Syracuse football: Building the Orange class of 2025

The stories from the scouting staff of the Orange

The 2025 Syracuse Orange recruiting class is one of the biggest in history. The 34 commits that joined the Orange on early signing day are the most in the nation. Only Washington and TCU joined Syracuse as teams with at least 30 commits.

And there are certainly many stories that come along with the commits joining Syracuse. While Fran Brown was not in town to comment on his first full recruiting class as Orange head coach, his scouting staff was.

Prompted by a question from Chris Carlson of syracuse.com, they shared some of the tales and scenarios that brought in the new Orange class.

Stack Williams – Davion Kerr

Fans will be familiar with Kerr’s twin brother, Davien. He recorded an interception against Cal and totaled 12 tackles this year. Davion didn’t initially join his twin last season, but Williams was well aware of the talent the brothers both brought.

Williams comes from Hartford, Connecticut, which is about 15 to 20 minutes away from the Kerr’s hometown in Bloomfield. He described both Kerr brothers as giving him “nightmares” because of their “elite” performance. So when Williams joined Syracuse, he made sure the Orange were aware of the pair. And a camp performance solidified their place in Syracuse.

“They demonstrated that they were prolific athletes,” said Williams. “They earned themselves an opportunity to play here. And so it was a beautiful thing. Mom, Dad cried. It was a beautiful opportunity for that family.

The two brothers didn’t initially want to spend a year apart. Davien was initially supposed to be with Davion at St. Thomas More School in Oakdale, Connecticut. But Brown wanted Davien to come early.

“I was hesitant because I didn’t want to leave my brother,” said Davien. “[We] had a talk, telling me, ‘You should go first, do it for me.’ So I had to do it for him.”

Now both Kerr brothers are officially Syracuse athletes.

Emmanuel Marc – Javon Lawrence

Marc recalled a great story that occur right when he was about to leave a coaching clinic in New Jersey. A coach from Rockland county in New York, where Marc is from, came up to him and mentioned a player in Lawrence that he thought Marc and Syracuse would like.

“We were literally packing up, getting to ready to go,” said Marc.

After seeing Lawrence, Marc consulted with Syracuse General Manager Nate McNeal and Director of Scouting Aaron Mannicci before talking about him with Brown right away.

“Within five minutes, he was like, ‘Yeah, I like this kid.’” said Marc.

The next step was getting more film on Lawrence to properly vet and fully scout him, and once that was done, Lawrence joined the Orange fold. And all of that came from the very tail end of a coaching clinic.

Tony Giovagnoli – Julian McFadden

The media were joking around with some of the scouting staff before the press conference started. We were commenting about how they could finally rest, but many of them, like Giovagnoli, echoed the statement of no days off.

He embodied that with his story that he shared alongside Mannicci, recalling a snowy afternoon on an off day where the two of them were looking through film. The two were scanning tapes on players in the “footprint” and backyard that Brown has talked about in great detail. Brown’s vision has constantly been stated to keep the best local talent at Syracuse.

McFadden fit that bill, as the wide receiver attended La Salle College High School, which is about 13 miles north of Philadelphia. And as his film popped up, Giovagnoli took notice.

“From there, it’s like, ‘Man, this is a great player,’” said Giovagnoli. “We need to get him instantly.”

Giovagnoli also noticed McFadden was being underrecruited. The majority of his offers were from Pennsylvania FCS schools, with one FBS offer to Boston College. Syracuse joined his offer list and he announced his commitment to the Orange 13 days later.

Alex Kelly – Matthew Hawn/Jaylen Pray

Mannicci joined Syracuse from Georgia, having worked closely with Brown with the Bulldogs. He came to Syracuse in December with Brown. Kelly didn’t join up with the Orange until later, and he was still in Georgia with the Bulldogs in January. Despite that, Mannicci and Kelly sat next to each other in Athens, so Kelly wanted to lend a helping hand any way he could before traveling up to Central New York.

While still in Georgia, Kelly sent Mannicci a Hudl tape of Matthew Hawn in January. Kelly was the one who kept on recruiting Hawn once he got on campus. He identified Hawn early as a target to prioritize for the Class of 2025.

“I searched Fran Brown and Syracuse football so many times when I was down there to see what I could chip in to help these guys out,” said Kelly.

Kelly then recalled a story with him and Williams contacting Pray. It turned out that Pray was a popular target. Boston College had beaten Syracuse to the punch and offered Pray first before the Orange could.

“I remember talking to him. He said 10 coaches called him that day,” said Kelly.

However, Pray would ultimately commit to the Orange nine days after they offered him.

Alberto De La Guardia – Trey Dudley

Mannicci ended the stories by giving a shoutout to De La Guardia, who no longer works with the Orange as he took a job with the NFL. However, while with Syracuse, he started recruitment on Dudley. Mannicci gave a lot of credit to De La Guardia for starting the recruitment process for Dudley and for the rest of the scouting department for picking up his work when he departed from the Orange.

“I think it’s going to go down as something more impressive that we did in this class,” said Mannicci.

Dudley had been committed to James Madison University as an in-state recruit from Ashburn, Virginia. However, after an official visit to Syracuse for the UConn game, he decommitted from James Madison and committed to Syracuse only a few days later.

Mannicci also noted that the Orange were recruiting Dudley to play linebacker, even though he wasn’t really playing at that position. He credited the evaluation staff for sticking with Dudley through the recruitment process. However, it all started with a former Orange staffer.