Three-star offensive lineman Sam Heckel has verbally committed to Syracuse, he announced via Twitter, becoming the 11th member of SU’s Class of 2016.

The 6-foot-5, 265-pound Waukesha West (Wisconsin) High School product chose the Orange over Northern Illinois, his other top option. Heckel is ranked as the 78th-best offensive tackle in the Class of 2016 by 247Sports.com’s composite rankings.

“I liked the facilities and I liked what they had to offer academically-wise too,” Heckel said of Syracuse before he committed. “… I liked the (Carrier) Dome a lot, that was really cool. Obviously, you don’t see that everywhere you go.”

 

Proud to say that I have decided to attend and play football at the University of Syracuse! #OrangeRevolution pic.twitter.com/07ciHEOEYh

— Sam Heckel (@Sheckel_76) June 27, 2015

SU head coach Scott Shafer and guards and centers coach Joe Adam told Heckel that they only had one offensive line spot left in its 2016 class. Thus, if another offensive lineman committed before him, he would lose his spot.

Tackles Cam DeGeorge and Noel Brouse already committed to SU and Heckel said he asked them about their reasoning before he also pledged to the Orange.

Heckel said he put pressure on himself to commit quickly after visiting Syracuse on Thursday and receiving an offer the same day. About two weeks ago, Heckel was set to commit to Northwestern but the Wildcats’ coaching staff said they didn’t have a spot left for him because of a similar issue that he avoided with the Orange.

According to Scout.com, Heckel is SU’s first commit from Wisconsin since at least 2002, when the recruiting website was created. Following Taylor Riggins’ commitment on Thursday and Darius Stubbs’ on Friday, Heckel is SU’s third commit in the past three days. He’s also the Orange’s seventh in the past three weeks.

Published on June 27, 2015 at 3:05 pm

Contact Paul: pmschwed@syr.edu | @pschweds