The Orange may be losing some of former head coach Scott Shafer’s commitments, but former Bowling Green coach Dino Babers is bringing his own style to the Orange’s incoming recruiting class.  With just two months until National Signing Day, the Orange has a ton of spots to fill in its recruiting class.
This week alone, Babers has pulled in two recruits: athlete Carl Jones and offensive guard Liam O’Sullivan.  Let’s start with Jones.  Jones is an un-starred athlete out of Ohio, an area that Shafer recruited well, but Babers is an expert in.  After all, Bowling Green is actually in Ohio.  Jones is expected to play defensive back in college and is the third of his position to join the Orange’s 2016 recruiting class.  The others, Scoop Bradshaw and Monquavion Brinson, were committed to SU when Shafer was still at the helm.  At 6-foot-2, Jones has great size and speed to cover opposing receivers and had offers from both Army and Air Force.
Earlier in the week, Babers flipped O’Sullivan from Cincinnatti to Syracuse.  The three-star offensive guard has decent size at 6-foot-6, 240 pounds.  Out of Illinois, Babers has really flexed his Midwestern ties to start his tenure at Syracuse.  According to Scout, Syracuse’s new co-coordinator Sean Lewis was a big part of O’Sullivan’s flip.  He is the third offensive lineman to join the class, joining Sam Heckel and Aron Servais.
The type of recruits that Babers brings in are going to look a little different than the ones that SU has targeted in the past.  To start, it’s important to remember that Babers runs a spread offense modeled after Baylor’s, where he coached under Art Briles.  Because of this, Babers’ commits are going to be focused on speed and skill rather than size.  The Orange offense, which has been a ground-and-pound attack in the recent past, will be more focused on big plays, deep balls, and tempo.  This calls for a different kind of recruit, which O’Sullivan fits into.
Despite recruiting being in a ‘dead period,’ Babers is off to a hot start as head coach.  In fact, with every commit that leaves the program, it seems he already has another to fill the void.
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