Syracuse Football #BRAND has room to grow

As the Syracuse Orange welcome the 2018 football recruiting class a new survey of recruits shows that Dino Babers still has a tough job ahead of him. In a survey of 224 recruits by PickSixPreviews.com, Syracuse placed 61st out of the 65 P5 schools. The survey asked the recruits to assume they had offers to all 65 schools and then rank their favorites.

Syracuse only finished ahead of the Illinois Fighting Illini, Kansas State Wildcats, Boston College Eagles and Kansas Jayhawks. Now obviously the Orange don’t have to be every recruit’s top choice but it’s concerning to be this far down the list. As Nate Mink mentioned in his piece on Syracuse.com, Babers has tried to change this perception,

“Since his arrival, Babers has tried to focus on what differentiates his program from the majority of others. He often cites the private-school education and the Carrier Dome. His offense, an uptempo spread system, is supposed to score in droves and make football entertaining to watch.”

Last season’s win over Clemson and the locker room speech which followed certainly grabs attention, but in today’s world you need to build off that momentum. Syracuse has unfortunately stumbled down the stretch the past two season and that makes it harder to change the perception of the program.

Flashy social media videos and #OrangeistheNewFast (obligatory: #OITNF) can help convey a new energy. But it’s going to take substance in the way of more victories and bowl appearances to move Syracuse higher on these lists, and as a result, higher in terms of how players are actually considering them. Recruits will take notice if the Orange can win and win in style when the opportunity to play in front of a national TV audience.

We make a lot of #BRAND jokes around here as it relates to uniforms and the 44 committee, but when it comes down to it winning games will do more than anything else. Hopefully a winning season in 2018 will open up more eyes across the country.