Syracuse Football: 4-star CJ Hester, one of country's top DBs, to officially visit SU

One of the nation's top defensive backs in the high school junior class has set a trip to Syracuse football.

Per his X page, 2026 four-star defensive back CJ Hester, a state champion from Florida, will take an official visit to the Orange program on the weekend that begins June 6, which is awesome news.

Within his class, the 6-foot-2, 175-pound Hester is deemed a top-10 safety by one of the primary recruiting services, and he's also a top-250 national prospect in the 2026 cycle, according to both the industry-generated 247Sports Composite and the industry-generated On3 Industry Ranking.

Hester is a highly sought-after prospect. Per 247Sports, he holds more than 30 offers from a range of high-major programs. He has unofficially visited the Hill in the past.

Syracuse football has scored an official visit from 2026 4-star defensive back CJ Hester.

The Orange coaching staff, led by head coach Fran Brown, offered a scholarship to Hester on July 31, 2024, according to his X account. At this juncture, I'm not seeing any analyst predictions for Hester between the 247Sports Web site, Rivals.com and the On3 Web site, although suitors including Southeastern Conference member Florida will prove stiff competition for the 'Cuse.

Earlier this year, Rivals.com national recruiting director Adam Gorney noted that Syracuse football was a program to watch in Hester's recruitment.

In the 2024 season, as a junior, Hester was terrific as his program, Cocoa High School in Cocoa, Fla., captured its third straight Florida High School Athletic Association ("FHSAA") Class 2A state championship.

As I've noted on many occasions of late, Syracuse football coaches are recruiting the Sunshine State hard. Numerous high school prospects in Florida have signed with the Orange in its large 2025 class, while also giving several verbal pledges in the 2026 and 2027 cycles.

By extension, a variety of Florida-based recruiting targets in those classes mentioned above have set either unofficial or official visits to the 'Cuse, to occur in the coming months, while Syracuse football has also, lately, made the list cuts of multiple four-star prospects who suit up in the Sunshine State.

Currently, within the 2026 class, Hester's highest rankings come courtesy of On3, which has him at No. 106 nationwide, No. 8 at safety and No. 14 in Florida.