Syracuse Football: Orange makes top 6 for 4-star QB, top-200 national prospect

Syracuse football, on Thursday afternoon, got a dose of encouraging news as it pertains to its 2025 recruiting efforts.

Four-star junior Malik Washington from Maryland, who is a consensus top-20 quarterback in the 2025 cycle, announced his half-dozen finalists on Thursday via his X page, and the Orange made the cut.

The 6-foot-5, 200-pound Washington is a standout at Archbishop Spalding High School in Severn, Md. He won a flood of awards for his junior season and helped lead Archbishop Spalding to a state title in Maryland.

Washington says that his top six consist of the ‘Cuse, Virginia Tech, Texas A&M, Penn State, Oregon and a home-state team, the Maryland Terrapins.

Syracuse football remains in the running for 2025 four-star QB Malik Washington.

Rated as a top-300 national prospect and a top-10 player from Maryland, according to multiple recruiting services, Washington was initially offered a scholarship by the Orange in late September, when Dino Babers was the team’s head coach.

On December 4, former Georgia defensive backs coach Fran Brown was named the new head coach of Syracuse football, and the new ‘Cuse coaching staff re-offered Washington in mid-December.

Given that the Orange is in the top six for Washington, it wouldn’t surprise me if he ends up taking an official visit to the ‘Cuse in the near future.

He said to On3 director of recruiting Chad Simmons, “I will definitely take my official visits before I commit to a school. Once I commit, I want to be committed and not visit any other schools. The official visits will be important because I just want to see what coaches are honest with me, where I am on their board and just see how coaches feel about me.”

Regarding the Orange, Washington said, “Syracuse is one of the more recent offers and they have a new staff, so I want to learn more about them. I haven’t been there and I don’t know too much yet, but I am interested in them.”

Washington, in 2023, was a key contributor as Archbishop Spalding won the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association (“MIAA”) A Conference championship. He captured a lot of honors for his junior year.

When I wrote this article on Thursday evening, both of the industry-generated rating systems, the 247Sports Composite and the On3 Industry Ranking, placed Washington in the top 250 nationally, the top 20 at quarterback and the top six in Maryland within the 2025 cycle.

On3 was the most bullish on Washington, putting him at No. 186 overall, No. 16 at quarterback and No. 4 in Maryland.