The story was perfect: Messiah Hampton, the top-ranked football recruit in the state of New York for the class of 2026, had Syracuse as one of his final three schools before announcing his commitment.
Much closer to home than the other two schools in his top three, Oregon and Miami, head coach Fran Brown even moved a team practice in the spring to Hampton’s high school to try and secure his signature. With Brown doing everything to get Hampton, and the advantage of being so close to home, it seemed like a perfect match for Syracuse to nab the four-star wide receiver.
A perfect match, until Hampton announced he was committing to Oregon and donned a yellow and green hat instead of Syracuse Orange.
Brutal.
Under Fran Brown, there’s no denying that Syracuse football is on an upward trajectory, and well on its way to achieving Brown’s outspoken goal of winning a national championship with the Orange. But Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither are national championship contenders, so there were bound to be some growing pains along the way.
Syracuse already has one of the top 25 recruiting classes for 2026 in the entire country, but signing Hampton could have easily pushed the Orange into the top 15, maybe even the top 10. Those types of opportunities, no matter how good Syracuse is already looking next year, are the ones that you have to nail to be a championship contender in the new college football landscape.
There’s still plenty of time for Brown to establish the Orange as a perennial powerhouse to make more of those big-talent splashes. Eventually, Syracuse will have the type of resume to win recruiting battles over top schools like Oregon and Miami if Brown sees a similar level of success he enjoyed in Year 1 during his time with the Orange.
In fact, Brown was so close to signing Hampton that money reportedly wasn’t a factor, as the four-star prospect’s family preferred Oregon’s play style and NFL experience on its coaching staff.
Missing out on Hampton is a reminder that while Syracuse is on the path to becoming a powerhouse in college football, it isn’t there yet, and there are still some boxes the Orange have to check to get there. While that may sting in the short term, Syracuse should still have plenty of future success with Brown running the show.
