Syracuse, NY – It’s safe to say Syracuse head football coach Fran Brown has learned from Syracuse’s 3-9 football season in 2025.
There are never enough quarterbacks for Syracuse, as demonstrated last season by a breakdown from Steve Angeli to Rickie Collins to Luke Carney and lacrosse rusher Joe Filardi struggling to navigate the game’s most important position.
Before the portal opened, Brown said he wanted to add two signal callers to Syracuse’s roster.
If you have two quarterbacks, don’t you have one?
Nonsense.
Brown has three to be sure.
Amari Odom (Kennesaw State) Danny Lauter (Georgetown) and Malachi Nelson (UTEP/Boise State/USC) join Steve Angeli, Rich Belin, Joe Filardi and Zaid Lott in what is now a shocking quarterback room for Syracuse.
Syracuse now has four quarterbacks on the roster with starting experience totaling 1,394 pass attempts in a college football game.
By comparison, SU started last season with a quarterback who attempted a total of 87 passes in game action.
Nelson, a former five-star recruit, brings a resume with top honors.
As a high school prospect out of Los Alamitos (Calif.), he was ranked as high as the No. 1 overall recruit in the nation by ESPN.
Nelson played college football at USC, Boise State and UTEP.
He just wasn’t able to land as a QB1.
Nelson started last season as the starter at UTEP, but was benched in favor of Skyler Locklear midway through the season.
Through five games as a starter, Nelson completed 104 of 190 passes (54.7 percent) for 1,163 yards. He threw eight touchdown passes and nine interceptions.
Miller Moss beat him out to become the starter at USC in 2024, while Boise State started Maddux Madsen at quarterback in place of Nelson last year. He threw just under 17 passes in those two spots.
The stigma of going to a fourth school no longer exists in the portal era.
Nelson hopes the fourth time is the charm in Syracuse.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to join the Syracuse program and be a part of what Coach Brown is building,” Nelson said in most things in 2026 “college” gamr, his agency’s statement. “There’s been a real level of trust and communication from the beginning, which has been important to me and my family. I’m focused on getting the job done and getting my role.”
Odom (6-4, 205), a redshirt junior, brings the most polished resume on the field to the room.
Odom threw for 2,594 yards on 64.9% completion with 26 total touchdowns to just eight interceptions for the Owls in 2025, leading them to the Conference USA Championship.
In a bit of symbolism, the former quarterback of Syracuse Ricky Collinswho was brought in from LSU to start at SU in 2025, signed with Kennesaw State in what amounts to a quarterback trade on the transfer portal.
He’s the most tested option for Syracuse if Angeli goes down again, or if Odom can simply beat him early in the gig.
Lauter (6-3, 220), a senior, played in three games for Georgetown last year, completing 51 of 84 passes (60.7 percent) for 613 yards with five touchdowns and one interception.
Lauter started 10 games for the Hoyas in 2024, completing 177 of 288 passes (61.4 percent) with 11 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
The jump from an FCS program to the ACC may be too much for Lauter to make and immediately get on the field at Syracuse.
That said, if Trinidad Chambliss can jump out of Division II Ferris State and lead Ole Miss to the College Football Playoff, I think anything is possible.
Last season was a worst-case scenario for Syracuse after Angeli went down.
Collins simply wasn’t ready for prime time and had more turnovers (10) than touchdowns (six).
Luke Carney, who transferred to Houstonsurprisingly, he was never really shaken up to show off his full arsenal with just seven pass attempts in four games.
Walk-on Joe Filardi impressed, going 31-of-65 for just 226 yards in four games.
The quarterback situation became unsustainable last season and was mismanaged by Brown, offensive coordinator Jeff Nixon and former quarterbacks coach Nunzio Campanile (now at UConn).
Brown has been hunting deep in the QB pond to solve the QB1 title issue still anointed with Angeli while he recovers from a torn Achilles suffered last season at Clemson.
Despite Brown’s statement, Odom, Nelson and Lauter weren’t brought to Syracuse just to be quarterback insurance.
All of this will happen under the watchful eye of new SU quarterbacks coach Sean Ryan, a two-time Super Bowl winner who has coached five Pro Bowl quarterbacks in Eli Manning, Matthew Stafford, Deshaun Watson, Sam Darnold and Teddy Bridgewater.
The level of competition at the most important position in the sport has been seriously enhanced with the added production and experience now on the Orange roster.
Interestingly, SU’s offense lost a number of key contributors from last season.
SU’s leading rusher, running back Yasin Willis, transferred to Kansas.
SU’s second leading rusher, Will Nixon, declared for the NFL draft despite receiving another year of eligibility.
SU’s wide receiver room got a complete Control-Alt-Delete, with the top seven pass catchers leaving due to eligibility expiration or seeking greener pastures on the portal.
That includes SU’s top two wide receivers from last year, Johntay Cook and Darrell Gill Jr., who are both now at Ole Miss.
The Orange’s most productive players at receiver are Darien Williams (8 catches for 101 yards) and Tyshawn Russell (9 catches for 83 yards).
Five-star prospect Calvin Russell III, SU’s top-rated recruit in 25 years, comes in with a chance to start right away, but he’s also coming off a cold.
Every QB on the Orange roster has an equal chance to develop chemistry with Russell and all the new pass-catching faces.
The Orange offensive line loses its top three players in left tackle TJ Ferguson, center Austin Collins and right tackle Da’Metrius Weatherspoon.
Brown took a lukewarm approach to finding new offensive linemen in the trenches, bringing in just one offensive lineman.
Currently, SU will look to restructure the offensive line with a stable of returning players and incoming freshmen.
Someone has to run the show at quarterback until Angeli returns from injury.
Maybe Odom, Nelson, Lauter, or whoever lands in the 1A SU spot at QB won’t be so willing to hand the keys back to the Orange offense when he does.
Competition is a good thing.
That’s what the room lacked last season.
‘Close’ quarterback race at SU 2025 training camp between Angeli and Collins?
The coach tells fairy tales.
Now?
Brown has clearly improved the quarterback position on his roster (on paper, anyway).
Stories of tight competition between this group of new callers will be easier to believe.
May the best win.
Leave a Reply