Fran Brown lands a commitment to help fill a major team need.
Over the weekend, the Syracuse Orange picked up a veteran commitment to help provide experience and pass protection in the trenches following the departure of several offensive linemen.
Austin Collins, a transfer offensive guard from Louisville, is signing with Syracuse for the 2025 season, according to Chris Hummer and Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports and 247Sports.
Collins, who measures at six-foot-three and around 300 lbs., started seven games at right guard for the Cardinals and finished with some pretty strong pass blocking grades, according to Pro Football Focus. He played 542 total snaps in 2024, 311 of which came in passing situations. He finished the year with a pass blocking grade of 85.1, which was 38th-best among guards, per PFF.
Louisville offensive line transfer Austin Collins has signed with Syracuse, @chris_hummer and I have learned.
Started 14 games at Louisville the last two seasons. pic.twitter.com/Fz1giyKOgO
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) April 19, 2025
The Perrysburg, Ohio native played his whole collegiate season up to this point for Louisville. He committed to the Cardinals as a three-star recruit, per 247Sports, over offers from Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Toledo, Western Kentucky, UAB, Ball State, Bowling Green and Miami (OH).
After getting some time in just a few games in 2020 and 2021, Collins played in seven games in 2022. He officially took on a larger role in 2023, where he appeared in 13 games and started Louisville’s final seven. To date, he’s played over 1,100 snaps heading into 2025, per PFF.
Collins ranks 66th among transfer interior offensive linemen, according to 247Sports’ tracker.
Pass blocking will be Collins’ specialty. Between 2022 and 2024, he finished with a pass block grade between 70.3 and 84.3 in those three seasons. Run blocking will be a slightly different story. Collins finished this past season with a 56.7 run block grade and peaked at 65.7 in 2022.
With Collins coming in, coach Fran Brown secures a key ACC transfer to help fill in some of the losses from the offseason at the line of scrimmage on offense. Two offensive lineman, David Wohlabaugh, Jr and Enrique Cruz, most recently entered the transfer portal on Friday.
Collins appears set to help bring some added depth and experience for Syracuse’s offensive line that will be tasked with blocking for new starting quarterback Rickie Collins.