Syracuse Football: Keep an eye on 4-star Texas A&M DL, 3-star Georgia OL in portal

Syracuse football head coach Fran Brown and his staff have done a terrific job in a short period of time picking up four-star and three-star transfers from the portal.

Might Brown and his assistants land even more college transfers in the near future? Only time will tell.

This past Wednesday, at the start of the early signing period, the Orange secured official commitments from 24 players, including 18 high school seniors and six transfers.

I outlined in another piece on Thursday night a few highly rated four-star and five-star players, both residing in high school or currently in the transfer portal, who Syracuse football fans may want to monitor.

I’ve got two more names for Orange fans to watch. They are Texas A&M junior defensive lineman Isaiah Raikes, who is from New Jersey, and Georgia freshman offensive lineman Joshua Miller.

Keep an eye on these two college transfers, Syracuse football fans.

The 6-foot-2, 320-pound Raikes entered the transfer portal on December 21, while a day earlier, the 6-foot-4, 300-pound Miller said he would hit the portal, according to their respective X pages.

As it pertains to Raikes, being from New Jersey is important. Brown and several other ‘Cuse coaches, including new defensive coordinator Elijah Robinson, are also from New Jersey.

In its 2024 class, both among high school seniors and college transfers, Syracuse football picked up a bunch of players who are from the Garden State. Robinson is currently the interim head coach and co-defensive coordinator at Texas A&M.

Raikes, who redshirted his freshman year at Texas A&M, went to the St. Augustine Preparatory School in Richland, N.J., and comes from Woodbury, N.J.

As a member of the 2020 recruiting cycle, Raikes was rated four stars, No. 208 nationally, No. 15 at defensive tackle and No. 6 in New Jersey, according to Rivals.com.

In high school, according to recruiting services, he held more than 20 scholarship offers from teams such as Baylor, Boston College, Cincinnati, Duke, Louisville, North Carolina, N.C. State, Oregon, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and West Virginia, among others.

Miller was a three-star prospect in the 2023 cycle who attended the Life Christian Academy in South Chesterfield, Va. ESPN had him as the No. 19 offensive guard nationally in this class.

During his high school recruitment, Miller amassed more than 15 scholarship offers from college squads including Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, Kentucky, Michigan State, Maryland, Nebraska, UNC, Pittsburgh, Penn State, South Carolina, Texas A&M and Virginia, among others.

It's vital to mention that Brown, most recently, served as the defensive backs coach at Georgia.

On Wednesday, the Orange got official commitments from two Georgia transfers, four-star freshman wide receiver Yazeed Haynes and three-star junior wide receiver Jackson Meeks.

Additionally, not too long ago, Mekhi Mews, a redshirt sophomore wide receiver/return specialist at Georgia who is in the transfer portal, went on a visit to the ‘Cuse. He has an offer from Syracuse football.

I’ll continue to monitor the recruiting processes of Miller and Raikes.