Who are the 10 boom-or-bust players that will shape Syracuse football in 2025?

Syracuse, N.Y. — The Syracuse football team opened last season full of uncertainty given all the questions that come with a new coach.

It benefited, however, from having a number of known commodities on the field.

Things have flipped for the Orange this year, where there is substantial confidence in the coaching staff but uncertainty across the roster.

Syracuse’s success will likely hinge on whether the Orange hits on a number of boom-or-bust players.

With the Orange holding its first practice Thursday, here’s a look at the players that could make or break the season.

Steve Angeli/Rickie Collins, quarterback

We’ll lump the two starting quarterback contenders together as they look to replace the most prolific passer in the country. Both have four-star pedigrees and landed at powerhouse programs as recruits but were unable to secure starting jobs.

That’s pretty close to the storyline that played out for Kyle McCord last year, although he arrived with much more experience at Ohio State.

Collins played minimally at LSU and was named SU’s starter coming out of the spring. That was before Angeli arrived.

Angeli is slightly more proven, having shined in brief spurts at Notre Dame. He still didn’t win the starting job with the Fighting Irish and wouldn’t have left if he didn’t believe he could win it here.

One of them will start at the most important position on the field.

David Reese, edge rusher

Pro Football Focus tallied 169 quarterback pressures for the Orange last year. Nearly a quarter of them came from Fadil Diggs (42).

Reese, a transfer from California playing his eighth year of college football, is a natural replacement for Diggs’ pass-rushing skills.

Pro Football Focus gave only 15 edge rushers in the ACC a better pass-rush grade last season (minimum 200 rushes). The top of that list, including Diggs, are almost all currently in NFL training camps.

Reese had 25 pressures in 11 games last year for California, nearly double any returning member of the Orange defense (Rashard Perry had 13).

He was even better the year before, finishing with 32. He needs to improve as a tackler.

Johntay Cook II, wide receiver

Syracuse is going to need a lot of help trying to approach last year’s standard on offense.

It seems impossible to get better at quarterback or wide receiver. Cook seems like the best bet for providing an immediate upgrade to offset those losses.

A transfer from Texas (who made a brief stop at Washington), Cook came to college ranked as one of the 40 best high school recruits in the country.

In two years at Texas, Cook displayed big-play ability and caught 16 passes for 273 yards, an average of 17.1 yards per catch.

Jackson Meeks and Trebor Pena were remarkably reliable targets last season for the Orange.

Cook will have a difficult time being that productive.

But if everything comes together, he could actually be better.

Gary Bryant III, linebacker

Bryant was an All-American at the FCS level with South Dakota last year.

If he makes the jump to the Power-Four level seamlessly, he’ll have a major impact on the defense. It’s also possible he struggles with the step up in play.

Bryant, listed at 6-foot-1 and 230 pounds, made 103 tackles as a middle linebacker and his boom-or-bust potential is especially interesting given the Orange appears thin at the position.

Chris Peal, defensive back

Brown brought in three transfers from Georgia last season, with one developing into an impact player.

Meeks, who didn’t see the field very much as a receiver with the Bulldogs, turned into an immediate star at Syracuse once he was given an opportunity.

Josh Miller and Yazeed Haynes showed that not every player with a Georgia pedigree will dominate immediately.

But Brown presumably has a good read on Peal and has already shown he can take players who were buried at Georgia and turn them into stars in the ACC.

Peal, a 6-foot-1 redshirt sophomore, is a defensive back. That’s the same position that Brown coached at Georgia.

Demetres Samuel Jr., cornerback

The true freshman should be embarking on his final year of high school football.

Instead, he graduated a year early and exited the spring poised to be a starter at cornerback.

That’s a huge task at a very young age.

Duce Chestnut, defensive back

Chestnut is a veteran voice on the defense and the Orange’s highest-graded defensive player returning this season, according to PFF.

Chestnut struggled tackling at the start of last season but improved substantially late in the year, missing just one over the final three weeks of the regular season.

Undersized at 6-feet, Chestnut is often lauded for his instincts and was particularly good in zone pass coverage where, according to PFF, he had an interception or knockdown on four of the 13 plays where he was targeted.

PFF graded him as the No. 9 safety in the ACC in zone coverage. He had a tougher time when matched up man-to-man, ranking 33rd in the league.

Devin Grant, defensive back

Listed at 6-foot-4, Grant has the type of wingspan that makes him a viable player to be taken in next year’s NFL draft.

Like Chestnut, he was part of the improvement of Syracuse’s defense over the last three regular-season games, when he missed just one tackle.

Syracuse will likely try to use his combination of physicality and coverage skills the same way it utilized Justin Barron last year.

Austin Collins, center

Syracuse is replacing four offensive linemen, so you could put virtually any of them at this spot.

But Collins is the placeholder because he is one of the few that has experience playing center.

Collins played for Louisville last year, when he was graded by PFF as the second-best pass blocker among all guards (minimum 200 snaps). He ranked 26th in run blocking.