Class of 2025 Class of 2025 Recruiting Discussion

[tep624]

Caveat would be high end guys as freshman and not transfer. People need to remember (not saying you 88), with portal, recruiting has both the short and long game. Top 250 guys we missed on have relationships with Fran and ERob now. When 35% of those guys transfer, we are back in play with this staff.

But you need to remember too, if the top 250 guys pan out (immediate impact freshman starters), we’re likely not getting them out of the portal because it will be a bidding war if they enter. We will always have a better shot at the guys that get buried on depth charts that we can offer playing time to.

We have a far better opportunity to scout appropriately and invest wisely, use our funds to land 3-5 top 250 kids a class, and then retain them through relationships, experience and $$. I’m not close enough to NIL to know, and some of the others can probably confirm, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all that many of our top players on the roster right now had larger $$ offers to go elsewhere. You will still lose some though I’m sure.

Schiano at Rutgers is tripling down on using their funds for HS kids this class - which puts him in a far more critical position for success this season to retain those recruits.

 

[Cusefan69]

But you need to remember too, if the top 250 guys pan out (immediate impact freshman starters), we’re likely not getting them out of the portal because it will be a bidding war if they enter. We will always have a better shot at the guys that get buried on depth charts that we can offer playing time to.

We have a far better opportunity to scout appropriately and invest wisely, use our funds to land 3-5 top 250 kids a class, and then retain them through relationships, experience and $$. I’m not close enough to NIL to know, and some of the others can probably confirm, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all that many of our top players on the roster right now had larger $$ offers to go elsewhere. You will still lose some though I’m sure.

Schiano at Rutgers is tripling down on using their funds for HS kids this class - which puts him in a far more critical position for success this season to retain those recruits.

Agree but it's clear Fran intentionally funneled to portal guys to augment. To me that is wiser use of funds as you already have that portal players baseline and know with higher certainty what you are getting on the field, off the field. Going chips all in on Nil to freshman is much higher risk year to year. Maybe that is his gameplan or not moving forward. I think it will be a mix of both pragmatically depending on annual team balance, strength/weakness and Nil allocation available versus Nil already in play.

 

[SuFTW]

This post was in the Rutgers thread, but may be more relevant here.

After talking to a couple recruiting insiders the feeling is the 25 class for Fran Brown is much better than people think. There are several players who will rise this year and some that will earn another star. He's balancing volume with needs while still trying g to be selective. He saw a major need for size and speed- both he accomplished thus far. Several players to watch who are much better than what they're rated are- Luke Carney, Nathaniel Nayondaro, Antoine Delsauriers, and the lineman they flipped from Maryland amongst others.
Also, let's not forget signing day is five months away. With the schedule and the roster this year if syracuse performs as expected (8-10 wins)- it's highly likely that we flip some players on or before signing day. Winning will obviously add to the buzz and will likely increase the NIL budget. Of course, if they under perform, the opposite will probably happen.

 

[Actionthrill]

How many players do you think we will take in the 2025 class? If we need them definitely take them but this class is huge already and I’m guessing we are saving some scholarships for upper level kids. So if you have the answer I’d really appreciate it. Thank you

 

[All4SU]

Just simply getting quality linemen is the biggest difference. We’ve struggled for so many years to have sufficient numbers on the lines. Now, especially at DL, we appear loaded.

 

[upperdeck]

My only take on the class is just using the simple 247 rankings we have as many kids ranked 86 and above in the 25 class as the last 4 years combined. So while we might not be as elite as some hoped there is a much better chance an 86 level kid plays to a 90 than an 83 level kid

 

[MamesJungro]

If we’re being completely honest with ourselves this class isn’t as good as last class. With Fran coming in and landing 4 or 5 studs, and flips right off the bat, i guess my expectations were a little higher. We have a solid class, but no headliners. We will probably finish around 50 and for a 27 commit class and counting that’s average at best. I do think there is a huge difference in the level of recruits we have taking OV’s and have us in their top 3, but haven’t been able to seal the deal for one reason or another. We also have a pretty solid class from top to bottom, with only a couple reaches imo, where we possibly could have held the spot for a while longer. The other good thing is most of the guys we got took OV’s to other P4 schools, around or previous level, or better, and we were able to beat them out. I also think we re-established the NE as our recruiting area, which I have always been wanting to do. I think that also factors into ratings, especially kids from NY, and not in NYC. I think we grabbed some really solid guys from CNY and WNY, that just didn’t have the exposure. We’ve shown with Mac, P, and even Marrone you can win with those guys, and usually their ceilings are higher with more room to develop. I like Canadian too, especially those with measurable's. The one thing i am a bit surprised about is not landing a kid in the NJ top 15. I thought for sure, especially after last year, we would have had a couple. I realize Rutgers is giving recruits NIL deals, but that looks like the future unfortunately, and to be honest, we did it with a couple of guys ourselves last year. I would rather use it on retaining guys, but some teams will be able to use for both, which might make it tougher. We also got almost all kids with measureables where they don’t need to add weight to play in a year or 2. For the new defense that is key. Again, this is a solid class, but if you’re comparing it to last years it’s not really close. Go back and look at last years and it really was our best class in decades. I guess that just set my expectations a little higher than they should be. The good thing is we have kids interested, now Fran has to go out there and prove we can win on the field. Not 6-7 wins. To these type of recruits that’s a bad school. You can see in interviews numerous kids mention how Fran is going to turn the program around. They don’t care we won 7 and 6 game and got to 2 bowl games. They expect top 25 or at least winning 8-9 games. This is a perfect schedule and team to go out and produce a huge season that will give Fran the ammo he needs to land even higher level recruits and it evolves from there.

I agree with this. I would have thought we might hold a few spots open if everything plays out like we think it will, and we get off to a hot start and build some real momentum.

If more and more legitimate 4 stars are starting to take out phone calls, I think we would want some room at the inn without having to be the type of school that has to pull offers when higher-end talent is available.

It seems like less of a gamble now to at least keep a couple of spots open - as we all see, we can always fill in with depth players from the portal if needed

 

[richard levy]

I agree with this. I would have thought we might hold a few spots open if everything plays out like we think it will, and we get off to a hot start and build some real momentum.

If more and more legitimate 4 stars are starting to take out phone calls, I think we would want some room at the inn without having to be the type of school that has to pull offers when higher-end talent is available.

It seems like less of a gamble now to at least keep a couple of spots open - as we all see, we can always fill in with depth players from the portal if needed

I also agree with almost of this. Except for the "we've shown with Mac, P, and even Marrone you can win with those guys ("solid guys from CNY/WNY")." Marrone was 25-25, two seven win seasons (and two Pinstripe bowl wins), which is the "that's a bad school" you reference. Mac and Coach P, that was thirty years ago. And there is a lot of context what happened before, during, and after their tenures which can be rehashed, again. However it is totally different college football environment today. Developing players that can be retained is difficult. CFB getting more guys who are ready to play now, wherever they come from, is the pathway to winning. They were good to great days, and I hope we can duplicate the years that were truly fun and great.

 

[Orangefan1]

My take is our 2024 class is more exciting than this class. This excitement over Brown has tempered a bit and as much as I am a fan of his he won’t get the heavy hitters unless we win. This year needs to be an 8 or 9 win season for us to build momentum.

 

[bnoro]

My take is our 2024 class is more exciting than this class. This excitement over Brown has tempered a bit and as much as I am a fan of his he won’t get the heavy hitters unless we win. This year needs to be an 8 or 9 win season for us to build momentum.

Big disagree from me.

Fran has told us he was behind on 2024/2025 when he started. But he still filled this class with a ton of kids who were regional recruiting battles, with local ties, that will have pride for the school. That can't be understated. We also took some under the radar kids that will surely blow up in the fall for various reasons.

Meanwhile, 2026 will be the class that starts to show dividends, and I've seen nothing to suggest otherwise so far.

I think it's just the expectation people had after some of the big hits he had after being hired.

 

[skeeter223]

Big disagree from me.

Fran has told us he was behind on 2024/2025 when he started. But he still filled this class with a ton of kids who were regional recruiting battles, with local ties, that will have pride for the school. That can't be understated. We also took some under the radar kids that will surely blow up in the fall for various reasons.

Meanwhile, 2026 will be the class that starts to show dividends, and I've seen nothing to suggest otherwise so far.

I think it's just the expectation people had after some of the big hits he had after being hired.

Excellent analysis!

 

[sutomcat]

My take is our 2024 class is more exciting than this class. This excitement over Brown has tempered a bit and as much as I am a fan of his he won’t get the heavy hitters unless we win. This year needs to be an 8 or 9 win season for us to build momentum.

I understand if some are disappointed.

We have been in the final 3 or 4 for a bunch of 4 star recruits and missed out on them. If your sole focus is getting 4 star recruits, we didn't do well.

But the class is rated 31st in the country. That is amazing for this program at this point, so early in Coach Fran's tenure as the SU HC. It is enormous.

While there are a couple of players with only a handful of BCS offers, there are way fewer than in the past. The height, weight and speed of the players we are adding is vastly better than what we have been getting PFB (pre Fran Brown).

I have lost count on the number but I think we have like 7 or 8 guys in this class who run sub 11 seconds in the 100 meters.

We have a quarterback who has size, is really athletic, has a strong arm and has dominated at the HS level. And another who is even more athletic and dynamic, that was just voted the player of the year in NYS.

The haul of OL in the 2025 class is almost unfathomable to me. We have struggled so much to get even one decent OT in a class for decades. Getting 5 or 6, who all have multiple P5 offers, great size and clear athletic ability, is just amazing.

We have had similar issues getting DL, especially DTs to come to Syracuse. For decades. The DEs we have gotten are almost always really LBs we need to grow into DEs, and the DTs we get are really slower DEs that we hope will eventually grow into DTs. The players on the DL we got in this class are vastly better than any class we have gotten in at least 25 years. It is amazing.

The DBs are notably bigger and faster than we have gotten for decades. We only got one LB but looking at his film, he is an amazing prospect.

I really like the WRs we have brought in. No smurphs, all of them are uber athletic and very fast.

The TEs have the length and athletic ability we have needed and gone without for decades (I won't count Villari and OG here , as neither was brought in as a TE). They both need some work in the weight room and I get wanting TEs who are closer to being ready to play right away, but I like both our guys potential a lot.

At RB, I get being disappointed. Both guys we are bringing in did not have a lot of prestigious offers. Our staff sees something in them most other staffs do not. Bottom line is, we offered these kids very early. The staff believes in them and I think we should believe in the staff's ability to evaluate players until performance on the field proves otherwise.

When Coach Mac turned around the program, he did it by vastly upgrading the DL and OL first. I think in football, the game is almost always won by the team that dominates play at the line. For the first time in a long time, I think we have a chance to hold our own or even beat most ACC programs on the line of scrimmage. IMHO, this class was a huge step towards that goal.

Syracuse 2025 Football Commits

Syracuse

247sports.com

 

[orange_in_VA]

My only take on the class is just using the simple 247 rankings we have as many kids ranked 86 and above in the 25 class as the last 4 years combined. So while we might not be as elite as some hoped there is a much better chance an 86 level kid plays to a 90 than an 83 level kid

Independent studies have shown rating inflation over the years on 247. This is the current average player rating rankings for the ACC. So did everyone get better (leaving us near the bottom) or have ratings continued to inflate compared to previous seasons.

x.com

x.com

 

[baggerbob]

I understand if some are disappointed.

We have been in the final 3 or 4 for a bunch of 4 star recruits and missed out on them. If your sole focus is getting 4 star recruits, we didn't do well.

But the class is rated 31st in the country. That is amazing for this program at this point, so early in Coach Fran's tenure as the SU HC. It is enormous.

While there are a couple of players with only a handful of BCS offers, there are way fewer than in the past. The height, weight and speed of the players we are adding is vastly better than what we have been getting PFB (pre Fran Brown).

I have lost count on the number but I think we have like 7 or 8 guys in this class who run sub 11 seconds in the 100 meters.

We have a quarterback who has size, is really athletic, has a strong arm and has dominated at the HS level. And another who is even more athletic and dynamic, that was just voted the player of the year in NYS.

The haul of OL in the 2025 class is almost unfathomable to me. We have struggled so much to get even one decent OT in a class for decades. Getting 5 or 6, who all have multiple P5 offers, great size and clear athletic ability, is just amazing.

We have had similar issues getting DL, especially DTs to come to Syracuse. For decades. The DEs we have gotten are almost always really LBs we need to grow into DEs, and the DTs we get are really slower DEs that we hope will eventually grow into DTs. The players on the DL we got in this class are vastly better than any class we have gotten in at least 25 years. It is amazing.

The DBs are notably bigger and faster than we have gotten for decades. We only got one LB but looking at his film, he is an amazing prospect.

I really like the WRs we have brought in. No smurphs, all of them are uber athletic and very fast.

The TEs have the length and athletic ability we have needed and gone without for decades (I won't count Villari and OG here , as neither was brought in as a TE). They both need some work in the weight room and I get wanting TEs who are closer to being ready to play right away, but I like both our guys potential a lot.

At RB, I get being disappointed. Both guys we are bringing in did not have a lot of prestigious offers. Our staff sees something in them most other staffs do not. Bottom line is, we offered these kids very early. The staff believes in them and I think we should believe in the staff's ability to evaluate players until performance on the field proves otherwise.

When Coach Mac turned around the program, he did it by vastly upgrading the DL and OL first. I think in football, the game is almost always won by the team that dominates play at the line. For the first time in a long time, I think we have a chance to hold our own or even beat most ACC programs on the line of scrimmage. IMHO, this class was a huge step towards that goal.

Syracuse 2025 Football Commits

Syracuse

247sports.com

Love your write up, if you want to be a consistent top 15 or top 10 team you have to have the big uglies up front.
With the past 2 classes you can see Fran knows this, I said before in 2 years we might have the best OL, and DL we have ever had.

 

[CbusCuse]

Big disagree from me.

Fran has told us he was behind on 2024/2025 when he started. But he still filled this class with a ton of kids who were regional recruiting battles, with local ties, that will have pride for the school. That can't be understated. We also took some under the radar kids that will surely blow up in the fall for various reasons.

Meanwhile, 2026 will be the class that starts to show dividends, and I've seen nothing to suggest otherwise so far.

I think it's just the expectation people had after some of the big hits he had after being hired.

bnoro you ru......wait. Did you accidentally grab a thc energy drink?

 

[tep624]

I understand if some are disappointed.

We have been in the final 3 or 4 for a bunch of 4 star recruits and missed out on them. If your sole focus is getting 4 star recruits, we didn't do well.

But the class is rated 31st in the country. That is amazing for this program at this point, so early in Coach Fran's tenure as the SU HC. It is enormous.

While there are a couple of players with only a handful of BCS offers, there are way fewer than in the past. The height, weight and speed of the players we are adding is vastly better than what we have been getting PFB (pre Fran Brown).

I have lost count on the number but I think we have like 7 or 8 guys in this class who run sub 11 seconds in the 100 meters.

We have a quarterback who has size, is really athletic, has a strong arm and has dominated at the HS level. And another who is even more athletic and dynamic, that was just voted the player of the year in NYS.

The haul of OL in the 2025 class is almost unfathomable to me. We have struggled so much to get even one decent OT in a class for decades. Getting 5 or 6, who all have multiple P5 offers, great size and clear athletic ability, is just amazing.

We have had similar issues getting DL, especially DTs to come to Syracuse. For decades. The DEs we have gotten are almost always really LBs we need to grow into DEs, and the DTs we get are really slower DEs that we hope will eventually grow into DTs. The players on the DL we got in this class are vastly better than any class we have gotten in at least 25 years. It is amazing.

The DBs are notably bigger and faster than we have gotten for decades. We only got one LB but looking at his film, he is an amazing prospect.

I really like the WRs we have brought in. No smurphs, all of them are uber athletic and very fast.

The TEs have the length and athletic ability we have needed and gone without for decades (I won't count Villari and OG here , as neither was brought in as a TE). They both need some work in the weight room and I get wanting TEs who are closer to being ready to play right away, but I like both our guys potential a lot.

At RB, I get being disappointed. Both guys we are bringing in did not have a lot of prestigious offers. Our staff sees something in them most other staffs do not. Bottom line is, we offered these kids very early. The staff believes in them and I think we should believe in the staff's ability to evaluate players until performance on the field proves otherwise.

When Coach Mac turned around the program, he did it by vastly upgrading the DL and OL first. I think in football, the game is almost always won by the team that dominates play at the line. For the first time in a long time, I think we have a chance to hold our own or even beat most ACC programs on the line of scrimmage. IMHO, this class was a huge step towards that goal.

Syracuse 2025 Football Commits

Syracuse

247sports.com

I love what they’ve done with the OL / DL recruits. They did a great job there adding some nice quality prospects.

I think it’s just natural to be disappointed to see so many top 250 kids either heavily involved with or actually visit that went elsewhere. I do think we’ll pull in some flips down the stretch but it would have been nice to really send a message up front. But overall I think that’s more a message on where the program is at right now, not the staff. Once they put a good season together which I’m confident they will, we should see some positive movement there.

 

[SanDiegoCuse]

The big thing is if they have a very good season I'd bet we see a big uptick in the level of recruits committing. I do wonder how many of the kids currently committed end up on campus. It's going to be an interesting year for sure.

 

[SUskibum]

So good, as always, thanks for taking the time Tom. I'll add one more anecdote to support a point you made.

While there are a couple of players with only a handful of BCS offers, there are way fewer than in the past. The height, weight and speed of the players we are adding is vastly better than what we have been getting PFB (pre Fran Brown).

I have lost count on the number but I think we have like 7 or 8 guys in this class who run sub 11 seconds in the 100 meters.

One of those players with no P5 offers happens to be the 7th fastest highschool kid in America clocking in at 10.18 in the 100 meter good for an all time Jersey record for highschool
New Jersey Track and Field State Records

He is also 200lbs, and these are the kind of kids you only find if coach 'knows a guy'.

 

[baggerbob]

So good, as always, thanks for taking the time Tom. I'll add one more anecdote to support a point you made.

One of those players with no P5 offers happens to be the 7th fastest highschool kid in America clocking in at 10.18 in the 100 meter good for an all time Jersey record for highschool
New Jersey Track and Field State Records

He is also 200lbs, and these are the kind of kids you only find if coach 'knows a guy'.

And his coach said the track season was to get him ready for his freshman year, because he wants to play.
Even if you only get him on the field for 10 offensive plays a game.
With his speed, all it takes is 1 missed tackle and he's gone.
Then every time he steps on the field the opposing coach, has to worry about him.
That opens up many other options on offense.
You can't teach that kind of speed.

 

[tep624]

So good, as always, thanks for taking the time Tom. I'll add one more anecdote to support a point you made.

One of those players with no P5 offers happens to be the 7th fastest highschool kid in America clocking in at 10.18 in the 100 meter good for an all time Jersey record for highschool
New Jersey Track and Field State Records

He is also 200lbs, and these are the kind of kids you only find if coach 'knows a guy'.

I have high hopes for him as a RB, man is he powerful, fast and has a low center of gravity too.

 

[AngryOtto]

The big thing is if they have a very good season I'd bet we see a big uptick in the level of recruits committing. I do wonder how many of the kids currently committed end up on campus. It's going to be an interesting year for sure.

I do not see Fran pulling offers.

 

[SanDiegoCuse]

I do not see Fran pulling offers.

I'm not saying he'd pull offers, but if higher rated kids commit maybe some of the lower rated ones will see the path to playing time as much further down the road. Who knows? Long way to go.

 

[wiseman3]

I do not see Fran pulling offers.

I do. We will be acting like a big boy program now...it might not be a clear "we're pulling your offer" but it will certainly happen

 

[IthacaBarrel]

it all comes down to whether Fran can win games, the recruiting has been fantastic considering Fran has never won a game as a college football head coach. If you want a true top 15-20 class then HCFB will need to prove that he and his staff can win 8-9 games in a hurry. Remember, he and a Coach ERob are arguably the two best recruiters in college football but kids also want the $ and they want to play in big games.

 

[IthacaBarrel]

I do. We will be acting like a big boy program now...it might not be a clear "we're pulling your offer" but it will certainly happen

will 100% happen