Syracuse Football: Pa. quarterback with ‘Cuse offer had ridiculous season

Stone Saunders, a 2025 quarterback from Pennsylvania who holds a Syracuse football offer, followed up a stellar freshman season with an even more exquisite sophomore campaign.

The 6-foot-2, 200-pound Saunders, in the recently completed 2022 stanza, helped guide Bishop McDevitt High School in Harrisburg, Pa., to a state title and put up some video-game-like numbers in doing so.

Per the MaxPreps Web site, as a sophomore Saunders threw for 3,583 yards and compiled 54 passing touchdowns against just five interceptions.

In the 2021 term, Saunders was a second-team freshman All-American, according to MaxPreps, and he tallied 3,037 passing yards, 46 touchdowns and only five picks.

So if my math is correct (never a given), in his two seasons with Bishop McDevitt, Saunders has passed for 100 touchdowns with only 10 interceptions. That’s insane.

Syracuse football faces steep competition for elite QB Stone Saunders.

Bishop McDevitt, in 2021, went 12-2 and fell to Aliquippa High School out of Aliquippa, Pa., in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class 4A championship contest.

But Bishop McDevitt and Saunders avenged that loss in the most recent campaign. Per an article from Eric Frantz of MaxPreps, Bishop McDevitt went 13-1 in the 2022 term and defeated Aliquippa, 41-18, in the Class 4A title game.

Saunders completed 10 of his 16 passes for 167 yards and a whopping five touchdowns against Aliquippa, and it was the first state championship for the Bishop McDevitt Crusaders dating back to 1995, according to Frantz.

Not too long ago, MaxPreps doled out its 2022 player of the year award in Pennsylvania to Saunders. He also recently was named the Pennsylvania Football Writers’ 4A player of the year and PennLive’s Mid-Penn offensive player of the year.

As the primary recruiting services begin to publish their initial 2025 national rankings, I would be shocked if Saunders isn’t a four-star prospect and a top-300 national player in his recruiting cycle.

The Orange coaching staff offered a scholarship to him this past April. According to recruiting services, he presently has more than 15 offers in total from a range of high-major programs.

Saunders’ offer sheet, besides Syracuse football, includes Georgia, Michigan, Texas A&M, Wisconsin, Colorado, Maryland, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Louisville, Cincinnati, Nebraska and UConn.

It’s understandable if many ‘Cuse fans feel that the Orange has little to no shot of prevailing in Saunders’ recruitment, given his existing list of offers, with more impressive new ones likely on the way.

I get it. But as I always say, you can’t win out for a top-flight prospect unless you offer him first. Let’s see if Syracuse football can emerge as a viable contender for Saunders.