Syracuse was a whole new program under Fran Brown in 2024. The new HC took over a struggling program from Dino Babers and pitched in an impressive record of 10-3. A part of that success came by way of new OC Jeff Nixon and his rejuvenated offense, which had Kyle McCord and Trebor Pena. Brown might have lost the WR to an NIL fallout; he’s added another who stands to fill up the gap. But he’s not exactly someone people are overly excited about.

Pena was McCord’s go-to guy on the field last season. He tallied 84 receptions for 941 yards and also scored 9 touchdowns in 2024. But he’s now history for Fran Brown, who gave him the boot when the WR asked for a bigger paycheck. Pena has found a home with James Franklin, which meant Brown was tasked with replacing his most productive offensive duo from last season. He’s found a solution for both cases, but the jury is out when it comes to the WR replacement being a reliable player. Yet, he comes with some stellar numbers that can have Brown’s hopes looking up.

Brown has signed Johntay Cook II from the portal, who spent barely a week on campus in Washington. That was also after he had transferred equally abruptly from Texas, during the season. Yet, insider Brian Smith thought that he could be a great addition to the renovated Orange offense. He told Jackson Holzer of Locked On Syracuse that Cook brought pure “speed” to the team. “Johntay impressed because he basically told you he was going to run by you. He’d run by you. Then he let you know he ran by you,” Smith said.

Cook is a 5-star prospect out of the 2023 class, ranked as the No. 7 WR in the pool. He comes with a whopping total of 2,965 receiving yards from his high school days. Yet, he couldn’t quite strike the chord with Texas or Washington. “Now he is headed to Syracuse. I think this is an important situation for him, that he figures it out. Because that’s a lot of talent,” Smith said. If Cook likes what Syracuse is doing and decides to stay for the long run, he can be a part of the machinery that stole attention last year.

“They [Syracuse] can beat you up in a lot of different ways in the passing game. But when you have a vertical threat like Johntay, and assuming that he figures it out, it changes their season,” Smith theorized. “I know Fran and those guys can scheme it up. They are going to be a pain to defend,” he also added. As Brown looks to repeat the success of his offense from last season, there are some key developments that are shaking things up in its 2025 edition.

Fran Brown’s QB1 situation changes with Steve Angeli inclusion

Fran Brown has his QB1 for this season, i.e., Rickie Collins. However, Syracuse might be the only program in CFB that is seeing a race for that position after a winner has already been announced. With Steve Angeli’s addition to the QB room, Collins will have some more competition to whittle out before landing that starting position once and for all. Matt Park said while appearing for Cuse Sports Talk that he bets on Angeli to start the season. However, that only means good things for Collins.

“And that is only going to help Collins, who has even more eligibility. They’re trying to build, you know, the common accord obviously worked great for everybody concerned, right? But in general, you don’t want to be dealing with one-year transactions and one-year rentals, particularly at the quarterback position,” said Park. Steve Angeli has two years remaining, while Collins has three.

“When you bring in guys that have a little more eligibility and you can start overlapping them, now you’re really talking about building a program. And so that’s what I think they have in mind,” Collins is definitely going to see more time on the field this season. But he still lacks experience, which Angeli has from his time at Notre Dame. Brown is tasked with not just winning games, but also improving Syracuse as a program. With Johntay Cook and Angeli in the mix, that plan seems to be taking shape day by day.