Syracuse Football: New coaching staff includes 3 of country’s top recruiters

New Syracuse football head coach Fran Brown continues to build out his coaching staff for the 2024 season and beyond.

Already, though, he’s brought on board some excellent assistants, and at this juncture, the Orange possesses three of the top recruiters across the country in the sport of college football.

That’s an exciting thing, and I’m hopeful that these ‘Cuse coaches will propel the team to haul in recruiting classes filled with more four-star – and dare I say, a few five-star? – commits. We shall see about that.

Brown, most recently the defensive backs coach at Georgia, was officially introduced as the next head coach of the Orange this past Monday, replacing Dino Babers.

And just over the last week alone, a lot of encouraging stuff has transpired on the recruiting trail, evidenced by the ‘Cuse planning to host numerous 2024 four-star players on official visits this weekend.

The Syracuse football coaching staff boasts numerous top-flight recruiters.

Brown’s assistants will include Texas A&M co-defensive coordinator and assistant head coach Elijah Robinson, who will serve as the Orange’s new defensive coordinator. They are close friends, having grown up together in Camden, N.J.

Another Syracuse football assistant, according to media reports and social media posts, is Nick Williams, who is also a strong recruiter. Williams, most recently, was the defensive line coach at Colorado, and he will be the defensive ends coach at Syracuse football.

Ever since reports indicated that Brown was among the leading candidates to succeed Babers on the Hill, I’ve read numerous comments from national observers stating that Brown is arguably the top recruiter nationwide.

So I took a look at the national recruiter rankings for the last five recruiting cycles, per the industry-generated 247Sports Composite. See below for the instances in these classes where Brown, Robinson and/or Williams arrived inside the top 50, according to the composite’s rankings at the time of this writing.

2024
Fran Brown: No. 1
Elijah Robinson: No. 8
Nick Williams: No. 26

2023
Fran Brown: No. 8
Elijah Robinson: No. 46

2022
Elijah Robinson: No. 1
Fran Brown: No. 25

2021
Elijah Robinson: No. 25

2020
Elijah Robinson: No. 9

As I’ve said a couple of times lately, how these Syracuse football coaches, the rest of the staff and the players perform on the field (and on the sidelines) in the 2024 campaign and beyond remains to be seen.

And “high” recruiting rankings don’t always translate to significant on-field success. Then again, seeing these top national recruiter ratings of multiple Orange coaches can’t be anything but a positive, in my humble opinion.

There’s a buzz in the air regarding the Syracuse football program, and I hope that Brown & Co. can quickly land some highly ranked prospects in the near future.