Syracuse Football: ‘Cuse is finalist for 4-star DL Ethan Utley, top-50 national prospect

Syracuse football only recently got into the recruiting fray for elite 2025 defensive lineman Ethan Utley, yet the Orange has made the final cut in his recruiting process.

The consensus four-star Utley, listed at 6-foot-4 and 270 pounds on the 247Sports Web site, said via his X page on Christmas Day that his top five consist of the ‘Cuse, Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Michigan.

That’s some pretty select company for Syracuse football. Michigan and Texas are in this season’s College Football Playoff. Oklahoma has made the CFP on multiple occasions, while Tennessee is a strong Southeastern Conference program and an in-state team for Utley.

Per his X page, Utley picked up a scholarship offer from the ‘Cuse on December 4, which was the same day that former Georgia defensive backs coach Fran Brown was officially introduced by SU Athletics as the head coach of Syracuse football, replacing Dino Babers.

Utley is a top-flight prospect in the junior class. All of the main recruiting services rate him as four stars, in the top 200 nationally, in the top 20 at his position, and within the top five in the state of Tennessee.

Syracuse football is a finalist for 2025 4-star defensive lineman Ethan Utley.

Utley is a standout at The Ensworth School in Nashville, Tenn. Per his bio on the 247Sports Web site, he has received 40 offers throughout his recruiting process.

Three are those offers have come from Georgia, Texas A&M and Colorado.

As I noted above, Brown came to the Hill from Georgia. Elijah Robinson, currently the interim head coach and co-defensive coordinator at Texas A&M, will be the Orange’s new defensive coordinator.

Nick Williams, most recently the defensive line coach at Colorado, is the new defensive ends coach at Syracuse football. National analysts view Brown, Robinson and Williams as three of the top recruiters around the country these days in college football.

Chad Simmons, the director of recruiting for On3, wrote in an article that Utley has visited all of his finalists, except for the Orange.

Simmons notes, “At the moment, Utley believes that he will commit before taking his official visits in the summer. He is currently in the process of deciding where to take trips in the upcoming weeks.”

Needless to say, for the ‘Cuse to prevail in Utley’s recruitment, Syracuse football likely has to get him on the SU campus for a visit.

Utley, in his interview with Simmons, discussed all five of his finalists. He said in part about the Orange, “They jumped in late in my recruiting process, but I trust coach (Elijah Robinson) if I were to choose Syracuse today. I trust that Coach E would get me to my goal of being in the NFL and I know that coach Fran Brown is building such an incredible staff up there and Syracuse is going to be taking the right steps in the right direction. That’s one of the things that stands out about that program… I have an at-home feeling being around Coach Nick Williams and Coach E.”

For what it’s worth, there is one prediction on Rivals.com in Tennessee’s direction for Utley, although that projection came back in late July.

In terms of his 2025 rankings, On3 is currently the most bullish on him, placing Utley at No. 43 nationally, No. 7 at defensive lineman and No. 2 in Tennessee.

As I wrote about in another recent column, Brown and his staff aren’t shying away from pursuing elite players in the junior class, having also recently offered five-star safety Faheem Delane and five-star cornerback Na’eem Offord.