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Syracuse's Fran Brown shows his recruiting chops yet again with a huge Big Ten 4-star flip

Syracuse football head coach Fran Brown and his staff are cooking on the recruiting trail.
ByNeil Adler
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Four-star senior offensive tackle Sidney Rouleau has flipped his verbal commitment from Michigan to Syracuse football.
Four-star senior offensive tackle Sidney Rouleau has flipped his verbal commitment from Michigan to Syracuse football. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Syracuse football head coach Fran Brown, a recruiting ace who has guided the Orange to two straight wins and gotten the program back into the conversation for a postseason bowl, has done it again on the recruiting trail.

On Friday, Inside the Loud House confirmed via a source that Canada product Sidney Rouleau, a four-star offensive tackle in the 2027 class, has verbally committed to the 'Cuse. This is a massive pickup for Syracuse football, and for a couple of reasons.

Number one, per ESPN, the 6-foot-6, 275-pound Rouleau is a four-star prospect and No. 255 nationally in his cycle. Other recruiting services have him as a high-three-star player. The Rivals Industry composite ratings system places Rouleau at No. 584 nationwide in 2027.

Landing that kind of pledge is always a positive for SU, and it also comes as the early signing period for high school seniors will arrive in early December. For Syracuse football to flip a four-star recruit this late in the game for 2027 prospects is fabulous. Rouleau decommitted from Big Ten Conference member Michigan earlier this week after he gave a verbal pledge to the Wolverines in late March of this year.

Syracuse football got a tremendous dose of recruiting news on Friday.

Another key component here is that persistence also pays off. Rouleau, who is from Gatineau, Quebec, first received a scholarship offer from the 'Cuse staff on March 29, 2024. As Inside the Loud has reported, he took an official visit to the Hill last weekend, and he got to see the Orange upset then-No. 19 SMU at the JMA Wireless Dome. Seeing that SU win only improved Syracuse's chances to ultimately flip Rouleau from Michigan.

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Rouleau, a senior at the Brook Hill School in Bullard, Texas, is one of several Orange 2027 verbal commits who are rated four stars by at least one recruiting service. Others include running back Elijah Kimble, safety Jalen Welch and wide receiver Chanin Harris.

At this juncture, Syracuse football's 2027 class features 26 verbal commitments. This 'Cuse cycle is No. 36 nationally on the 247Sports Web site and No. 44 overall via Rivals. Brown has produced some of the highest-ranked recruiting classes at the high school level in Syracuse football history.

Here is how Brown's recruiting cycles have fared on a national scale:

2024 recruiting class
247Sports: No. 35 nationally
Rivals: No. 37 nationally

2025 recruiting class
247Sports: No. 43 nationally
Rivals: No. 50 nationally

2026 recruiting class
247Sports: No. 34 nationally
Rivals: No. 33 nationally

2027 recruiting class
247Sports: No. 36 nationally
Rivals: No. 44 nationally

The Orange's 2026 cycle, led by five-star wide receiver Calvin Russell III and a few four-star signees, is the highest-ranked team class in SU history during the modern recruiting services era. It may be tough for the 'Cuse 2027 class to overtake the 2026 cycle, but make no mistake about it: Fran Brown is cooking when it comes to recruiting, and the pledge by Rouleau on Friday is the latest example of that.

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