Syracuse Football: For 4-star, top-20 defensive back, SU ‘stands very high’

Syracuse football recently got into the recruiting mix for 2024 defensive back Willy Love, a four-star prospect from New Jersey.

Love, listed at 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds on Rivals.com, is in the sophomore class and attends Woodrow Wilson High School in Camden, N.J.

He revealed a scholarship offer from the Orange via Twitter on April 8. Per an article from SyracuseOnSI publisher Mike McAllister, Love recently took a trip to the ‘Cuse campus, and that visit appeared to go quite well.

"Love said in part to McAllister, “Cuse was amazing. The best parts of the entire trip was touring the campus and seeing how much love the players get. How it is being a Cuse player. There’s no NFL team around so Syracuse is the town’s favorite guys. They support them at a high level. I noticed it when I saw the stores and the amount of people wearing Syracuse. How nicely and kindly they treated the recruits.”"

It’s important to note here that Love is cousins with Syracuse football star defensive back Duce Chestnut, who will be entering his sophomore campaign with the Orange during the 2022 stanza.

Syracuse football will face heated competition for four-star defensive back Willy Love.

According to a review of various recruiting services and his Twitter page, Love holds at least 10 other scholarship offers at this juncture, from the likes of Georgia, which won the most recent College Football Playoff national title earlier this year, Boston College, Connecticut, Ole Miss, Penn State, Rutgers, Temple, Texas A&M, West Virginia and Western Michigan.

The Orange doesn’t have a commitment as of yet in the 2024 recruiting cycle, and Love would certainly prove a game-changer in this class if he did ultimately commit to the ‘Cuse.

He is a consensus four-star prospect, according to Rivals.com, 247Sports and the industry-generated 247Sports Composite. Rivals.com lists Love as a multi-positional athlete who is No. 237 overall, the No. 33 athlete and No. 5 in New Jersey within the 2024 cycle.

Both the 247Sports Composite and 247Sports list Love as a safety. In his class, Love is No. 165 nationally, No. 18 at safety and No. 4 in New Jersey, per the composite, while the 247Sports recruiting service places him at No. 147 nationwide, No. 14 at safety and No. 1 in New Jersey.

We’ll obviously continue to follow Love’s recruiting process moving forward. The ‘Cuse could have a good shot with him, as Love said to McAllister, “For the love Cuse showed and Duce being there, Syracuse stands very high.”