Everyone agrees Elijah Kimble’s commitment to Syracuse is a massive win. Beating Ohio State, national champion Indiana and Bill Belichick’s North Carolina for the state’s top-ranked player will do that.
But “massive” gets thrown around a lot in recruiting coverage. We wanted a real number behind it, not just a vibe. So the Orange Fizz staff went digging through 247Sports’ year-by-year rankings to trace exactly where New York’s No. 1 recruit has signed, one class at a time, back to 2012.
Sixteen classes. One clear pattern, and it is not flattering for Syracuse — until the very end.
Here’s the state’s best player, year by year, and where he signed:
- 2012: Chad Kelly → Clemson
- 2013: Laray Smith → Indiana
- 2014: Thomas Holley → Florida
- 2015: Tyrone Wheatley Jr. → Michigan
- 2016: Jake Zembiec (Aquinas Institute, Rochester) → Penn State
- 2017: Isaiah Wilson (Poly Prep, Brooklyn) → Georgia
- 2018: Jeremy Ruckert (Lindenhurst) → Ohio State
- 2019: Adisa Isaac → Penn State. Syracuse didn’t sign a single one of the state’s top 20 recruits that year.
- 2020: Israel Abanikanda → Pitt
- 2021: Jahzion Harris (Erasmus Hall, Brooklyn) → Texas A&M
- 2022: Moses Walker → Rutgers
- 2023: Tyriq Blanding (Christ the King) → Penn State
- 2024: Josiah Brown (Holy Trinity, Hicksville) → Penn State
- 2025: A down year for blue-chip talent in-state. Quante Gillians was tied with several other three-stars, including Lyrick Samuel, for the top of a shallow class. Depending on which service you check, Syracuse can fairly claim it landed a share of the state’s best player that year. Give Fran Brown that one.
- 2026: Messiah Hampton (James Monroe, Rochester) → Oregon
- 2027: Elijah Kimble (Canisius, Buffalo) → Syracuse
Look at that list. Clemson. Indiana. Florida. Michigan. Penn State, three separate times. Georgia. Ohio State. Pitt. Texas A&M. Rutgers. Oregon. Every corner of the country got a turn taking New York’s best player before Syracuse ever did.
That’s fifteen years of a program that couldn’t win the one recruiting battle in its backyard.
And notice who’s doing the damage in the middle of that stretch: Penn State, over and over. Zembiec in 2016. Isaac in 2019. Blanding in 2023. Brown in 2024. If there’s a villain in this story, it’s James Franklin’s staff treating the Empire State’s top prospect like a standing reservation.
Then 2025 gives Fran Brown his first real foothold — a muddled year, sure, but one where Syracuse’s name belongs in the conversation for the first time in this entire look-back. And 2027 gives him the real thing: an unambiguous, consensus No. 1 who picked Syracuse outright, with zero asterisks, over Ohio State, Indiana and Bill Belichick’s North Carolina.
Sixteen years. Fifteen of them ended with New York’s best player leaving. This is the first time the state’s clear top prospect chose to stay and play for the Orange.
That’s the whole column right there. Welcome home, Elijah.
Editor’s note: Years 2023–2027 were independently verified against ESPN’s recruiting database. Years 2012–2022 were compiled by the Orange Fizz staff from 247Sports’ historical rankings. As always, recruit rankings can vary slightly by service, and we’ve noted the one year (2025) where that ambiguity matters.
