Class of 2026 Top Prospects NYS Class of 2026

[sutomcat]

Here is my first draft of the top prospects in New York in the class of 2026.

A couple of moved but they are still New York kids in my book so I am continuing to list them, though I note they are now playing out of state.

I think this is something we will probably continue to see because there just isn’t much focus from college coaches on NYS. But not as much with the increased focus the home state core program Syracuse has now placed on recruiting in the state.

As in recent years, most of the best players are located in the NYC/Westchester county area, though Syracuse CBA and Bennett in Buffalo are starting to produce multiple D1 players as well. That said, it looks to me as though Rochester has suddenly become the epicenter of NYS talent.

Looks like a strong class. Already 20 kids with D1 offers and there will be more coming. I am sure I have missed some kids and have to review a few more areas and look at a bunch more film before I will be done here.

Let’s see what happens.

Note that I have also started a list of the top players in the class of 2027 (and 2028 and 2029). Check thoe out too (thry are in separate worksheets), if you hie interest.

Note: when you click on the link, select the Preview Spreadsheet option to view it.

Link:

Best NYS Prospects Class of 2026

Shared by the sutomcat

www.icloud.com

 

[orange79]

Thanks, Tom! Merry Christmas!

 

[Cusefan69]

Here is my first draft of the top prospects in New York in the class of 2026.

A couple of moved but they are still New York kids in my book so I am continuing to list them, though I note they are now playing out of state.

I think this is something we will probably continue to see because there just isn’t much focus from college coaches on NYS. But not as much with the increased focus the home state core program Syracuse has now placed on recruiting in the state.

As in recent years, most of the best players are located in the NYC/Westchester county area, though Syracuse CBA and Bennett in Buffalo are starting to produce multiple D1 players as well. That said, it looks to me as though Rochester has suddenly become the epicenter of NYS talent.

Looks like a strong class. Already 20 kids with D1 offers and there will be more coming. I am sure I have missed some kids and have to review a few more areas and look at a bunch more film before I will be done here.

Let’s see what happens.

Note that I have also started a list of the top players in the class of 2027 (and 2028 and 2029). Check thoe out too (thry are in separate worksheets), if you hie interest.

Note: when you click on the link, select the Preview Spreadsheet option to view it.
Link:

Best NYS Prospects Class of 2026

Shared by the sutomcat

www.icloud.com

Thanks for putting this together Tom!

 

[vegasnick]

Here is my first draft of the top prospects in New York in the class of 2026.

A couple of moved but they are still New York kids in my book so I am continuing to list them, though I note they are now playing out of state.

I think this is something we will probably continue to see because there just isn’t much focus from college coaches on NYS. But not as much with the increased focus the home state core program Syracuse has now placed on recruiting in the state.

As in recent years, most of the best players are located in the NYC/Westchester county area, though Syracuse CBA and Bennett in Buffalo are starting to produce multiple D1 players as well. That said, it looks to me as though Rochester has suddenly become the epicenter of NYS talent.

Looks like a strong class. Already 20 kids with D1 offers and there will be more coming. I am sure I have missed some kids and have to review a few more areas and look at a bunch more film before I will be done here.

Let’s see what happens.

Note that I have also started a list of the top players in the class of 2027 (and 2028 and 2029). Check thoe out too (thry are in separate worksheets), if you hie interest.

Note: when you click on the link, select the Preview Spreadsheet option to view it.
Link:

Best NYS Prospects Class of 2026

Shared by the sutomcat

www.icloud.com

Tom I couldn't open the spreadsheet- I'm getting an error that says I don't have permission to view it

 

[sutomcat]

Tom I couldn't open the spreadsheet- I'm getting an error that says I don't have permission to view it

I was afraid of that. At my brother’s house now. Will be a while before I can get to a Windows PC, which I think is needed to get this changed.

 

[sutomcat]

Here is my first draft of the top prospects in New York in the class of 2026.

A couple of moved but they are still New York kids in my book so I am continuing to list them, though I note they are now playing out of state.

I think this is something we will probably continue to see because there just isn’t much focus from college coaches on NYS. But not as much with the increased focus the home state core program Syracuse has now placed on recruiting in the state.

As in recent years, most of the best players are located in the NYC/Westchester county area, though Syracuse CBA and Bennett in Buffalo are starting to produce multiple D1 players as well. That said, it looks to me as though Rochester has suddenly become the epicenter of NYS talent.

Looks like a strong class. Already 20 kids with D1 offers and there will be more coming. I am sure I have missed some kids and have to review a few more areas and look at a bunch more film before I will be done here.

Let’s see what happens.

Note that I have also started a list of the top players in the class of 2027 (and 2028 and 2029). Check thoe out too (thry are in separate worksheets), if you hie interest.

Note: when you click on the link, select the Preview Spreadsheet option to view it.

Link:

Best NYS Prospects Class of 2026

Shared by the sutomcat

www.icloud.com

Try the link now. It might be working.

Still think you need to do the preview spreadsheet trick to get it to open.

 

[JarHeadJim]

Try the link now. It might be working.

Still think you need to do the preview spreadsheet trick to get it to open.

Yes it's working now Tom.

 

[AngryOtto]

Thanks for the list. It’s great being able to follow the best players in ny. I wonder how much a number of the top recruits moving out of state for their senior season affects su ability to get a commitment. Hopefully they want to come back home to play in front of family and friends.

 

[JoeCollege]

Thanks for the list. It’s great being able to follow the best players in ny. I wonder how much a number of the top recruits moving out of state for their senior season affects su ability to get a commitment. Hopefully they want to come back home to play in front of family and friends.

In the case of Ramil, his dad was a walk on at Alabama. I don't think SU was ever in consideration.

 

[anomander]

hate seeing NY kids go to NE preps or IMG.

I thought talent in NYS has been increasing. Still looks that way in upstate/WNY, but a down year for NYC.

 

[sutomcat]

hate seeing NY kids go to NE preps or IMG.

I thought talent in NYS has been increasing. Still looks that way in upstate/WNY, but a down year for NYC.

I will be adding to this document over time. I am reviewing various all region teams and looking at tape of the guys returning as time alllows. Also, the NYS all state teams will be coming out soon, which will give me another big list of players to review.

I would expect the list of players for the class of 2026 to grow to over 100 in the next couple of months. And if you want, check out the other classes in the future, which are also growing as players develop, put their film out and we get more information.

 

[cayugacuse]

Interesting (to me anyways) tidbit, 26 Iona Prep rb Crew Davis verbaled to UNC recently to play football and lacrosse. 247 has only two players from NY ranked at this point and Crew is one of them. I haven't seen any interest from SU for football. Not sure if there was any lacrosse interest either.

 

[sutomcat]

Interesting (to me anyways) tidbit, 26 Iona Prep rb Crew Davis verbaled to UNC recently to play football and lacrosse. 247 has only two players from NY ranked at this point and Crew is one of them. I haven't seen any interest from SU for football. Not sure if there was any lacrosse interest either.

Davis is an interesting story. It looks like he got about 500 yards in the regular season but in the playoffs, he got a ton of carries and added 800 more yards to his stats, as Iona Prep won a 'state championship' held among some of the NYS catholic schools.

MaxPreps named him the NYS POY for his big playoff performance, which is shocking but standard for that organization. They named Ajani Shepard NYS POY in 2021. He had no offers from any good schools and was forced to enroll at Rutgers. In 2022, they named Dante Torres their NYS POY. Even Rutgers didn't want him and he ended up at Harvard (apparently an excellent student). In 2023, they named Rich Belin their NYS POY. He of course ended up at Syracuse, where he just enrolled. All these guys are good players but I don't think anyone knowledgeable would put them in the top 20 players in the state. They are barely top 20 players in their class.

Why is MaxPreps doing this? Well, Shepard went to Iona Prep. Torres went to St Anthony's. Belin went to Cardinal Hayes and now this Davis guy went to Iona Prep. They are all in the same league of catholic HS in the NYS area and I think whoever is making choices for MaxPreps is in bed with that league.

The thing that I find really interesting is that a few days before Crew Davis committed to UNC, a guy named Gary Merrill committed to UNC. Like Davis, for football and lacrosse. Merrill is a class of 2025 player so taking a verbal from him so late is very very unusual.

It should be noted Merrrill also won a NYS POY award, this time the Gatorade award. Merrill is 6'1 185 pounds. Another guy who was thought to be destined to only play lacrosse in college. He had been verbaled to UNC for lax for a while. But Bellichek extended that offer to footblal as well. I think they offered him so they could say they got the NYS POY and hype up their program.

I don't think Merrill had a football offer from any BCS level school. He ran for almost 2000 yards in 2024 and threw for 1700 plus. Another guy who padded his stats big time with big games in the playoffs against teams with bad defenses. His film is mostly him running options but his arm strength and mechanics need a lot of work.

My opinion is that Merrill is a very good HS player but not remotely one of the top 20 football prospects in the state. I had him as the 81st best prospect in the 2025 class for NYS and I am going to stand with that.

I wish him good luck in Chapel Hill.

 

[CbusCuse]

Davis is an interesting story. It looks like he got about 500 yards in the regular season but in the playoffs, he got a ton of carries and added 800 more yards to his stats, as Iona Prep won a 'state championship' held among some of the NYS catholic schools.

MaxPreps named him the NYS POY for his big playoff performance, which is shocking but standard for that organization. They named Ajani Shepard NYS POY in 2021. He had no offers from any good schools and was forced to enroll at Rutgers. In 2022, they named Dante Torres their NYS POY. Even Rutgers didn't want him and he ended up at Harvard (apparently an excellent student). In 2023, they named Rich Belin their NYS POY. He of course ended up at Syracuse, where he just enrolled. All these guys are good players but I don't think anyone knowledgeable would put them in the top 20 players in the state. They are barely top 20 players in their class.

Why is MaxPreps doing this? Well, Shepard went to Iona Prep. Torres went to St Anthony's. Belin went to Cardinal Hayes and now this Davis guy went to Iona Prep. They are all in the same league of catholic HS in the NYS area and I think whoever is making choices for MaxPreps is in bed with that league.

The thing that I find really interesting is that a few days before Crew Davis committed to UNC, a guy named Gary Merrill committed to UNC. Like Davis, for football and lacrosse. Merrill is a class of 2025 player so taking a verbal from him so late is very very unusual.

It should be noted Merrrill also won a NYS POY award, this time the Gatorade award. Merrill is 6'1 185 pounds. Another guy who was thought to be destined to only play lacrosse in college. He had been verbaled to UNC for lax for a while. But Bellichek extended that offer to footblal as well. I think they offered him so they could say they got the NYS POY and hype up their program.

I don't think Merrill had a football offer from any BCS level school. He ran for almost 2000 yards in 2024 and threw for 1700 plus. Another guy who padded his stats big time with big games in the playoffs against teams with bad defenses. His film is mostly him running options but his arm strength and mechanics need a lot of work.

My opinion is that Merrill is a very good HS player but not remotely one of the top 20 football prospects in the state. I had him as the 81st best prospect in the 2025 class for NYS and I am going to stand with that.

I wish him good luck in Chapel Hill.

That's a lot of great information Tom. Thanks!

 

[cayugacuse]

Thanks for the details sutomcat. My guess is that with proposed new scholarship setup, he will fall in the 86-105 range of the roster depth. The area of what was formerly a walk on.

 

[sutomcat]

Thanks for the details sutomcat. My guess is that with proposed new scholarship setup, he will fall in the 86-105 range of the roster depth. The area of what was formerly a walk on.

I agree with you.

I think when you have a player who plays football and another sport, their scholarship has to count against the other sport.

This is the Miami rule, designed to stop the abuses UM made when they had scholarships pulled for cheating and put some stud football players with no scholarships on the track team instead.

So SU recruit Joe Filardi, who is also slated to play lacrosse and football (I believe he just enrolled), has his scholarship count against the lacrosse team's numbers.

It is a way of getting around the scholarship limit. Belechick is on top of things here, as expected.

I heard an XM radio story a couple of weeks ago where the host touched on the Merrill commitment.

He said the UNC QB job was wide open and he wouldn't be surprised if Merrill won it. That made me curious about Merrill. Was he really a legit top level talent at QB?

I reviewed his senior film for football. think he is a very good athlete but very raw as a passer. He is going to have a lot of work to do to improve his arm strength and throwing mechanics. He might end up being a good option as a wildcat QB though.

As an aside, Joe Filardi threw for 3115 yards and 43 TDs, and ran for 1204 yards and 12 TDs in the 2024 season. He accounted for 4,319 yards and 55 TDs his senior year. He ended up with 9 interceptions. His HS played 11 games.

Merrill threw for 1762 yards and 19 TDs and ran for 1955 yards and 32 TDs. He accounted for 3707 yards and 51 TDs in 2024. He had 10 interceptions. His team played 13 games (and he had huge numbers in his playoff games).

Hard to understand how Merrill got selected. His team didn't even win the little HS 'catholic' state championship. Iona Prep did. Great running QB. If there was a championship for running from the QB position, he should probably get it. But you need to also take passing stats into account I think.

I will be interested to track all the careers for all three of these guys for lacrosse and football. Hope at least one of them gets some real playing time in football at some point in their career.

 

[cayugacuse]

Good to see these young lads get their foot in the door and get an opportunity. I will be keeping an eye on Filardi and hoping he gets to play some football at the Cuse. Reminds me of Chris Hogan who spent four years playing lacrosse at Penn St. and one year playing football at Monmouth. Then a nice career playing receiver in the NFL. A side note...doesn't look like some of these sites put a lot of time in researching these recruits.