The summer months are hard for college sports fans. You long for competition and school spirit, and the lack of it can have diehard Syracuse fans looking back over Spring Game footage, watching the six-overtime game highlights on YouTube again, or even checking to see if there are any Orange alums on this season of the Bachelorette (there aren’t). But here at Orange Fizz, it’s our favorite time of the year: recruiting season. Now is when college football coaches across the country send out offers to recruits of all shapes and sizes in an effort to start molding their 2018 classes and beyond, and over the past two days Syracuse has offered three players in three different units on both sides of the ball.
The most sought-after recruit Syracuse offered this week is Alan Tisdale, an outside linebacker who tweeted out Tuesday that he had received an offer from the Orange.
Blessed to receive an offer from Syracuse üèàüçä pic.twitter.com/edAY7hfeKc
— Alan Tisdale ‚ú® (@alan_tisdale) May 30, 2017
Tisdale is 6-3, 200 pounds and listed as a four-star recruit, according to 247Sports’ composite rankings. Out of Greensboro, NC, he claims on his Twitter to be the No. 1 outside linebacker in North Carolina, although 247 gives that spot to UNC commit Payton Wilson. Either way, he’d be a big get for Syracuse. Tisdale also has an offer from North Carolina, as well as N.C. State and at least one school from every Power Five conference except the Pac 12. His ACC offers also include Virginia Tech and Louisville, as well as de facto ACC school Notre Dame (his tweet from when the Irsih offered is still pinned on his Twitter, for what it’s worth). He has the patience to wait for a play to develop and the explosiveness to get into a backfield quickly, but don’t take my word for it. Take a look at his highlights from last season here.
The other two players the Orange offered yesterday, and they have very different recrutiing stories to this point. One got his first Power Five offer from the Orange. For the other, Syracuse was only his third offer, but all of three have been from Power Five schools.
We’ll start with Asim Richards, a 2019 tight end who had offers from West Virginia and Rutgers before getting the thumbs up from Syracuse yesterday.
Truly honored to receive my third offer from Syracuse Universityüçä#Syracuse pic.twitter.com/Sj0z4T6gDV
— Asim Richards (@asimrichards_4) May 31, 2017
As a tight end you’d probably expect Richards to be big, and you’d be right. He’s 6-5, and already at a good college weight of 250 pounds. His weight could end up being a problem if he wants to play tight end with the Orange. At a Rivals camp in May, he weighed in at 270 pounds; that’s closer to lineman weight than tight end weight. In a Babers’ offense which doesn’t use tight ends traditionally, he’d have to be able to move quickly without many breaks throughout a drive. But everyone — including Richards — knows what Dino demands in his offense, and he wouldn’t have an offer from the Orange if the staff didn’t think he fit in. Here’s his highlight tape.
For Indiana safety EJ Williams, Syracuse was the first Power Five school to extend an offer after earlier getting nods from Northern Illinois, Eastern Michigan and Bowling Green. He’s a 6-foot, 170-pound safety who is rated at three-stars by 247. He’s taken unofficial visits to Northwestern, Cincinnati and Notre Dame, but none of those schools have given offers or showed much interest in Williams. He’s talked to Syracuse coaches about playing at either the safety or outside linebacker spots, according to an interview with Scout.com’s Allen Trieu.
Posted: Nathan Dickinson
