Darrell Gill Jr. transferring to Ole Miss

[CanadianSU]

I did find it a bit odd he was commenting on the Marcellus Barnes snark post… kinda thought then there might be something more here.

 

[orangemass]

Gil is good. Wish he was staying

 

[OttoinGrotto]

I went over to the old thread on Gill's recruitment (Jan 2023) and you had said that it was very rare to get a Texas recruit all the way through his eligibility here and graduate. That's too bad. Has to be difficult academically to readjust when changing schools.

Between this and manifesting Angeli I truly can see the future.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Probably can’t afford him with the holes we have to fill elsewhere

This is the issue - when 50 players leave in 2 years (and 27 right now and counting ...), you can't afford to buy enough guys to replace them man-for-man, because the cost is much higher.

 

[djorange1989]

This is the issue - when 50 players leave in 2 years (and 27 right now and counting ...), you can't afford to buy enough guys to replace them man-for-man, because the cost is much higher.

I don’t think it’s the 50, it’s the fact that we need better/veteran talent. Most of those 50 losses were not higher end guys

 

[IthacaMatt]

I don’t think it’s the 50, it’s the fact that we need better/veteran talent. Most of those 50 losses were not higher end guys

That's not true. His first class was 40th nationally, and last year was 36th. These are the best classes we've had since McNabb days. Of those 50 players, you would have hoped that 20 of them make the 2 deep after a year or two on the team. That's too many bodies to replace, and people who take your point of view that they were expendable dismisses any notion of players getting better over time with good coaching.

 

[ImperialOrange]

Arizona State, TCU, Lville and Kentucky all listed in pursuit.

 

[richmondcuse03]

That's not true. His first class was 40th nationally, and last year was 36th. These are the best classes we've had since McNabb days. Of those 50 players, you would have hoped that 20 of them make the 2 deep after a year or two on the team. That's too many bodies to replace, and people who take your point of view that they were expendable dismisses any notion of players getting better over time with good coaching.

People tend to exaggerate at times so we should actually look at the numbers here.

2025 was the first full recruiting class. Of the 2025 class, how many have left? I count four but could be wrong. And we kept all the ones we wanted to. That’s good so far.

Syracuse 2025 Football Commits

Syracuse

247sports.com

Of the 2025 class, it appears that at least 15 will be on the two deep with a number of starters. That’s good.

2024 was a quick class given when he got hired. However after two years I agree you hope to keep the ones that matter.

Of all the guys, it appears that 18 (may have missed a few) are gone from the HS ranks. Most of the transfers stayed but obviously didn’t have as much eligibility.

It’s more mixed in terms of keeping the ones we would have hoped to keep.

The biggest issues in the 2024 class:

-KJE (off field issues)
-Yasin (off field issues)
-Barnes (transferred for playing time)
-Watson (obviously big loss, money - I would have paid up more to keep him even if we couldn’t match what Texas offered)
-Ross (could be a big loss, but we appeared to rectify the psycho WR coach mid season)
-Hornsby - could be we will see but highly rated and showed potential

Syracuse 2024 Football Commits

Syracuse

247sports.com

Kerr, Vito, Tremble, Elijah will be on two deep. Kerr was a bit of a diamond in rough guy. Credit to probably Stack for that one. Remains to be seen on Ja’Meer and a few others like Braheem but they could be on two deep.

So batting below average on 2024 but above on 2025. But between the two classes we will probably have at least 20 on the two deep and probably more as the staff is high on a lot of the ‘25 kids who redshirt.

Sort of like the on the field results. One great season. One bad.

2026 class is the highest ranked so it’ll be interesting to see who plays right away and who is on the two deep by the end of the year. I suspect we’re going to see a lot of 25’s and 26’s playing. The issue as you pointed out is missing on some of the top guys from 24 may have set us back. We need to replace that depth and starting potential in the portal.

TBD.

 

[RyanCuse44]

People tend to exaggerate at times so we should actually look at the numbers here.

2025 was the first full recruiting class. Of the 2025 class, how many have left? I count four but could be wrong. And we kept all the ones we wanted to. That’s good so far.

Syracuse 2025 Football Commits

Syracuse

247sports.com

Of the 2025 class, it appears that at least 15 will be on the two deep with a number of starters. That’s good.

2024 was a quick class given when he got hired. However after two years I agree you hope to keep the ones that matter.

Of all the guys, it appears that 18 (may have missed a few) are gone from the HS ranks. Most of the transfers stayed but obviously didn’t have as much eligibility.

It’s more mixed in terms of keeping the ones we would have hoped to keep.

The biggest issues in the 2024 class:

-KJE (off field issues)
-Yasin (off field issues)
-Barnes (transferred for playing time)
-Watson (obviously big loss, money - I would have paid up more to keep him even if we couldn’t match what Texas offered)
-Ross (could be a big loss, but we appeared to rectify the psycho WR coach mid season)
-Hornsby - could be we will see but highly rated and showed potential

Syracuse 2024 Football Commits

Syracuse

247sports.com

Kerr, Vito, Tremble, Elijah will be on two deep. Kerr was a bit of a diamond in rough guy. Credit to probably Stack for that one. Remains to be seen on Ja’Meer and a few others like Braheem but they could be on two deep.

So batting below average on 2024 but above on 2025. But between the two classes we will probably have at least 20 on the two deep and probably more as the staff is high on a lot of the ‘25 kids who redshirt.

Sort of like the on the field results. One great season. One bad.

2026 class is the highest ranked so it’ll be interesting to see who plays right away and who is on the two deep by the end of the year. I suspect we’re going to see a lot of 25’s and 26’s playing. The issue as you pointed out is missing on some of the top guys from 24 may have set us back. We need to replace that depth and starting potential in the portal.

TBD.

Great breakdown and much appreciated.

 

[alphaorange]

This is your entire post: "These takes on the NFL are weird. Yes the game takes forever and I completely get that. But compared to college, if a player I like gets drafted by an NFL team, that player will be on the team for at least the next 4-6 years."

The bolded part - your point - is not close to being true. Careers of NFL players are about half that long.

I think you're being disengenuous. Mostly it depends on where they are picked in the draft. Everybody knows that most late round picks have little chance to stick and not because of injury. It's about talent. If they make a roster, the time doubles and it triples if they make it 3 years.

 

[Archbold44]

I don't care. You cannot let all of Angeli's weapons walk out. But if Cook though Gill leaving meant more money for him, I can see letting him walk. I just think that the program needs to find the money to keep a guy like Gill from leaving. I get if he was 1st team ACC and Texas/Ohio State/Georgia/LSU were chasing him with their SEC/B10 money. But B12/ACC schools? Who is even QB for ASU/TCU/Louisville next year? C'mon. That is just being penny wise and pound foolish.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

I don't care. You cannot let all of Angeli's weapons walk out. But if Cook though Gill leaving meant more money for him, I can see letting him walk. I just think that the program needs to find the money to keep a guy like Gill from leaving. I get if he was 1st team ACC and Texas/Ohio State/Georgia/LSU were chasing him with their SEC/B10 money. But B12/ACC schools? Who is even QB for ASU/TCU/Louisville next year? C'mon. That is just being penny wise and pound foolish.

If a guy from Arizona wants to transfer to a school in Arizona to make it easier for his family to watch him play, how to you stop that.

We lose Texas / West Coast kids all the time to the portal. And we gain NJ / East Coast kids from the portal who also want to be closer to home.

 

[Archbold44]

If a guy from Arizona wants to transfer to a school in Arizona to make it easier for his family to watch him play, how to you stop that.

We lose Texas / West Coast kids all the time to the portal. And we gain NJ / East Coast kids from the portal who also want to be closer to home.

The bottom line is that if we cannot compete financially with B12/ACC schools, we might as well pack it in. IF every good player we get is going to leave to go "home" even if we try to pay them and just get stuck with NJ guys that flamed out somewhere else, not sure it's going to work.

I think overpaying for Gill so that his family can attend is smarter than trying to save money with TEMU WR and hoping that he is as good.

 

[PAcuse]

The bottom line is that if we cannot compete financially with B12/ACC schools, we might as well pack it in. IF every good player we get is going to leave to go "home" even if we try to pay them and just get stuck with NJ guys that flamed out somewhere else, not sure it's going to work.

I think overpaying for Gill so that his family can attend is smarter than trying to save money with TEMU WR and hoping that he is as good.

I think we really can't make these judgement calls until the portal is done.
We could afford a McCord.
Mabye Gill wants to be close to home, maybe he wants to play with a friend, we will not know unless he says

Fran has stated we are middle of the pack NIL for ACC
We have the resources to compete but way overspend on a WR with SO many holes in this team?

 

[CNYGuy]

I think we really can't make these judgement calls until the portal is done.
We could afford a McCord.
Mabye Gill wants to be close to home, maybe he wants to play with a friend, we will not know unless he says

Fran has stated we are middle of the pack NIL for ACC
We have the resources to compete but way overspend on a WR with SO many holes in this team?

Plus we have to look at this in an NFL model now.

You have set money. Teams let good free agents walk that they want to keep all the time because they want to use the funds elsewhere in roster construction.

 

[Archbold44]

Plus we have to look at this in an NFL model now.

You have set money. Teams let good free agents walk that they want to keep all the time because they want to use the funds elsewhere in roster construction.

I get all that. I even get that if Louisville wants to over pay him, that is Louisville's problem. But if we are going to constantly lose kids based on geography, maybe we need to revisit our geographic scope.

 

[IthacaMatt]

I think you're being disengenuous. Mostly it depends on where they are picked in the draft. Everybody knows that most late round picks have little chance to stick and not because of injury. It's about talent. If they make a roster, the time doubles and it triples if they make it 3 years.

That was his original point, not mine. My point was that most NFL guys who DO get drafted have an average career length of 3 years. His point - originally saying if a guy he likes is on an NFL team, he'll probably be with that team longer than the guys we root for in college.

 

[IthacaMatt]

I think we really can't make these judgement calls until the portal is done.
We could afford a McCord.
Mabye Gill wants to be close to home, maybe he wants to play with a friend, we will not know unless he says

Fran has stated we are middle of the pack NIL for ACC
We have the resources to compete but way overspend on a WR with SO many holes in this team?

While this is true, the number are working against us.
It costs so much more money to buy a guy from the portal than to get a HS kid.
We are going to wind up trading two experienced guys who left, for one guy from the portal and one HS kid.

 

[cayugacuse]

Some of the schools where Darrel could wind up if he wants to get back close to home.

U of Houston
Rice U
Texas A&M
U of Texas
Baylor

 

[djorange1989]

I think we really can't make these judgement calls until the portal is done.
We could afford a McCord.
Mabye Gill wants to be close to home, maybe he wants to play with a friend, we will not know unless he says

Fran has stated we are middle of the pack NIL for ACC
We have the resources to compete but way overspend on a WR with SO many holes in this team?

Your last sentence is the key. If we had fewer holes we would be able to pay Gill. We have a lot of holes so we can’t and that doesn’t take into account the possibility that he wants to be closer to home

 

[FrancoPizza]

Exactly, he’s an average athlete who got offered more money to go elsewhere. Everyone single one of us has done the same thing in our careers. Why are theirs any different?

Because college sports is an entertainment industry and brand identity matters. There is a reason blockbuster Hollywood sequels like to keep their main leads for continuity and fan interest. Imagine the original Superman played by Christopher Reeve, but Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone (both screen tested) take over in the sequel to fight General Zod who is no longer played by Terence Stamp because he got a bigger bag elsewhere. That’s what we have now. Chaos. We just need multi year contracts to calm things down.

 

[PAcuse]

While this is true, the number are working against us.
It costs so much more money to buy a guy from the portal than to get a HS kid.
We are going to wind up trading two experienced guys who left, for one guy from the portal and one HS kid.

We have a 5 star and a higher ranked JUCO WR already
One - two guys from the portal and we will be fine

 

[SuFTW]

I get all that. I even get that if Louisville wants to over pay him, that is Louisville's problem. But if we are going to constantly lose kids based on geography, maybe we need to revisit our geographic scope.

We had Gill for 3 years, that’s better than a lot of our New Jersey players.

 

[GHLF]

While this is true, the number are working against us.
It costs so much more money to buy a guy from the portal than to get a HS kid.
We are going to wind up trading two experienced guys who left, for one guy from the portal and one HS kid.

Current climate we live in, except for 10 to 15 schools which we are most certainly not in the group presently. Typically their 2 Deep can potentially go into the portal at least some of them and they certainly would like to keep them as well however they leave to a lesser degree. Complaining about it literally does nothing. My suggestion would be to contribute in any way to nil, support the team and believe we are desperately attempting to grow and learn like all of the other programs in our position. While real the challenges we have and certainly the benefits that still hold true to this great institution. It has to mean something right concerning the future and trust things will level out, however we must invest and remain positive which we are trying to do. Are you on board?

 

[llandz]

Gill did not transfer to be closer to home. If given permission, after the dust settles I will fill in the why. Not until he announces where he is going. And only if they tell me it is ok to share.