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New Mexico State running back Juwaun Price announced his commitment to Syracuse on Tuesday morning via Twitter. 

Price’s addition to the roster helps give the Orange depth behind star Sean Tucker — backup running back Cooper Lutz entered the transfer portal following the conclusion of the season, Abdul Adams is out of eligibility, and Jarveon Howard entered the portal mid-season. 

The New Mexico State running back is the second player SU has added from the transfer portal this offseason, alongside Louisville defensive back Bralyn Oliver. Next fall, he’ll join Class of 2022 running back commit LeQuint Allen and freshman running back Josh Hough, who missed the 2021 season due to injury.

Price was New Mexico State’s starting running back and played two seasons with the Aggies. In 2021, he recorded 135 carries for 692 yards and 10 touchdowns, in addition to 26 catches for 181 yards. He also had two 100-yard rushing games — a 159-yard one against Hawaii and 156-yard one against UMass to close out the season. Price posted four touchdowns in the season-finale, but NMSU went 2-10 this season. 

The Arizona native played four games during his redshirt year in 2019 and had his 2020 season canceled due to COVID-19. That means he’ll arrive in Syracuse with three years of eligibility remaining. 

In high school, Price was an Arizona High School Player of the Year finalist and rushed for 1,693 yards and 26 touchdowns in his final season.

During head coach Dino Babers’ early signing day press conference, he didn’t provide specifics on how many players SU wanted to recruit from the transfer portal, compared to out of high school. Instead, he emphasized that the Orange could lean on the transfer portal to add more experienced talent at certain positions with younger players.

Before the addition of Price, Tucker was the only running back on the 2022 roster with collegiate experience.

“I don’t think you can just say, ‘We can take this many people from that area, from that piece of the pie, without knowing what’s going to be in there with ‘em,’” Babers said last week. “It’s a very fluid situation; you have to kind of flow with it.”

Published on December 21, 2021 at 2:14 pm

Contact Roshan: rferna04@syr.edu | @Roshan_f16