By Mark Pszonak
One of the bigger portal surprises this week was the entry of Syracuse wide receiver Trebor Pena, who enjoyed a breakout 2024 season with the Orange. Head coach Fran Brown did not hold back when asked about his departure.
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The interview by Steve Infanti, the host of ‘Orange Nation’ on @ESPNSYRACUSE answered a few of the questions regarding Pena’s exit. Most notably, Pena wanted more money after finishing the 2024 season with 84 receptions for 941 yards and nine touchdowns.
“If you wanna make $2M at wide receiver, that’s the lil homie at Ohio State (Jeremiah Smith). Ain’t nobody else making that money,” said Coach Brown. “I’m not giving no wide receiver $2 million in college. That ain’t me. I ain’t doing that unless they tell me we have a chance to have Travis Hunter come back to college. He can come here and play for us, then he gonna get some of my check.”
Coach Brown’s first season at Syracuse went amazingly well, but the program isn’t in a position to give $2M to a wide receiver. Most programs aren’t. And while Pena’s season was impressive, that is an extreme amount for a player who only averaged 11.2 yards per reception. To put it into context, of the top 17 wide receiver yardage leaders in the ACC last season, Pena’s average was the worst.
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Will Pena get his $2M on the open market? Possibly. Miami was rumored almost immediately as a possible destination, but there are other suitors that will likely drive up his value. But for Syracuse it was the right decision, no matter how difficult it was to watch their top receiver leave after the conclusion of spring practice.
Plenty of difficult decisions have to be made in today’s college football world.
