There is no way around it, Syracuse has done well under Dino Babers on the recruiting trail. Yes, his first class is shaping up to be better than Scott Shafer’s first recruiting class, and truthfully, it doesn’t even look like it is going to be close. Shafer’s first class fell in the mid-70s in the nation. At this point, Babers is sitting int he mid-50s nationally, with the potential to get even higher with another commit or two in the next week.
Babers is going up against other Power-5 schools, and winning. He isn’t just beating out lower level schools for these commits. In some cases, the Orange is winning out over heavy favorites.
Coming off a whirlwind 24 hours, where the Orange got seven commitments, we can see where this program is heading. Five of the seven commits were 3 stars or better, and four had offers or had previously committed to a Power-5 program. So these were not players that nobody wanted.
It was important for Babers to come in and make an impact right away on the recruiting trail. Under Scott Shafer, the Orange went from the mid-70s in recruiting classes to mid-50s. With Babers is already starting in the mid-50s, or potentially better, the question becomes, how high do Dino Babers’ recruiting classes get by the time he hits year 3 or year 4? Will he continue on the same trajectory and keep growing the program.
That is a very important key for the Orange going forward. Can SU¬†continue to get the players that it needs to play in Dino Babers’ system and make the program competitive again. It certainly looks¬†like Babers is on the right track, and has already got a leg up on his predecessor as far as his first class, but let’s see what happens moving forward, especially after the Orange hits the field this fall.
POSTED BY: Seth Goldberg
