via www.rivals.com

By Dave Cooperman

Count me among the many who are very excited to see incoming freshman Max Beaulieu in action this season on the Syracuse defensive line.  I mean, how could you not be? 

If he wasn’t our top recruit last year than he is in the conversation.  He is a prestigious Florida recruit and he had offers from Purdue, Wake Forest, South Carolina, Illinois and Arkansas and he picked Syracuse.  That just doesn’t happen as often as it used to.

I went back and read the ESPN evaluation of Beaulieu and was even more encouraged.  He was rated a 76 or the equivalent of a 3 star prospect and at 6’2 and 240 pounds, he has the bulk to be a contributor early in his career.  One year later Beaulieu, seems like a real good get for Marrone.

Last week, Marrone received another commitment from a defensive end Donnie Simmons,who hails from White Plains, NY.  His verbal was met with not much more than a ho-hum. Not much to get excited about since Simmons only had an offer from Akron, and at last check, Akron didn’t play in the Big Ten or SEC. 

For comparison, I went back to ESPN and found that Simmons carried the identical grade as Beaulieu, 76 and 3 stars.   It is possible that by signing day, Simmons has similar expectations as Beaulieu, but that is unlikely.  Simmons is destined to be slighted.

The reason is simple and it is all geography.  Beaulieu, from Ft. Lauderdale, is going to be slightly overvalued based on his home state.  Simmons is going to be undervalued because he plays in New York.  Just about all of the recruiting services seem to believe these kids are fairly even at this stage in their career with the bigger upside perhaps belonging to Simmons who needs to add some of the bulk that Beaulieu already has. 

This comparison got me thinking about Marrone and his grand plan and to take back New York.  While it is easy to be skeptical about the overall talent level in the state, it remains of the utmost importance to identify the NY kids who look like prospects and sign them and not get swept up in fighting losing recruiting battles in far away states.  This isn’t a plea to ignore Florida – which would be the equivalent of career suicide in the coaching business - but this about keeping perspective when evaluating talent everywhere.

The people who think this post is insane will simply point out that Beaulieu faced a higher level of competition and based on that, he becomes the better prospect.  I don’t necessarily disagree, which is why Beaulieu will likely be looked upon to contribute earlier in his career than Simmons will.  I am not predicting a better career for Simmons at the expense of putting down Beaulieu.  Nobody has been more excited about getting Beaulieu on campus than me.

What does amaze me is how Simmons has basically gone ignored on the recruiting trail.  As fans that don’t review tape or actively watch high school football games, we shouldn’t get too wrapped up in who is recruiting who because it is obvious that a kid from a recruiting rich state will be getting significantly more attention than a similar player in a talent deprived state.

Maybe Malcolm Gladwell can make better sense of this than me, but what I can say is that Marrone got two players here who look like solid prospects at a premium position. 

Whether or not they played college football in Florida, Westchester or the dark side of the moon is not that important at the end of the day.