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Still looking for its first commitment in the 2015 class, the Orange hosted 3-star Safety Jazzee “Jay” Stocker over the weekend.
Stocker was one of a few recruits to make their unofficial visits to the Hill. The Coatesville, PA native is ranked as the 276th best player on the ESPN 300. Although these prospects still have their senior seasons looming next year, it is encouraging to see highly ranked players visiting early in the recruiting process. The Syracuse program prides itself on its history and the Carrier Dome, so immersing interested recruits in the culture while visiting is crucial, especially when they have not visited too many other colleges yet.
Perhaps one of Stocker’s best attributes is his speed. At 6’3”, 195 pounds, he runs a 4.5 40-yard dash. Syracuse loves to move players around depending on what position the Orange need at a certain time. This could be a great way for Stocker to see the field early. It also does not hurt that he has a lot of experience playing on special teams.
The Orange only received one true safety commitment in the 2014 class from Rodney Williams. Naesean Howard however is expected to make a move from Running Back to Safety during spring practice.
With a high talent level comes a harder chance of landing Stocker. He already has offers from Wisconsin, Virginia, Rutgers, Maryland, Purdue, Georgia Tech, UConn, Indiana, and Temple, in addition to the Orange. Penn State has not made an offer to Stocker but he did visit the Nittany Lions in late March.
Something to keep an eye on as the recruiting process starts to roll during the spring is to see where geographically Shafer and his coaching staff will recruit. We saw last year how Midwest recruiting was crucial to SU’s 2014 class. George McDonald also worked his magic down south as Syracuse saw quite a few commitments from the state of Florida. However, Stocker and Qaadir Sheppard, who also visited this weekend, are both from the northeast, an area Doug Marrone loved to recruit from when he was coaching the Orange.
The Orange needs to haves locked down its first commitment by now. Syracuse is the only team remaining in the ACC to not have at least one commitment to the 2015 class. This is not time to hit the panic button, but it would be reassuring to at least have one recruit in the bag.
Posted by: Zephan Mayell
