Spring football week 1 notebook: 4th down motivation, Samuel Jr. 2-way
Following a 10-win campaign in Fran Brown's first season as head coach, Syracuse football’s 2025 spring season began on Friday. Leonardo Eriman | Asst. Video Editor
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Three months after defeating Washington State in the Holiday Bowl to cap Fran Brown’s first year as head coach with 10 wins, Syracuse football began its 2025 spring season on Friday. Across the Orange’s first two practices, an influx of recruits and program alumni flooded the sidelines to watch Brown’s high-paced practices.
The highlight of the practices was offering a first glimpse at LSU transfer quarterback Rickie Collins, who is amid a quarterback competition to replace Kyle McCord. It also gave a look at freshmen like Demetres Samuel Jr. and returners like wide receiver Trebor Peña.
Here are some notes from the first week of SU’s spring practices:
4th-down motivation
In Brown’s eyes, Syracuse was two plays away from being an 11-win regular season team last year. While he admitted Pittsburgh “beat the bullcrap” out of them, Brown expressed a fourth-and-9 stop and a fourth-and-1 stop would’ve been the difference for the Orange to make the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship Game.
So, Syracuse has begun wearing shirts with “4th & 1” and “4th & 9” written on them.
“I want to make sure that I remind them two plays changed our season,” Brown said.
I asked SU head coach Fran Brown about these t-shirts the Orange are sporting this offseason detailing their losses by small margins to Stanford and BC. Brown doesn't like to speak on the past much, but it seems he's using it as motivation in Year 2. pic.twitter.com/w9BlMXzQ5s
— Aiden Stepansky (@AidenStepansky) March 21, 2025
The fourth-and-9 blunder came in September against Stanford. The Orange led 24-23 in the final minute and were a fourth-down stop away from winning their third straight game to start the year. However, quarterback Ashton Daniels connected with wide receiver Elic Ayomanor for a 27-yard gain, setting up an eventual game-winning field goal.
In November, the Orange were a fourth-and-1 stand away against Boston College from potentially going on to win a second straight contest after defeating Virginia Tech a week prior in overtime. Syracuse was trailing 30-28 midway through the fourth quarter as BC faced a fourth-and-1 inside the red zone. Because of BC’s dominant run game, SU sold out for a run and surrendered a touchdown off a play-action fake, all but sealing its loss.
“The whole winter, we had fourth-and-1 and fourth-and-9 on the back of our shirts,” Peña said. “So we could be reminded every day one play could change the game.”
Had Syracuse won both games, its 7-1 conference record would’ve been tied with Clemson for the second-best in the ACC behind SMU’s perfect 8-0 mark.
“When you’re going through that hard work, you look at the guy in front of you and you just realize that we were two snaps away from potentially being in the ACC Championship and a playoff appearance,” tight end Dan Villari said. “So it’s an incredible motivation for us.”
Samuel Jr. practicing both-ways
Samuel — listed as a 6-foot-1, 190-pound defensive back — is the Orange’s highest-rated class of 2025 recruit as a four-star with a 90 rating, per 247Sports. The Florida native was originally part of the 2026 class and committed to SU last March. Though, in July, he flipped his commitment to Florida while reclassing up a year.
Still, Syracuse remained persistent in its recruitment, as Samuel was in attendance for its blowout win over Holy Cross in September. One day later, he flipped his commitment back to the Orange.
According to his MaxPreps page, Samuel also played wide receiver last year at Heritage High School, accumulating 18 receptions for 343 yards and two touchdowns. He also added 61 rushing yards on five carries.
When speaking to reporters Friday, Collins mentioned Samuel is practicing on offense and defense. On Saturday, in the open portion of practice to the media, Samuel was spotted wearing a white jersey with a blue pinny over it. That day, defenders were sporting orange jerseys while non-quarterback offensive players wore white jerseys.
— Demetres Samuel JR (@demetres_jr) March 22, 2025
Notes on Grant, Nixon and Hatcher
After missing the Holiday Bowl due to knee surgery, defensive back Devin Grant was moving around in practice but wore a green medical jersey. Brown said the Buffalo transfer played through an MCL injury for a month after his scoop-and-score touchdown helped Syracuse upset Miami in its regular-season finale.
On the other side of the ball, running back Will Nixon also wore a green medical jersey, while wide receiver Umari Hatcher was bearing a non-contact black jersey that the quarterbacks were also wearing.
Nixon, who transferred to SU from Washington ahead of last season, played in just three games before Brown ruled him out for the season on Oct. 10, 2024.
Hatcher, now heading into his fourth season with the program, began last year as a starter. He notched 17 receptions, 273 receiving yards and three touchdowns across eight games played before his season ended after suffering an apparent injury against UConn in November.
All three players should play a pivotal role for Syracuse in 2025. Similar to his role when he played last year, Nixon could play a change-of-pace role in the backfield. Though instead of backing up LeQuint Allen Jr., it’ll likely be sophomore Yasin Willis — who is now donning McCord’s previous No. 6 — as the starter. Meanwhile, Hatcher should figure to again be a key piece in SU’s wide receiver rotation, likely headlined by Peña and Darrell Gill Jr.
After Alijah Clark, Clarence Lewis, Jayden Bellamy, Marcellus Barnes Jr. and Jaeden Gould transferred or declared for the NFL Draft, Grant should be a key figure in the secondary. Last year, Grant’s versatility was on full display, accumulating over 100 snaps as a box safety, free safety and in the slot, per Pro Football Focus. Meanwhile, he added 74 snaps as a wide corner.
Additional notes
Since taking over Syracuse’s program in November 2023, Brown has become known for his D.A.R.T. mantra. The ‘T’ stands for toughness, which Brown frequently talked about throughout last season. According to Villari, toughness has reached a new level this offseason.
“He’s picked up the intensity,” Villari said. “And you didn’t think he could do that. We didn’t think it was possible from last year, but this offseason, it’s twice as hard as last offseason.”
While speaking with reporters, Collins gave some insight into his portal process and his Syracuse commitment. The first domino was quarterback Garrett Nussmeier returning to Baton Rouge for a fifth season.
“I felt that it was best for me to move on from the program and coach Fran and the guys have welcomed me with open arms,” Collins said.
Additionally, the signal caller said he “kind of knew where I was going when I entered the portal,” citing that watching McCord gave him added motivation. Still, there was a brief hiccup in his recruitment.
After a report came out he was headed to SU, Collins reposted posts of his intended transfer. However, he deleted the posts a couple of hours later and posted his recruitment was still open. On Friday, Collins said the news just got out a little too early, and everything wasn’t set in stone.
“It wasn’t none of that,” Collins responded when asked if name, image and likeness or McCord’s decision — while he was awaiting a fifth-year waiver — played a role in the hiccup. “It was just making sure everything was right and just making sure me and coach Fran was on the same page.”
