Nobody expected head coach Fran Brown and Syracuse to stumble the way they did, especially not after last year’s 10-win season. To make it worse, Notre Dame handed them their worst loss since 1893 in a brutal 70-7 defeat over the weekend. Within 24 hours, the Orange found themselves dealing with a domino effect in recruiting.

“BREAKING: 3 ⭐ (‘26) RB D’Antae Sheffey tells me he’s decommitting from Syracuse and reopening his recruitment. Sheffey attends State College HS in PA.” On November 23rd, recruiting insider Riley Alberts hopped onto X and shared the bad news for Syracuse football. The State College standout had originally pledged to join Syracuse’s 2026 class back in April. Popular consensus is that the weekend blowout was a major reason he decided to look elsewhere.

Ever since Steve Angeli went down injured after the preseason No. 4 Clemson game, everything has unraveled for Fran Brown. His team fell into a brutal six-game losing streak right in the middle of the season. The Oranges are 3-8, and ranked 16th in their conference table.

By no means was this an isolated incident, either. Sheffey was one of three recruits to announce their decommitment on Sunday after the massive defeat. Wide receiver Zikhere Leaks and athlete E’Shawn Sutton also backed out of their verbal pledges. It’s a rough turn of events for Syracuse, which had hoped to build its future recruiting classes around these early commitments.

Although his senior year didn’t go as expected, Sheffey is known for a stellar freshman season at State College High, where he ran for over 1,700 yards and scored 22 touchdowns. With his decommitment, the race for him is wide open. He already holds offers from major programs like Virginia Tech, Cincinnati, Rutgers, and Pitt.

Local powerhouse Penn State is also firmly in the mix, and he’s visited their campus several times. He’s close with Nittany Lions running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider, too. Meanwhile, on the flip side, the Oranges are rolling out the red carpet for one transfer this weekend.

Fran Brown is gearing up to host a Virginia Tech standout

Syracuse will host cornerback Dante Lovett, who is transferring from Virginia Tech, for a recruiting visit on Monday, according to his agent. Lovett entered the transfer portal after Virginia Tech fired their head coach, Brent Pry, on September 14. He was a three-star recruit from DeMatha High School in Maryland and will have two years of eligibility left as a redshirt junior in 2026.

Lovett’s performance on the field has been inconsistent. As a freshman in 2023, he earned a coverage grade of 71.8 while playing 32 snaps. In 2024, his coverage grade dropped to 65.1 over 159 snaps, and this season he has a 44.8 coverage grade on 24 snaps. Over his 29-game career, he has one interception and eight pass break-ups, but he has only started two games.

Syracuse currently has 16 scholarship defensive backs for the 2026 roster, including a strong starting cornerback duo in freshman Demetres Samuel Jr. and redshirt sophomore Chris Peal. However, the team could use more help in the slot. Lovett has very little experience there, just seven snaps in the past two seasons, so he would likely be a developmental player under head coach Fran Brown.