Syracuse Football: 'Cuse tight-end position group ranks in top 5 around the country

The tight-end room for Syracuse football in the upcoming 2024 season appears loaded with depth, talent and versatility.

The Orange's roster for the next term includes numerous tight ends, both among returning players and within the team's 2024 recruiting class.

On3 national columnist Jesse Simonton recently unveiled his top-10 tight-end groups for the 2024 stanza, and the 'Cuse is highly placed.

Simonton ranks Syracuse football at No. 4 nationwide, trailing only No. 1 Georgia, No. 2 Michigan (the defending national champion) and No. 3 and fellow Atlantic Coast Conference member North Carolina.

That's some pretty select company for the Orange. Simonton, in his recent article, writes in part that Syracuse football has "assembled one of the more uniquely talented tight end rooms in 2024." I totally agree with Jesse here.

Syracuse football seems to have a stacked TE unit for the upcoming campaign.

In his piece, Simonton mentions three 'Cuse tight ends, and they are rising redshirt junior Oronde Gadsden II, rising redshirt junior Dan Villari and incoming freshman Jamie Tremble, a 2024 four-star recruit from Georgia.

The Orange got a huge boost when the 6-foot-5, 223-pound Gadsden, who missed most of the 2023 season due to an injury, decided to return to the Hill for another year. In 2022, Gadsden was named to the All-ACC first team after catching 61 passes for 969 yards and scored six touchdowns through the air.

A stanza ago, the 6-foot-4, 235-pound Villari, a New York native, was certainly a 'Cuse fan favorite for what he did in several games leading the Syracuse football "Wildcat" offense. The former quarterback at Michigan, he transformed into a tight end in Central New York and in a win over Pittsburgh in New York City last November, he rushed 17 times for 154 yards and a touchdown.

For all of 2023, when the Orange did make a bowl appearance for the second consecutive season, Villari tallied 326 rushing yards, 180 receiving yards and five total scores. He also threw for 177 yards and a touchdown.

This brings us to the 6-foot-4, 215-pound Tremble, a senior at The Wesleyan School in Peachtree Corners, Ga. Simonton writes that Tremble "will vie for the No. 3 spot this fall" among Syracuse football tight ends, and I concur.

Tremble had a terrific 2023 term, capturing various honors as he hauled in 1,178 yards and 15 receiving touchdowns for Wesleyan. His highest 2024 national ranking comes from 247Sports, which has Tremble at No. 168 overall.

I've noted several times lately that Syracuse football rising senior quarterback Kyle McCord, a four-star transfer from Ohio State, will have a ton of excellent receivers to target with his throws this coming year. That includes traditional wide receivers, running backs and, yes, this awesome group of tight ends.