Syracuse football, earlier this month, signed 34 commits in its 2025 cycle, the most pledges around the country in the high school senior class.
Orange first-year head coach Fran Brown and his top-flight staff did a tremendous job at the prep level with their 2025 cycle when the early signing period transpired for high school seniors from December 4 to December 6.
Currently, the Orange's 2025 class is in the top 40 nationwide, per both the industry-generated 247Sports Composite and Rivals.com. Couple that with how Brown and his assistants fared with their 2024 cycle, and it's safe to say that recruiting on the Hill is far exceeding what it was in other recent seasons under former head coach Dino Babers.
I mean no disrespect to Coach Babers, because I think he's a wonderful human being. Brown, though, replaced Babers after most recently serving as the defensive backs coach at Southeastern Conference powerhouse Georgia, and the 'Cuse first-year head coach came to Central New York with a reputation as arguably the country's top recruiter.
Now, for some context, the current transfer portal window for college football players opened for business on December 9 and will run through December 28. So we'll have to see how Syracuse football and its peers nationally perform via the portal, as some recruiting Web sites factor in college transfers, too, when calculating their team rankings from cycle to cycle.
As an example, in the 2024 class, the Orange per the 247Sports Web site checked in at No. 24 in the transfer portal, No. 37 at the high school level and No. 36 overall. Given how large the 'Cuse 2025 cycle is among high school seniors, Syracuse football coaches may not end up landing as many pledges from college transfers as they did in 2024.
Either way, however, the Orange's 2025 class looks solid. The vast majority of the squad's 2025 commits, at this juncture, are three stars, although that could shift some, one way or another, as recruiting services provide further updates to their player rankings for this cycle in the future.
Syracuse football's 2025 team rankings and geographic mix.
Here is how the Orange's classes in 2025 and 2024 are rated by some of the main recruiting Web sites when I penned this column. To reiterate, 2025 rankings could ebb and flow:
247Sports Composite
2025: No. 38
2024: No. 36
On3 Industry Ranking
2025: No. 45
2024: No. 37
Rivals.com
2025: No. 36
2024: No. 36
Additionally, for the 'Cuse 2025 cycle, here is the team's geographic break-down of Syracuse football's 34 signed commits:
Connecticut: 3
Florida: 6
Georgia: 2
Maryland: 4
New Jersey: 1
New York: 9
Pennsylvania: 3
Texas: 2
Virginia: 2
Canada: 2
As I've noted on many occasions, Brown and several of his assistants hail from New Jersey, and the Northeast corridor - inclusive of the Garden State, New York, Connecticut, the Philadelphia market and the Washington, D.C., to Baltimore region, among other areas - is and will always be a recruiting emphasis for the Orange staff.
At the same time, with the Orange's 2025 class, Syracuse football coaches have done a nice job of spreading out their recruiting reach, securing pledges from high school players in Florida, Georgia, Texas and Canada.
The Northeast, so to speak, will likely prove the Orange's bread-and-butter in recruiting now and into the future, but for the 'Cuse to become more of a nationally known program, picking up commitments from other geographic markets is critical. Syracuse football coaches recognize this, and they're faring well in that department.