Transfer portal wish list for Syracuse football

This is the time of year where you make a list of all the gifts you hope to receive. The Syracuse Orange football program should be preparing their list of preferred players from the transfer portal. Even if Dino Babers claims he’s not going to be doing a lot of shopping in the portal, he should be re-considering.

After a 5-7 season and the departure of several key contributors the Orange need to find players who can step in and fill those roles in 2022. We can’t count on the current high school commits and there is a lot of uncertainty from the 2021 class since we haven’t seen them in action. So we’re here to make some suggestions to Dino as he hopes to make the holidays full of merriment and cheer.

Let’s start right at the top and say that a big addition to the Orange would be Virginia Cavaliers center Olesgun Oluwatimi. A Rimington Award finalist, Oluwatimi was 2nd-team All-ACC and according to Pro Football Focus the 2nd-best run blocker among centers in the nation. With the focus on the run game likely to continue no matter who gets hired as Offensive Coordinator, adding a talented and experienced center would be a great plan. Syracuse likely has only one more season with Sean Tucker so Dino should be exploring all options of maximizing that time.

An offer was already extended to three transfer offensive lineman including former Orange commit Willie Tyler who was at Louisiana-Monroe last year. The other offers were to Florida International’s Miles Frazier and Cornell graduate Hunter Nourzad.

I know that you want to talk quarterbacks and there is no shortage of options in the portal. If you felt that Tommy DeVito hadn’t done enough to be handed the job entering 2021 I think you’ll agree that Garrett Shrader is in the same situation. We don’t know what to expect from the other Syracuse quarterbacks and we don’t think the Orange can land a Spencer Rattler or Dillon Gabriel. but how about a Chevan Cordeiro (Hawaii) who emerged as a solid deep passer? Another intriguing option would be Connecticut native Taisun Phommachanh who didn’t see much time at Clemson but has three years remaining.

Photo by Brian Murphy/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The quarterbacks could use some playmakers on the outside and either Konata Mumpfield of Akron or Tyrese Chambers from FIU could help bridge the gap from Jackson and Queeley to the 2021 receivers. Mumpfield had 63 receptions in his first year for the Zips while Chambers made the transition to Division One football in a big way.

We know that Syracuse hosted Albany’s defensive end Jared Verse and that’s another area of need for the Orange. Verse has a lot of interest but he could step in to provide the pass rush on the edge that Cody Roscoe brought this year.

These are just names connected with Syracuse along with some we think could be worth a look. Of course if we were asking the North Pole for the best holiday gift it would be to bring kicker Matt Araiza to Syracuse for the annual San Diego St. exchange but that might asking too much. What positions/players do you think Dino and his staff should be looking to put under the Loud House this month?