Syracuse football loses 4-star edge rusher, top recruit in 2025 class (report)

Syracuse, N.Y. — Syracuse football’s top-ranked recruit in its Class of 2025 is no longer part of the recruiting class, according to a report from Mike McAllister of the recruiting website 247 Sports.

Four-star defensive end Sharlandiin Strange and three-star recruit Amari Colon are no longer committed, according to McAllister. He cited anonymous sources.

Greg Hopkins, who coaches Colon in both high school and in the Rochester-based Changing the Community football program, confirmed that Colon is no longer part of the recruiting class. He said Colon would not be eligible to play Division I football in 2025 because of an NCAA rule involving high school academic requirements.

Strange was the only four-star recruit committed to Syracuse in the Class of 2025 and was the first player to commit to the Orange in the class. He is an edge rusher for Cheltenham High School in Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania.

Strange was ranked as the No. 395 prospect in the country and the No. 13 player in Pennsylvania by 247 Sports composite rankings. Among the four major recruiting websites, he was ranked as high as No. 11 in Pennsylvania by Rivals.

Strange did not immediately return a phone call of text message seeking comment.

Colon is a three-star safety out of Rochester. Colon played high school for James Monroe in Rochester. He was ranked as the No. 1,252 recruit nationally and the No. 10 prospect in New York.

Colon had been planning to play at Trinity Pawling next year and to come to Syracuse after a year of prep school.

Colon told Syracuse.com when he committed that he had some academic struggles early in his high school career. He said he struggled academically during the coronavirus pandemic but improved his grades as he got older, earning As and Bs in his final years.

Colon was hopeful that he could get academically eligible with a single year of prep school.

Hopkins said that Syracuse coach Fran Brown called him this week to explain that Colon’s efforts to get eligible would take longer than that.

Brown told them that Colon would not be eligible as quickly as they hoped because of the NCAA’s “10-7 rule,” which requires high school students to pass 10 of 16 core courses before their senior year of high school and for seven of those courses to be in English, math or science.

Hopkins said they were disappointed that Colon didn’t receive any grace because his academic struggles came during the pandemic.

“The pandemic impacted everybody,” Hopkins said.

He said Colon has not decided what path he will take next season but one potential option is attending Lackawanna College in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Hopkins said Brown told them that Syracuse would still be interested in Colon once he becomes academically eligible.

With the loss of two commitments in the Class of 2025, Syracuse currently has 25 commitments, which is still the second-most in the country behind Rutgers (28). Verbal commitments are not binding until after a player signs a National Letter of Intent.

Syracuse’s collection of commitments dropped to 25 in the 247 Sports team rankings, which is sixth in the ACC behind Clemson, Miami, Georgia Tech, Duke and Stanford.