Syracuse football scores pledge from 4-star RB, top-200 national prospect

Syracuse football, on Sunday night, landed a verbal commitment from 2024 four-star running back Yasin Willis from New Jersey, a state where the new Orange coaching staff has strong recruiting ties.

The 6-foot, 225-pound Willis was one of numerous highly rated prospects to take official visits to the ‘Cuse this past weekend. He had been verbally committed to fellow Atlantic Coast Conference squad Pittsburgh, as Willis gave a pledge to the Panthers in late July.

Willis disclosed his verbal commitment to Syracuse football via his Instagram and X pages, a decision that was confirmed by multiple media reports.

This is a tremendous pick-up for new ‘Cuse head coach Fran Brown and his staff. Brown, a New Jersey native, was formally introduced as the Orange’s head coach, replacing Dino Babers, a week ago.

Syracuse football has landed a commitment from 2024 four-star running back Yasin Willis.

Willis was the second 2024 prospect to verbally pledge to the ‘Cuse on Sunday. The first one was four-star wide receiver Jaylan Hornsby, who disclosed his commitment to the Orange via his X page.

The 6-foot-3, 204-pound Hornsby, who was also on an official visit to Syracuse football over the weekend, had given a verbal commitment to Southeastern Conference squad Texas A&M on July 1. He is a senior at Winslow Township High School in Atco, N.J.

Brown, most recently the defensive backs coach at Georgia, is from Camden, N.J. So, too, is new Syracuse football defensive coordinator Elijah Robinson.

Brown and Robinson, who is currently the interim head coach and co-defensive coordinator at Texas A&M, are long-time friends. They also have extensive recruiting ties to the state of New Jersey and throughout the Northeast region.

Willis, meanwhile is a standout at Saint Joseph Regional High School in Montvale, N.J. Throughout his recruitment, per Rivals.com, he has secured more than 20 scholarship offers.

Per the 247Sports Web site, the ‘Cuse coaching staff offered Willis in October of 2021. He took an unofficial visit to the Hill in April of 2022 before going on an official visit to the Hill this past weekend.

Besides Syracuse football and Pittsburgh, his full offer sheet had included Alabama, Michigan, Boston College, Cincinnati, UConn, Duke, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisville, Maryland, Ole Miss, Nebraska, Penn State, Rutgers, South Carolina, Virginia Tech and West Virginia, among others.

If you’d like to see some of Willis’ statistics this past season at Saint Joseph Regional, and in other recent campaigns, take a look at his bio on the MaxPreps Web site.

In terms of his 2024 rankings, at this juncture, Rivals.com is presently the most bullish on Willis, placing him at No. 191 across the country, No. 12 at running back and No. 1 in New Jersey within the senior cycle.