Okay, who have we got that is good in the portal for next year?

[PAcuse]

With us taking a recruiting class of 35 we had very very very little margin at "winning" the portal this year.
Considering on what our needs are we've done fairly well and added a potential higher tier QB.
We have two LBers coming in that should be difference makers (this position group was most likely our worst)
OL depth (maybe more to come)
Chris Thomas is a solid big body in the middle that seems to have one a starting job over Watson
WR we have a ton visiting and looks like we might pick up a playmaker (fingers crossed)

Does it suck to lose the players we do, 100%
The sky is not falling. I get Watson was an all American freshman DT and oozes potential, so yes huge lose. We will continue to potential lose players like this if the NCAA keeps allowing tempering to go on.
Pena his lose is a mixed back. We have a huge whole at punt returner and slot receiver. It's not impossible to make up his production and it will be interesting to see how much of his break year was due to McCord.

This is college football, the wild west where the players have ALL the power now and the big boys openly do what they want.

 

[AngryOtto]

Have to wait for the dust to settle to see if the portal was a positive or negative. I like the additions so far. Have a lot of high end kids visiting but need to get some to commit. We appear to have decent nil but will not over pay if another program wants to throw crazy money at the player. I trust Fran. We will win some and loose some but it will not be a lack of effort on Fran’s part.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Only ones i’m excited about right now are Angeli and Bryant. Lesser extend Collins, and Thomas in that order. I definitely do not think we’re winning the portal. Watson, Peña, Hornsby, Zeed(?) are much bigger losses. I mean we pretty much lost our best offensive and defensive returner in the last week.

Would like another OT/C, big time WR, corner, DT

Watson is a huge loss. Pena is a big loss but that situation soured sounds like. Hornsby never played. Hard to call Zeed a loss really.

 

[Maisel123!]

If I am correct in past years when Syracuse players left they almost all went to "lower"
ranking schools, not much to P5 programs. Now when players go into the portal they almost always go to P5 programs. It is a sign of both better recruiting as well as players developing in the program, even tho we lost some good players. So glad to get good players in the portal too! HCFB is amazing.

 

[anomander]

If Angeli turns out to be a competent starter then we won the portal going away. It’s the #1 position on the team and by far the biggest question mark. And if Rickie is a quality backup then we even further won it. Kind of hard to really comment now in general as it’s unfinished and we won’t know what we have at QB until we get into the season.

Collins probably is an upgrade over Hornsby at Center. Bryant looks like everything we wanted in a LB add and Reese should be a disruptive add at Edge. And Thomas looks like a really solid add to the DT pool.

Why are you even listing Zeed? He barely played here and never was going to play. He was a loss for last season. He isn’t a loss again for 2025 because he was never coming back.

Watson and Pena are the two stingers right now but those are arguably our two deepest position units and we’re not done in the portal with WR from the looks of things. And honestly the portal has nothing to do with Pena - for him to come in hot demanding $2mm is sort of telling in itself. Watson had a real offer out there for a ton of cash. Trebor didn’t but tried to strong arm it. He’s not a leader and the team will probably be better for it in the long run.

Pena can ask for whatever he wants he’s still a big loss whatever way you put it. It’s not easy to replace 84 catches and even though we have depth at both those positions those 2 were the top guys. I get having bodies is nice but being able to make game winning plays is a different thing.

Like I mentioned we haven’t really picked up anyone out of the portal that match either of those 2. Collins and Thomas should be serviceable, but they aren’t going to be all-league players. The LB pick up was nice because we desperately needed one and the key will be Angeli, who I really like and think starts, but is still a big question mark.

Let’s see what else we do but if we’re being honest that isn’t winning the portal .

 

[dasher]

Pena can ask for whatever he wants he’s still a big loss whatever way you put it. It’s not easy to replace 84 catches and even though we have depth at both those positions those 2 were the top guys. I get having bodies is nice but being able to make game winning plays is a different thing.

Like I mentioned we haven’t really picked up anyone out of the portal that match either of those 2. Collins and Thomas should be serviceable, but they aren’t going to be all-league players. The LB pick up was nice because we desperately needed one and the key will be Angeli, who I really like and think starts, but is still a big question mark.

Let’s see what else we do but if we’re being honest that isn’t winning the portal .

I disagree with your overall assessment of the players we brought in. I also disagree with you when you add Hornsby and Zeed in to the losses. But in fairness, you also missed Barnes on the losses side.

 

[tep624]

Pena can ask for whatever he wants he’s still a big loss whatever way you put it. It’s not easy to replace 84 catches and even though we have depth at both those positions those 2 were the top guys. I get having bodies is nice but being able to make game winning plays is a different thing.

Like I mentioned we haven’t really picked up anyone out of the portal that match either of those 2. Collins and Thomas should be serviceable, but they aren’t going to be all-league players. The LB pick up was nice because we desperately needed one and the key will be Angeli, who I really like and think starts, but is still a big question mark.

Let’s see what else we do but if we’re being honest that isn’t winning the portal .

Like i said - a lot comes down to what happens in the fall. If we come out of fall camp with a really healthy QB depth chart, I’m content. Even including Watson.

And it may not be a popular opinion but I think Pena is addition by subtraction. Trying to strong arm the program for 4x your street value isn’t leadership and probably best that ship sailed to another port. It’s just ironic that port appears to be the one managed by one of the larger scumbag humans of a coach in CFB.

 

[SUFaninNJ]

Pena can ask for whatever he wants he’s still a big loss whatever way you put it. It’s not easy to replace 84 catches and even though we have depth at both those positions those 2 were the top guys. I get having bodies is nice but being able to make game winning plays is a different thing.

Like I mentioned we haven’t really picked up anyone out of the portal that match either of those 2. Collins and Thomas should be serviceable, but they aren’t going to be all-league players. The LB pick up was nice because we desperately needed one and the key will be Angeli, who I really like and think starts, but is still a big question mark.

Let’s see what else we do but if we’re being honest that isn’t winning the portal .

In fairness, we didn’t know that Peña was going to be as productive as he was last year. I’d rather he not have left, but in April we don’t know if someone can and will fill his shoes.

 

[tep624]

In fairness, we didn’t know that Peña was going to be as productive as he was last year. I’d rather he not have left, but in April we don’t know if someone can and will fill his shoes.

And we didn't know that about Meeks either. I think we'll be really happy with Emanuel Ross come fall. He's legit. And Boobie as a true freshman was really impressive in the Spring Game.

 

[anomander]

In fairness, we didn’t know that Peña was going to be as productive as he was last year. I’d rather he not have left, but in April we don’t know if someone can and will fill his shoes.

Totally fair but one is a proven commodity the other we’re hoping 1 out of a group of guys break out. Nothing guaranteed. Even if there is a break out it doesn’t diminish the loss of Peña because we needed someone else to break out to take the load of Peña. We have a good looking group but the question/statement was that we won the portal to which i don’t think we did as it stands right now.

 

[SUFaninNJ]

Totally fair but one is a proven commodity the other we’re hoping 1 out of a group of guys break out. Nothing guaranteed. Even if there is a break out it doesn’t diminish the loss of Peña because we needed someone else to break out to take the load of Peña. We have a good looking group but the question/statement was that we won the portal to which i don’t think we did as it stands right now.

Not only do we have to see who steps up for Cuse, we’ll also have to see how the guys who portaled out do before we can say for sure.

 

[GoSU96]

Totally fair but one is a proven commodity the other we’re hoping 1 out of a group of guys break out. Nothing guaranteed. Even if there is a break out it doesn’t diminish the loss of Peña because we needed someone else to break out to take the load of Peña. We have a good looking group but the question/statement was that we won the portal to which i don’t think we did as it stands right now.

Last year the guys with the most experience on the roster from the year before were Hatcher, JRS, and Gill. Meeks, Haynes, Pena, and Gadsden had virtually no game snaps the prior year.

JRS and Gill are more proven than the unit going into last season was. If Hatcher is a full go is was a top five guy last year. The WR will be fine.