Syracuse Football: Expert raves about impact 4-star edge transfer Fadil Diggs will make

Syracuse football head coach Fran Brown and his staff have done an excellent job in securing high-quality commitments out of the transfer portal in the current cycle, with those ‘Cuse pledges including several four-star prospects.

One of the best recruiting wins for Brown and Co. via the portal this off-season, undeniably, has been a commitment from Texas A&M defensive lineman Fadil Diggs, a junior who has moved on to the Orange.

The 6-foot-5, 260-pound Diggs, who like many Syracuse football coaches and players hails from New Jersey, is rated four stars and one of the top edge rushers in national transfer rankings from multiple recruiting services.

Diggs, who has one year of collegiate eligibility remaining, registered 36 total tackles, 22 solo tackles, four sacks and two passes defended for Texas A&M in the 2023 season. He is expected to make an immediate impact for the ‘Cuse in the 2024 term, a national writer recently said.

A national pundit is high on Syracuse football 4-star DL transfer Fadil Diggs.

In a recent piece, Chip Patterson of CBS Sports discussed one incoming transfer at each Atlantic Coast Conference squad that will make some noise in the upcoming campaign.

As it pertains to the Orange, Patterson focused on Diggs, and understandably so. Patterson wrote in part, “One of coach Fran Brown’s biggest recruiting wins since taking over was bringing Diggs, a Camden, New Jersey native, back to the Northeast after a couple years at Texas A&M. Fans are doubly excited that Diggs is coming along with Elijah Robinson, the highly touted defensive line coach who served as the Aggies interim coach after Jimbo Fisher’s dismissal, and together they represent a new era and raised expectations for Syracuse on defense.”

I certainly appreciate Patterson’s last statement directly above about the ‘Cuse defense in 2024 and beyond.

Diggs, as a member of the 2020 cycle, was rated as four stars and inside the top 200 overall by several recruiting Web sites. The 2019 New Jersey Gatorade Player of the Year, Diggs attended Woodrow Wilson High School in Camden, N.J., which is now known as Eastside High School.

Brown, most recently the defensive backs coach at Georgia, and Robinson are long-time friends who also grew up together in Camden.

Robinson, most recently the interim head coach and co-defensive coordinator at Texas A&M, is now the Orange’s defensive coordinator and assistant head coach.

Since taking the helm of the Syracuse football program a little more than two months ago, Brown and his staff have recruited New Jersey hard, along with the rest of the Northeast corridor.

To that end, one of the team’s high school senior commits in the 2024 class is Diggs’ younger brother, three-star linebacker Fatim Diggs out of Eastside High School.

When I wrote this article, 247Sports in its national transfer rankings had Fadil Diggs at No. 47 overall and No. 7 at edge.

Nationally speaking, Diggs checked in at No. 55, according to the industry-generated On3 Industry Ranking, along with No. 89 via Rivals.com.