It’s shaping up to be quite a busy weekend on the official-visit front for Syracuse football, led by new head coach Fran Brown, who was formally introduced by SU Athletics this past Monday.
When I wrote this column on Tuesday night, I counted at least six highly rated prospects who plan to officially visit the Orange this coming weekend.
I’ve detailed in numerous columns some of the various ‘Cuse targets whose official visits this weekend to the Hill have already been disclosed.
Two more high school players who are also set to take official visits to Syracuse football in the coming days are a pair of 2024 four-star defensive backs who for now are verbally committed to Big Ten Conference schools.
Those prospects are safety Koy Beasley, who verbally committed to Purdue in June, and cornerback Josh Philostin, who verbally pledged to Indiana in October.
Syracuse football is hosting two 2024 four-star defensive backs on official visits.
The 5-foot-10, 170-pound Beasley noted his upcoming official visit to the Orange on his X page. Rivals.com national analyst John Garcia Jr. reported that the 5-foot-11, 175-pound Philostin would make a trip to Central New York this weekend.
Official visiting @CuseFootball this weekend @AllenTrieu @Rivals_Clint @ChadSimmons_ pic.twitter.com/GmttrA4QiP
— Koy Beasley ✞ (@KoyBeasley) December 5, 2023
Beasley is a senior at La Salle High School in Cincinnati, while Philostin is a senior at Cardinal Newman High School in West Palm Beach, Fla.
It’s unclear to me whether, at this point, Beasley has a scholarship offer from the ‘Cuse. According to recruiting services, he’s landed around 20 offers from a range of college squads, such as Pittsburgh, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Boston College, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan State, Texas A&M, Southern California, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, and many others.
Brown, by the way, was most recently the defensive backs coach at Georgia before coming on board as the head coach at Syracuse football, where he replaces Dino Babers.
At the time of this writing, the industry-generated 247Sports Composite, within the 2024 cycle, ranked Beasley at No. 115 overall, No. 10 at safety and No. 5 in Ohio.
Philostin, meanwhile, said via his X page on December 4 that he had picked up a scholarship offer from Brown and the Orange coaching staff.
Beyond Blessed to receive a offer from the Syracuse University! @FranBrownUGA @CuseFootball @Andrew_Ivins @adamgorney @SWiltfong247 @ChadSimmons_ pic.twitter.com/rhvQwgnpeG
— Josh Philostin (@gocrazy_josh) December 5, 2023
His bio on the 247Sports Web site notes that throughout his recruitment, Philostin has landed more than 30 offers from schools including Rutgers, Arkansas, Duke, Illinois, Iowa, Louisville, Maryland, Miami, Ole Miss, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt, West Virginia and Wisconsin, among others.
ESPN rates Philostin as four stars. Both of the industry-generated ranking systems, the 247Sports Composite and the On3 Industry Ranking, place him as a top-500 national prospect and a top-50 cornerback within the senior class.
Beyond Philostin and Beasley, other high school players who are expected to officially visit Syracuse football this coming weekend include 2024 four-star cornerback Marcellus Barnes Jr. from Tennessee, 2024 four-star wide receiver Jaylan Hornsby from New Jersey, 2024 four-star edge KingJoseph Edwards from Georgia, and 2024 four-star wide receiver Emanuel Ross from New Jersey.