The New Jersey native decommitted from another ACC school before choosing SU
Syracuse Orange football has found its running back of the future. His name is Yasin Willis.
The freshman absolutely tore up the spring game with 11 carries for 92 yards and a touchdown. He also racked up three receptions for 18 yards, 13 of those after the catch.
“He’s just a big athletic kid. I’ve been seeing his [running ability] since he flipped from the other school and committed to us,” head coach Fran Brown said.
According to MaxPreps, in his senior season at St. Joseph’s Regional, Willis finished with 682 yards on 129 carries and 12 touchdowns. He finished his high school career with just under six yards per rush.
Willis initially committed to Pittsburgh in July of last year. Rivals rated him a four-star prospect in the 2024 class, the second-best player in New Jersey and the 11th RB in the country. He would’ve been the Panthers’ highest-rated running back recruit in six years. That’s when Brown stepped in, flipping Willis to the Orange two weeks after becoming head coach.
Willis, a native of Newark, New Jersey, is one of the many recruits that Brown has brought in from his home state. After coming to SU, the RB quickly got into much better shape. Entering camp at 212 pounds, the running back diligently cut down on his body fat and added 15 pounds of muscle over the winter workouts.
The 1-2 punch of LeQuint Allen and Willis should be a lethal combination for SU this fall. Both are bulldozers in between the hashes, and Willis’ relentless motor will provide the Orange with a steady run game behind Allen for a full 60 minutes.
“We’ll have thunder and lightning with both of those kids able to play,” Brown said.
The pair should get plenty of opportunities this season with former quarterback Garrett Shrader out of the picture. The most rush attempts Kyle McCord had last year in a game at Ohio State was seven. Allen took just over 46% of the team’s total carries, with Shrader at 21%. Expect the Allen-Willis combo to dominate that share this time around.
We’re still over four months away from Syracuse’s home opener, but Orange fans should spend their summers excited about Willis’ potential as a featured back down the road.