We’re only about 10 days into the start of the Fran Brown era as the head coach of Syracuse football. Already, he and his staff have landed verbal commitments from several 2024 prospects as well as at least one commitment via the transfer portal.
More fun news could be on the horizon for the Orange as the early signing period for 2024 high school players is set to arrive on Wednesday, Dec. 20, a top national recruiting analyst predicts.
This past weekend, Brown and his assistants hosted a flood of highly rated prospects in the senior class on official visits. That, so far, has produced at least three verbal commitments, from three-star defensive end/tight end Jahide Lesaine Jr., four-star running back Yasin Willis and three-star wide receiver Jaylan Hornsby.
Adam Friedman, a national analyst with Rivals.com, writes in a piece that “things are trending” in the direction of the ‘Cuse for two other Orange 2024 recruiting targets who were on official visits to the Hill last weekend.
Syracuse football could be in line to land more commitments in the senior cycle soon.
The two 2024 prospects who Friedman was referring to are four-star wide receiver Emanuel Ross and four-star edge KingJoseph Edwards.
The 6-foot-4, 230-pound Edwards, offered a scholarship by the Orange on December 4, is out of Mill Creek High School in Hoschton, Ga.
He has the ‘Cuse in his final three and plans to announce his college decision on December 19. As I’ve noted in a couple of recent columns, there are numerous analyst predictions for Syracuse football in Edwards’ recruitment between the 247Sports Web site, Rivals.com and the On3 Web site.
The 6-foot-2, 200-pound Ross is a senior at Red Bank Catholic High School in Red Bank, N.J. He was offered by the previous Syracuse football coaching staff in late August of 2022, per 247Sports.
Ross verbally committed to Pac-12 Conference member Stanford this past June, so Brown and his assistants will have to flip him to the ‘Cuse.
For what it’s worth, on Wednesday, Syracuse football was receiving a good amount of analyst buzz in Ross’ recruitment on the 247Sports Web site and the On3 Web site. To that end, on Wednesday afternoon, Ross said on his X page that he was verbally committing to the 'Cuse, which is awesome!
#COMMITTED #FRANchise #commit2cuse pic.twitter.com/kBefgIzLJo
— Emanuel Ross (@EmanuelRoss13) December 13, 2023
When I penned this story, On3 was the most bullish on Ross, placing him at No. 129 nationally in the 2024 cycle, along with No. 26 at wide receiver and No. 2 in New Jersey.
As it pertains to Edwards, a top-300 national prospect according to ESPN, he plays high school football in the state of Georgia. Brown, most recently before joining the Orange, served as the defensive backs coach at Southeastern Conference powerhouse Georgia.
Regarding Ross, he plays for a high school program in New Jersey. Both Brown and new Syracuse football defensive coordinator coach Elijah Robinson, who are long-time friends, grew up together in Camden, N.J., and have tremendous recruiting ties to that state and throughout the Northeast region.
I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention that Lesaine, Willis, Hornsby – each of who verbally committed to the Orange last Sunday and flipped to Syracuse football from other college squads – all hail from New Jersey as well.