Syracuse Football: N.J. 4-star Willy Love set to decide, SU has prediction

Syracuse football coaches will soon know if four-star athlete Willy Love will become the latest addition to their growing, top-40 nationally ranked 2024 recruiting cycle.

Per the terrific SyracuseOnSI publisher Mike McAllister, the 6-foot-2, 200-pound Love plans to reveal his future collegiate destination on Thursday, July 6. I’m hoping for some good Orange news on that day, given July 6 is also my son’s seventh birthday lol!

All kidding aside, Rutgers certainly has gotten a decent amount of analyst buzz for Love on recruiting Web sites in recent months, however, as I noted in a column not too long ago, Syracuse football does have at least one projection in its direction for Love on Rivals.com.

Offered a scholarship by the ‘Cuse coaching staff in April of 2022, Willy Love has visited the Hill on numerous occasions. The rising senior at Eastside High School in Camden, N.J., suits up at several positions, mainly defensive back, linebacker and wide receiver.

Syracuse football has pursued 2024 four-star athlete Willy Love for a while now.

In mid-June, Love disclosed via Twitter a top seven of the Orange, Maryland, Rutgers, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Texas A&M and West Virginia.

Is his recruitment a two-team race between Syracuse football and the Scarlet Knights? I wouldn’t pretend to know, as I’m not plugged into the recruiting process of Willy Love.

He did recently participate in the ‘Cuse seven-on-seven camp. Per several articles from McAllister, Love is forging a relationship with the new Syracuse football safeties/rovers coach, Darrell Perkins.

https://twitter.com/iiiamwilly_/status/1673465172994793473

Around the time of this Orange camp, Willy Love said in part to McAllister, “My interest in Cuse is always high but during the process I see it as it’s who is interested in you as well. I hope Syracuse and coach Perkins become major contenders in this process.”

Love, as I’ve noted before, is cousins with defensive back Duce Chestnut, who played two seasons for Syracuse football and now competes for Southeastern Conference squad LSU.

Throughout his recruitment, Willy Love has landed roughly 20 scholarship offers from a variety of high-major programs. His offer sheet includes two-time defending national champion Georgia, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Boston College, Cincinnati, UConn, Maryland, Michigan State, Nebraska, Ole Miss, Oregon, Penn State, West Virginia, Texas A&M and Temple, among others.

When I penned this column, the industry-generated 247Sports Composite had him rated as four stars, No. 424 nationally, No. 37 at athlete and No. 8 in New Jersey. Rivals.com ranks Willy Love as four stars, the No. 27 athlete and the No. 5 prospect in New Jersey within the 2024 cycle.

On Saturday, July 1, Syracuse football scored a verbal commitment from 2024 three-star linebacker Matthew Stenbroten. The 6-foot-4, 225-pound Stenbroten is out of Lake Mills High School in Lake Mills, Wis.

https://twitter.com/DAMNTWIN/status/1675260659972427776

At the time of this writing, the Orange had picked up a total of 16 verbal commitments to date in this class. Both the 247Sports Composite and Rivals.com, when I wrote this piece, had the Syracuse football 2024 cycle inside the top 40 across the country, which is a significant improvement from the ‘Cuse 2023 class.