Syracuse football 'making serious run' at elite 4-star DB J'Vari Flowers, per analyst

Syracuse football coaches are in hot pursuit of four-star defensive back and top-65 national prospect J'Vari Flowers, a state champion from Florida who is one of the fast-rising prospects around the country in the 2026 class.

The 6-foot, 177-pound Flowers, also a track star, is a standout junior at Miami Northwestern Senior High School. As I recently noted, in mid-December, Miami Northwestern capped off its 2024 season at 12-2 overall by winning the Florida High School Athletic Association ("FHSAA") 3A state title.

This top-flight high school program is home to several Orange 2025 commits and a couple of recruiting targets in the 2026 cycle, such as five-star wide receiver Calvin Russell and Flowers, who last month climbed a whopping 74 spots to No. 62 nationally in updated rankings from Rivals.com.

Syracuse football first-year head coach Fran Brown and his stellar staff offered a scholarship to Flowers on February 16 of last year, he said via his X page. In 2024, Flowers visited the 'Cuse program in early November when Syracuse football knocked off Virginia Tech as well as last June to participate in one of the team's camps.

While Flowers, a top-10 cornerback and a top-10 prospect hailing from the Sunshine State in his class, holds more than 20 offers from a range of high-major squads, national analysts have lately pointed to a smaller group of significant contenders in Flowers' recruitment, including the Orange.

Syracuse football appears to be heavily in the mix for 2026 4-star DB J'Vari Flowers.

Adam Gorney, the national recruiting director at Rivals.com, recently wrote about Flowers, "No visits are finalized yet for the four-star cornerback from Miami (Fla.) Northwestern but the Hurricanes could be really tough to beat in his recruitment. ... Syracuse is making a serious run at Flowers and that young coaching staff could intrigue him and Penn State is also high on the list but Miami remains the one to watch."

John Garcia Jr., a national analyst with Rivals.com, said in a separate recent article that the recruiting focus for Flowers "won't arrive until after the spring months as programs like Miami, Penn State, Syracuse and Illinois continue to build a relationship with the four-star cornerback. Some of the programs have even talked to Flowers about potentially getting some offensive touches to his name in college. The junior says he is set to make his initial visits to Penn State and Illinois at some point this offseason ahead of a summer verbal commitment timeline. Flowers would like to hear more from programs like Oregon and Michigan going forward."

This past Thursday, Flowers earned high praise from analysts and scouts as he competed in the prestigious 2025 Under Armour Next All-America Game, which took place in DeLand, Fla., near Orlando.

Brown and his assistants have made the state of Florida a recruiting emphasis in their 2025 and 2026 classes, and those efforts are paying dividends. In the Orange's large 2025 cycle, numerous signees are from Florida, while among the team's four verbal commits in 2026 so far, one arrived nearly a month ago from four-star offensive tackle and top-200 national prospect Javeion Cooper of Melbourne Central Catholic in Melbourne, Fla.