Top-flight QB with Syracuse football offer named pre-season All-American

Quarterback Stone Saunders from Pennsylvania, who holds a scholarship offer from Syracuse football, was stellar as a freshman.

A national expert is forecasting that the 6-foot-2 Saunders, a member of the 2025 class, is primed for another special season as a sophomore.

Recently MaxPreps national football editor Zack Poff published a piece where he unveiled his pre-season sophomore All-America teams ahead of the upcoming 2022 campaign.

Saunders, who attends Bishop McDevitt High School in Harrisburg, Pa., was placed on the MaxPreps sophomore All-America second squad by Poff.

Syracuse football coaches offered elite quarterback Stone Saunders this past April.

As a freshman for Bishop McDevitt, Saunders put up some video game-like statistics. Per 247Sports, in 2021, he threw for 3,037 passing yards with 46 touchdowns, against just five interceptions.

In compiling 46 TD passes as a freshman, Poff wrote that Saunders broke the Bishop McDevitt program record. The Crusaders, a stanza ago, reached the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (“PIAA”) Class 4A championship contest.

We noted in a prior column that MaxPreps picked Saunders for its freshman All-America second team for his brilliant performance in the 2021 term.

Saunders disclosed his offer from the Orange coaching staff via Twitter in the spring. Despite his recruiting process being extremely early on, Saunders has already amassed offers and interest that total around 20 college squads, if not more, per recruiting services.

Some of his more recent scholarship offers have arrived from teams like Georgia, Cincinnati, Wisconsin and Virginia Tech. Georgia, last season, won the College Football Playoff national title, while Cincinnati earned one of the four berths in the CFP.

Saunders’ other offers include another CFP participant in the latest campaign, Michigan, along with Pittsburgh, Texas A&M, Louisville, Connecticut, Maryland, Minnesota, Bowling Green, Akron and Kent State.

His bio on Rivals.com suggests that Saunders is also receiving interest from Oklahoma, Baylor, Texas, Penn State and Rutgers.

According to recruiting services and his Twitter page, Saunders has already taken unofficial visits to a handful of programs, including Texas A&M, Penn State, Michigan, Texas and Rutgers.

I would imagine that as the primary recruiting services begin to roll out national rankings for the 2025 cycle, Saunders will enter those ratings as a highly touted prospect, both overall and at the quarterback position.

Naturally, given his already impressive offer list, it would prove understandable if some Syracuse football recruiting enthusiasts are skeptical that the ‘Cuse has a shot with Saunders. I get that sort of sentiment.

I credit the Orange coaching staff for offering him, and perhaps Saunders will elect to take an unofficial or official visit to the Hill down the line. We’ll certainly monitor his recruiting process moving forward.