When Syracuse football takes the field today, it will be for the final time this regular season. A slew of injuries to starters have made it an unexpectedly tough run to the finish line. Just like every season, Dino Babers and the Orange have a new slew of recruits coming to the 315 for next season, but compared to the rest of the ACC, that might not be much comfort.
According to 24/7 Sports, Syracuse has the worst recruiting class in the conference for the class of 2023. Between 2019 and now, Syracuse is the only ACC school that hasn't landed a four-star recruit.
To find the last time Dino Babers got that much-desired four-star, you’d need to turn the calendar back to 2018 when Trill Williams out of White Plains, N.Y. jumped aboard to play his college ball at Syracuse. Three seasons, 93 games and four picks later, Williams was on the move again, this time to the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, where he is today.
Former starting quarterback Tommy DeVito was another four-star to sign his intent to play in the Dome. The New Jersey man then lost the starting spot to Garrett Sharder before taking his talents to the University of Illinois.
Wherever the former four-star recruits ended up, the poit remains: there arn’t many of them playing in Syracuse. Matt Bonaparte of the Locked on Syracuse podcast says that the recruiting train is severely underperforming, even after the Orange made a Bowl Game after the 2018 campaign.
“It would be one thing if he was never able to move the needle if the team was never successful,” Bonaparte said. “But the fact that you were never moving the needle in recruiting after you had a 10-win season, kind of unacceptable.”
Immediately following that Camping World Bowl victory, Syracuse added 20 new signings – all of them three-stars – from the class of 2019. While Dino Babers doesn’t get many four-stars, he does have a great nose for talent. Mikel Jones, Matthew Bergeron, Courtney Jackson and Garrett Williams were all part of that 2019 signing class, and have performed well above what their ranking would indicate. One year later, a running back named Sean Tucker – you may have heard of him – joined SU as a three-star too.
So maybe there are some proverbial diamonds in the proverbial rough, but there is certainly something missing from the upcoming recruiting class.
“There’s not a defensive back committed,” Owen Velentine, also of Locked on Syracuse said. “You sent three defensive backs to the NFL in 2021, with Andre Cisco, Ifeatu Melifonwu and Trill Williams…why is there no momentum swung from ‘hey look at the recent success.’”
While Babers might not get four-star or five-star recruits now the momentum, and dominance of the current players should lend itself to a better class in the future.
“If you can’t take Sean Tucker’s Syracuse career into at least one great recruit at the running back position, you kinda have to consider it a failure,” said Bonaparte.