July is a month filled with warm summer nights, evenings at the ballpark and barbecues. Oh, and of course hyper-analyzing Syracuse football’s (0-0, 0-0 in Atlantic Coast Conference) upcoming season, because do you know what happens after July? August. And what happens in August? SU’s first regular-season matchup against Tennessee.
This season, expectations are as high as ever for a Fran Brown squad that met all expectations and then some last season, but there are still a lot of question marks around this group. One of those questions: the linebacker corps. After losing two of its top seven tacklers in Justin Barron (first, 92) and Marlowe Wax (seventh, 45), the Orange have big shoes to fill this upcoming season. I mean just ask Fran Brown himself.
"I’m looking for a linebacker in the portal and so if you can play linebacker and you are out there Coach Prime and I aren't hard to find,” Brown said in mid April.
Right out of the gate, let’s talk about the returners at the linebacker position before discussing the fresh faces in 2025.
First off, Derek McDonald returns to the 3-1-5 after recording a forced fumble and 54 tackles in 2024, good for sixth most on the team. Despite a productive season, his numbers actually went down from a year prior, when he recorded 2.5 sacks with 10 more tackles. Still, McDonald will prove to be an integral part of an SU defense that ranked bottom four in points allowed per game (29.2) as primarily a middle linebacker. McDonald actually came to SU as a defensive edge in high school but quickly transitioned to the second level upon arriving at Syracuse. However, some of those edge instincts still kick in when McDonald is put in blitz packages. Expect a couple sacks in his senior season after not recording one in 2024. McDonald should be looked at as the leader of the unit after losing Wax and Barron. However even McDonald himself knows it won’t be the same without those guys.
“It’s definitely a little bit weird. One of the first days without them I went to eat in the cafeteria to eat and I was like ‘who do I even eat lunch with?’” McDonald said.
Another returner who should have an increased role in the upcoming season is Anwar Sparrow. The redshirt senior joined the ’Cuse prior to 2020 and worked himself into a major role very quickly. In 2022, Sparrow recorded a career-high 40 tackles with two forced fumbles. The following season, he tallied 30 tackles with a career-best two sacks. Last season, Sparrow saw a decrease in production with just 10 total tackles despite playing in 13 games with the ’Cuse. After a down year Sparrow entered the portal but still wanted to finish things out with the Orange.
“I will still be playing in the bowl game to finish what I started. So you could watch my film and watch me play in the bowl game.” Sparrow said.
What followed was Sparrow ultimately deciding to return with SU. Although it’s not a good sign that Sparrow’s least productive year came in the opening season of the Fran Brown era, he has shown in the past he can produce. Sparrow is most likely the frontrunner to start alongside McDonald in a Syracuse defense that utilized a 4-2-5 alignment last year over the 3-3-5 set that was the primary base under former head coach Dino Babers in years prior. However, even if Sparrow does not find himself as the yin to McDonald’s yang, he should certainly be a starter in three-linebacker sets.
The third linebacker to keep an eye on as we continue to move closer to Week 1 is incoming freshman Antoine Deslauriers. Despite his youth, Deslauriers is oozing with talent. The Canadian was ranked as the No. 18 linebacker in the 2024 class, according to ESPN. Rated as a three-star prospect by 247Sports, Deslauriers notched 135 tackles, 21 of those for loss, with his high school in Georgia on the way to a state championship. Although Sparrow is most likely the starter for the second spot, at the very least Deslauriers could provide an athletic spark plug for the Orange in key moments and may just come away with the starting role early on in the season.
Another name to look out for is redshirt sophomore James Heard. Heard played a small role in last year’s defense, recording seven tackles and an interception. The New Jersey native should play another limited role with the Orange this year and could, under the right circumstances, find himself as a rotational starter.
A final player to throw out there just for the sake of it is Fran Brown Jr. And yes — that’s the son of head coach Fran Brown. Brown Jr. transferred from St. Francis University last season, where he recorded 33 tackles in seven games. Will the redshirt sophomore be a pivotal piece in this year’s squad? Probably not. Could he be a fan favorite on game days in the Dome? Definitely.
Overall, the linebacker unit — which was viewed as a strength last season — could be yet another plus for a developing SU defense. However, the flip side of the coin is a potential decline from last year’s unit, which set the bar really high for 2025.