Former Syracuse quarterback Rickie Collins is on track to land another starting job, this time at Kennesaw State.
CBS Sports reported that Collins is expected to be named the Owls’ starter this fall. The move comes after a 2025 season at Syracuse in which he was pressed into duty and made five starts in place of Steve Angeli, who missed eight games with a torn Achilles tendon.
Syracuse dropped all eight of those games Angeli missed, and Collins took the loss in each of his five starts. The former four-star recruit out of high school finished the year 97-of-181 passing, a 54 percent completion rate, with six touchdowns and 10 interceptions for the Orange.
Collins originally played at LSU before transferring to Syracuse for the 2025 season. He was not the only quarterback to leave the program after that year, as Luke Carney also transferred.
Kennesaw State’s opening at quarterback exists because Amari Odom, its previous starter, entered the transfer portal and headed to Syracuse. Odom’s exact spot on the depth chart isn’t clear yet, but he is expected to back up Angeli, who will again be Syracuse’s starter this season.
Angeli went 3-1 in the games he started before suffering the injury.
Syracuse is now in Week 3 of training camp and moving closer to its Sept. 5 opener against New Hampshire at the JMA Wireless Dome. The Orange were picked to finish 14th in the 17-team Atlantic Coast Conference.
Fran Brown also addressed the development of his quarterbacks earlier this week.
Wide receiver Justus Ross-Simmons has been back at practice this week after spending the last two years in an Orange uniform. He has been granted a fifth year of eligibility under recent court injunctions, though there is no guarantee he will actually play for Syracuse. The NCAA is working to reverse those court decisions.
Elsewhere in Syracuse Athletics, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi released a “way too early bracketology” for the 2026-27 season on Tuesday, and Syracuse was not included. That matched his first bracketology projection from July 15.
The Orange have not reached the NCAA Tournament since the 2020-21 season, and Lunardi’s latest omission stings a little more with the field expanding from 68 to 76 teams.
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JJ Starling Just Put Syracuse In The Middle Of A Bigger Fight
JJ Starlings Syracuse tenure may not be finished in the broadest sense, even if his next step is no longer tied to the Orange. The former Syracuse guard has joined a California lawsuit involving players from the 2022 high school graduating class who are seeking an extra year of NCAA eligibility, a move that puts him squarely in the middle of the sports ongoing fight over how much time athletes should really be allowed to compete.
Starling also has entered the NCAA transfer portal, which keeps his basketball future open while he sorts through his options. He averaged 10.9 points per game last season, and with professional opportunities still on the table, his next decision carries real weight for him and for programs that could be watching the same eligibility battle play out in court. [Read more 🡒]
Syracuse Is Bringing A New Money Reality To The Dome
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Syracuse has not formally announced the partnership, but the move fits a school that has already been willing to lean into sponsorship revenue in creative ways. The Orange previously worked with SRC, Inc. on a sponsored home game relocated to Yankee Stadium, and this latest step shows the program is continuing to adapt to the new business reality around the Dome. [Read more 🡒]
Perry Eliano Has Syracuse's Secondary Facing One Big Question
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The good news for the Orange is that the group has moved forward since his arrival, enough for the staff to start shifting players into different roles and seeing what fits. The lingering question is the one every secondary coach eventually has to answer: who actually settles into the starting spots when the dust clears? Syracuse is still sorting that out, and until the lineup is finalized, the back end remains one of the more interesting parts of camp. [Read more 🡒]