Syracuse’s quarterback room looks a lot different now than it did when Steve Angeli was dealing early damage in 2025.
For the first four games, Angeli gave the Orange exactly what they hoped for after Kyle McCord moved on. He threw for 1,317 yards, 10 touchdowns and only 2 interceptions, and Syracuse went 3-1 while he was steering the offense. Then came the Achilles tear in the second half of the road win at Clemson, and everything changed.
After Angeli went down, Syracuse tried to patch things together. LSU transfer Rickie Collins and freshman Luke Carney each got a shot at running the offense, but neither could keep the production anywhere close to Angeli’s level.
Collins has since transferred to Kennesaw State, while Carney is now at Houston. The Orange even turned to Joseph Filardi, a lacrosse player who was a walk-on with the football team, for a stretch.
The results never came back. Syracuse dropped eight straight and didn’t score in the 20s again the rest of the season.
Now the Orange are waiting on Angeli’s return, and Fran Brown has reshaped the room around him. Offensive coordinator Jeff Nixon is back, but Syracuse also brought in a new quarterbacks coach in Sean Ryan. Ryan arrives with 30 years of coaching experience, and more than half of that time came in the NFL.
Brown also added more insurance behind Angeli through the transfer portal. Kennesaw State’s Amari Odom, Georgetown’s Danny Lauter and UTEP’s Malachi Nelson are now in the mix.
Odom looks like the leading candidate to back up Angeli. He earned All-Conference USA First Team honors after throwing for 2,594 yards, 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions, while also rushing for 347 yards and seven scores. He left a starting job to compete for a role at a Power 4 program.
Nelson brings a more complicated track record. Once the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2022 cycle, he saw limited action at USC and Boise State before winning, then losing, the starting job at UTEP. He finished his time with the Miners with 1,163 passing yards, eight touchdowns and nine interceptions.
Lauter adds another layer of depth after three seasons at Georgetown. He played the most in 2024, when he threw for 1,852 yards and 11 touchdowns against 10 interceptions.
Filardi remains part of the room after appearing in four games and throwing for 226 yards and a touchdown.
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For Syracuse, the most immediate names are basketball transfer Amarri Monroe and football wide receiver Justus Ross-Simmons, both of whom had been leaning on that preliminary injunction for extra eligibility. With the class-wide relief now on hold, athletes in their position are ineligible unless they secure their own court orders, and the ruling could push even more players toward state-level lawsuits as they look for individual relief. [Read more 🡒]
Syracuse Just Got A New Twist In Its Fifth-Year Eligibility Fight
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For Syracuse, the ruling adds another layer of uncertainty to roster planning in both football and basketball, especially for players and staffs trying to map out the next several years instead of just the next season. The bigger issue is still unresolved, though, and until the lawsuit reaches a final decision, the path for athletes hoping to use that extra year remains in limbo. [Read more 🡒]