Syracuse football has its starting signal-caller for the 2025 season.
Per multiple media reports, including an article from Syracuse.com's Javon Edmonds, Rickie Collins will be the Orange's starting quarterback for the upcoming campaign, according to head coach Fran Brown.
A huge congrats to Rickie!
"The players are behind him," Brown said earlier this week, according to Edmonds' piece. "Everybody is behind him, so it seems like he’s going to be our quarterback. I’m very excited and happy about it. He puts the work in daily learning how to lead."
This past season, the 6-foot-2, 205-pound Collins suited up for LSU out of the Southeastern Conference. He decided to transfer to the 'Cuse and, as a redshirt sophomore in the upcoming stanza, Collins is expected to have three years of collegiate eligibility remaining.
On the Hill, as Syracuse football eyes a daunting 2025 schedule, at least on paper, Collins will have some big shoes to fill in replacing former senior quarterback Kyle McCord, who in 2024 set numerous program and Atlantic Coast Conference records in helping lead the 'Cuse to a 10-3 record and a No. 20 national ranking in the final Associated Press top-25 poll amid Brown's first stanza as the squad's head coach.
Syracuse football has its starting quarterback for the next term.
In his two seasons at LSU, including a redshirt year as a true freshman, Collins went a combined 7-of-7 for 38 yards, according to ESPN statistics. Naturally, his journey to Central New York isn't the same as McCord's, who transferred to Syracuse football from Ohio State after leading the Buckeyes to an 11-1 regular-season record as a junior.
Still, recruiting analysts and scouts say that Collins has loads of potential. In national transfer rankings this off-season, multiple recruiting services place him as three stars, in the top 300 nationally and in the top 25 at quarterback.
In the 2023 prep cycle, Collins was highly ranked. Numerous recruiting Web sites had the standout at Woodlawn High School in Baton Rouge, La., as four stars, in the top 250 overall and in the top 20 at quarterback. Rivals.com, for one, ranked Collins as the No. 4 QB in the 2023 class.
Brown has said that he planned to name a starting quarterback for 2025 before the team's current spring practices wrapped up. The annual spring game, by the way, is this Saturday, April 12, as my brother Chuck Fiello detailed in this story.
As spring practices start to wind down soon, I'll be curious to see who will be named Collins' primary backup. Other quarterbacks on the Orange's 2025 roster include redshirt senior Michael Johnson Jr., redshirt freshman Jakhari Williams, and true freshmen Luke Carney and Rich Belin, both of who are three-star prospects in the 2025 class.
Regarding the topic of the team's No. 2 quarterback heading into the next season, Brown said, "We’ll see how it goes. Somebody may want to go into the portal or not. That’s just the nature of the business. We wish them the best because they’ve done a good job."
A spring transfer portal window in college football will run from April 16 until April 25.