Eight months ago, when Fran Brown was hired, there was an excitement unlike anything else I’ve ever seen around the Syracuse football program. It wasn’t because Brown is a former NFL coach like Bill O’Brien at Boston College or Matt Rhule at Nebraska. And it wasn’t a Deion Sanders situation at Colorado with a big name coach who brought a lot more flash than substance. Fran Brown brought legitimate exposure as one of the best if not the best recruiters in the country. We all saw the impact that was made right away. Multiple four-stars made late commitments to SU and the Orange brought in a plethora of highly touted transfers including Kyle McCord and Fadil Diggs.
In addition to the late committing class of 24 players, multiple highly rated class of 25 and 26 players committed to the 315 right away. However, all of that seems to have slowed down now that Brown has gotten settled at Syracuse. How much of a concern is it that these players aren’t just not committing to SU anymore, but are now decommitting as well?
It isn’t time to push any panic button just yet. As we wrote before, it was expected that SU would drop in the rankings after the number of early commits. However, at some point, Fran Brown needs to turn the 2025 class around. The numbers are there, with 28 players committing to join the ‘Cuse. However, the quality is not. On3 doesn’t have a single four-star committed to the Orange right now in the class of 2025. If Syracuse is going to take the next step as a program and be a legitimate contender in the ACC then that can’t be the case. Right now the Orange have one of the worst classes in the conference for next year. If Brown’s big selling point was his recruiting then that has to improve soon.
