.
Cordell Hudson seemed to have a blast on his official visit to Syracuse. Hudson came into the visit down between Syracuse, Rutgers and Iowa State. He visited the Hawkeyes in September and will make his final official visit to Piscataway on Friday before deciding where to commit. Jaboree Williams also had a solid visit that included a trip to the Dome to see SU basketball.
It did not hurt that two current commits were visiting at the same time as the prospective players. A.J. Long has been recruiting players to the Syracuse program ever since he committed last March. Recruits have seemed to like Long’s early leadership as he tries to bring the best talent to CNY. Wayne Williams also has been vocal in bringing SU to the next level.
Other recruits on the radar are Steve Ishmael and Denzel Ward. Ishmael will be taking a visit to Syracuse in mid-January and has expressed tons of interest in joining the Orange. Coach McDonald had an in-home visit with him a week ago. Denzel Ward is currently committed to Purdue but will take an official visit to Syracuse at the end of January after putting the Orange in his final three schools with Purdue and USF. Another tidbit worth noting was current verbal commit Alin Edouard’s quote in the Syracuse Post-Standard last week: “I’ll be the face of that program soon.” It increases confidence that Edouard will not flip to another school come national signing day. It also will bring an influx of competition to a position that is one of the biggest question marks next year for the Orange.
With downtime before the Texas Bowl, Shafer and the coaching staff took this week to visit current commits Corey Cooper and Erv Phillips, among others. Staying in touch with these recruits can be crucial as we come closer to National Signing Day. As for the others, the staff will now hope and wait to see whether these visits can turn into commitments.
Posted by: Zephan Mayell 
