Syracuse football is a school to watch for Fadil Diggs, a top-flight defensive lineman from Texas A&M who is entering the NCAA’s transfer portal, according to a media report.
The 6-foot-5, 260-pound Diggs is a junior with the Aggies, which went 7-5 during the 2023 regular season and will play Oklahoma State on December 27 at the Texas Bowl in Houston.
Texas A&M has undergone a head-coaching change. Jimbo Fisher was fired as the boss of the Aggies, and replacing him as the Texas A&M head coach is Mike Elko, who most recently held the same post with fellow Atlantic Coast Conference squad Duke.
BREAKING: Texas A&M DL Fadil Diggs plans to enter the Transfer Portal, he tells @on3sports
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) December 6, 2023
The 6’5 260 DL had 36 Tackles and 4 Sacks in 2023 for the Aggies.
Appeared in 30 games in his career at A&M— started in all the past 2 seasonshttps://t.co/CcagcHoz3i pic.twitter.com/NhVuIqGDwq
On December 6, On3’s Hayes Fawcett said on X that Diggs was planning to enter the transfer portal. On Friday, a post on X stated, “Syracuse has emerged as the school to watch for Texas A&M DL Fadil Diggs,” according to reporting from On3’s Pete Nakos.
Syracuse has emerged as the school to watch for Texas A&M DL Fadil Diggs (@fadil_diggs), @PeteNakos_ reports.https://t.co/vKfdnVXBO9
— Transfer Portal (@TransferPortal_) December 8, 2023
Additionally, in recent days, analyst Charles Kang of The Juice Online wrote in part, “A source tells Rivals that Syracuse is definitely one of the favorites to land him (Diggs).”
Syracuse football could be a contender for talented edge transfer Fadil Diggs.
In the 2023 campaign for Southeastern Conference member Texas A&M, per ESPN statistics, Diggs has tallied 36 total tackles, 22 solo tackles, four sacks and two passes defended.
Diggs, as a member of the 2020 cycle, was ranked a top-200 national prospect and a top-15 edge by several recruiting services. He played at Woodrow Wilson High School in Camden, N.J., which is now known as Eastside High School.
Per his bio on the Texas A&M athletic department Web site, Diggs was named the 2019 New Jersey Gatorade Player of the Year.
In national transfer rankings from 247Sports, when I wrote this article, Diggs checked in as four stars, No. 27 overall and No. 4 at edge.
Diggs has several connections to the new Syracuse football coaching staff. For one, new head coach Fran Brown and new defensive coordinator Elijah Robinson are long-time friends who grew up together in Camden.
What’s more, Robinson is coming on board at the ‘Cuse after serving as the interim head coach and co-defensive coordinator at Texas A&M. Additionally, Brown most recently served as the defensive backs coach at Georgia, another SEC member.
The industry-generated 247Sports Composite, as an aside, places Brown and Robinson as two of the top recruiters nationwide in the 2024 class.
The FBS transfer-portal window opened up on December 4 and runs through January 2 of next year. It does seem that the Orange could be a program to watch for Diggs, and I’ll be curious to see which other transfers the Syracuse football coaching staff ends up pursuing in the coming days and weeks.