Four-star edge Sharlandiin Strange from Pennsylvania verbally committed to Syracuse football this past Saturday night, giving the Orange its first verbal pledge in the 2025 recruiting cycle.
In several interviews following his commitment announcement, the 6-foot-4, 245-pound Strange heaped praise on the Syracuse football fanbase while also noting how close he is with the new ‘Cuse coaching staff.
Strange, a top-300 national prospect in the junior class, is a standout at Cheltenham High School in Wyncote, Pa.
50000000% COMMITTED GO ORANGE🍊🍊🍊 @CuseFootball pic.twitter.com/Z0OirVgBlJ
— Sharlandiin “zaqq” Strange (@zaqq4x) January 28, 2024
Offered a scholarship by the Orange in January of 2023, he chose the ‘Cuse over other finalists Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers and Southern California, in a tremendous recruiting win for head coach Fran Brown and his staff.
New commit Sharlandiin Strange dishes on Syracuse football fans and the team’s staff.
Two Saturdays ago, Strange was on the SU campus for one of the Orange’s junior days. During his unofficial visit to the Hill, he and numerous other 2025 targets got to watch Syracuse basketball defeat Miami at the buzzer on a 3-pointer from sophomore wing Quadir Copeland.
WOWWWW @Cuse_MBB pic.twitter.com/ofCg3BVomy
— Sharlandiin “zaqq” Strange (@zaqq4x) January 20, 2024
In a recent interview with SyracuseOnSI publisher Mike McAllister, Strange said of ‘Cuse fans, “They take that Syracuse football serious. A coach told me it’s only basketball and football there. They go crazy. I was in the gas station with my mom. They stopped me, they wanted a picture. That’s something I've never even been through before. I never thought I even mattered that much. But the fans go crazy.”
In his interview with McAllister, along with comments made in an article from Bobby Deren of 247Sports, Strange was super high on the Orange coaching staff.
Strange told McAllister that he “grew up with” Elijah Robinson, the new assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at the ‘Cuse, who most recently served as the interim head coach and co-defensive coordinator at Texas A&M.
“He’s always been like an uncle or a big brother to me,” Strange said of Robinson. “It was just a matter of time. I was going to go where he goes regardless. Coach Fran, I went to a Monmouth camp and I dominated. That was when he was still at Georgia and I met him. Our relationship was always close.”
Brown, formerly the defensive backs coach at Georgia, and Robinson are long-time friends who grew up together in Camden, N.J., which is in close proximity to where Strange hails from, in the Philadelphia area.
Other coaches on the current SU staff come from New Jersey, and it’s clear in a short period of time since taking over that Brown and his assistants are going to recruit Philadelphia, the state of New Jersey and the Northeast corridor hard.
In Deren’s story, Strange said in part, “Syracuse recruits a lot of people from around my area like the New Jersey, Philly area and I know a lot of people that are on the roster right now. I grew up with them.”
Ranked as high as No. 226 nationwide in his class by On3, Strange is a stellar first commitment for the Orange in the 2025 class.
As I noted in a separate column on Sunday, the ‘Cuse has also put together an excellent 2024 cycle that includes numerous four-star prospects both at the high school level and via the transfer portal.