Monday Musings: Assessing Syracuse's Chances With Willy Love

Class of 2024 four star Camden (NJ) Eastside defensive back Willy Love has set a commitment date for Thursday, July 6th at 1:30 p.m. Eastern. He will decide among his top seven, which includes Maryland, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse, Texas A&M and West Virginia. What are the Orange's chances entering the announcement?

Let's take a step back and look at how Love got here.

Early in his recruitment, Syracuse seemed to have a lot of buzz. Love had a strong relationship with area recruiter Nick Monroe and Director of High School Relations Khalil Ahmad. In addition, his cousin, Duce Chestnut, was starting and succeeding in the secondary. He visited multiple times and things were going very well there.

Another school that recruited him very hard was Rutgers. When Syracuse had staff turnover that resulted in Monroe leaving for Minnesota, combined with Chestnut leaving through the portal to go to LSU, the Scarlet Knights seized the opportunity. Rutgers jumped Syracuse and seemed to be in the driver's seat entering the summer.

During June, Love only took one official visit. To Rutgers. All of the buzz entering that visit was that it was a formality for his commitment. In fact, all of the recruiting predictions through the recruiting services were for Rutgers. That commitment, however, did not happen and the Rutgers buzz dissipated following that trip.

Re-enter the Syracuse chatter.

The Orange jumped back to the forefront of his recruitment as behind a strong effort from Director of High School Relations Dennis Thomas. He was on campus for the seven on seven tournament, but did not take an official. Still, that trip was where he established the relationship with Syracuse safeties coach Darrell Perkins. The two have been in contact ever since. In fact, the Orange earned a commitment prediction from a Rutgers recruiting analyst on Rivals.

This is when things get a bit murky, however.

Since Syracuse became the perceived leader, Love announced his commitment would happen in "two days" per an Instagram story on June 30th. That changed to July 6th.

The chatter is not significant to any individual school right now. So how does one read the tea leaves to get a feel for where things stand?

On the "Pro Syracuse" side, Love has been in constant communication with safeties coach Darrell Perkins recently. Even though it was not an official, his most recent visit to the schools on his list was to Syracuse. None of the other schools, besides Rutgers, have been rumored to be heavily involved recently.

On the "Against Syracuse" side, Rutgers received the only official. It is possible the Rutgers staff heard the Syracuse rumors and ramped efforts up on their end to try to sway him back to them. Some of the initial predictions to Rutgers from May have not changed, including from those plugged in to Rutgers recruiting. Love has a longer relationship with the Rutgers coaches than he does with the current Syracuse ones.

Could there be another mystery team making a push behind the scenes? Maryland was rumored, at one point, to be trying to get him on campus for an official. Would a school like Nebraska, with former Syracuse defensive coordinator Tony White, make a late run at Love?

Here is what I think. I think it is very possible that Love is looking for mystery surrounding his announcement. That he wants as few people as possible to know for sure in order to create some drama for the announcement. That is completely understandable as predictions through the recruiting services (such as Crystal Balls, Future Casts, Recruiting Prediction Machines) tend to ruin the moment for recruits. We will see how this plays out but I do expect it will be either Syracuse or Rutgers. I am leaning slightly towards Rutgers at this point but neither choice would surprise.

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