Florida Atlantic Transfer D’Marcus Adams Looks to Bring Speed and Success to Syracuse

Adams journey to Syracuse was a long one, but one that could prove fruitful for both himself and the Orange.

It wasn’t long ago when D’Marcus Adams was almost out of options with his football career. After staff turnover at Rutgers and Missouri in the spring of 2020, Adams was out of options in the transfer portal before he got a call from a familiar face.

“Later down the line, Coach Taggart hit me up and said he had an open scholarship for me if that’s what I wanted to do,” Adams said. “If I wasn’t enrolled in classes that summer I wouldn’t have been in school. So I decided to go to FAU.”

The lack of options wasn’t something Adams was used to. He starred at wide receiver at Mainland High School in Daytona Beach, Florida. Adams was the Daytona Beach News-Journal Male Athlete of the Year his senior year and was rated the 25th best high school receiver in the country by ESPN.

“I was a four star so I had just about every offer coming out of high school,” Adams said.

Some of those offers included Nebraska, Penn State, Rutgers and Minnesota. Adams chose Florida State due to a connection he had in high school.

“My high school receiver's coach, he went to Florida State,” Adams said. “He knew the receiver's coach under Jimbo Fisher’s staff. I felt like I was going into a good situation. The receiver's coach knew me well.”

After Jimbo Fisher left Florida State for Texas A&M in 2017, Adams stayed committed to Coach Taggart at Florida State but he realized he didn’t have the same connection with the new staff since they didn’t recruit him.

Adams then left for FAU in 2020 and reunited with Taggart as he became the new head coach of the Owls after Lane Kiffin departed. At FAU, Adams played in 17 games in two years. He caught three passes for 94 yards and had 10 kick returns for an average of 24 yards per return.

Adams went into the transfer portal and committed to Syracuse on May 5th. It was an easy decision for Adams.

“Honestly, I wasn’t considering anyone else," Adams said. “I was getting looked at by Texas Tech, they hit me up and said they wanted to extend a scholarship, but I told them I was already committed. I made up my mind and I knew what school I wanted to go to. The choice I made to come to Syracuse was because of Coach Johnson with our previous relationship with FAU.”

Syracuse’s new wide receiver's coach Mike Johnson was Adam’s wide receiver coach at FAU. Adams compares his game to two of the NFL’s most promising young receivers.

“I can make a lot happen when I touch the ball,” Adams said. “I’m a vertical threat, I’m really shifty. My game resembles Calvin Ridley and Jameson Williams.”

Although Adams is known for his speed, he wants to continue to improve his speed as well as his outside blocking. Syracuse fans might see Adams improve his speed in track for Syracuse. He participated in track when he was at Florida State.

“I was thinking about it," Adams said. “I was going to try to walk on the team and see what happens.”

With those improvements and the Syracuse coaching staff’s help, Adams has high hopes for his future.

“Coach said he’s going to sit me down and work with me to do whatever it takes to get me to the next level,” Adams said. “With his leadership, I feel like I can do that.”

Adams also believes his role on the team will lead to team success.

“They want to move me all over the field,” Adams said. “Wherever they feel like they need to put me they’re going to put me there. I just want to help the team win. I want to win the ACC Championship.”

Adams committed to the Orange despite not taking a visit to the Syracuse campus. He made his first visit to the state and the Syracuse campus last weekend.

“The architecture of the campus was different,” Adams said. “I’ve never seen anything like that before. The atmosphere is different. Transitioning from Florida to New York, everything is different. I saw where the student-athletes live, I saw both indoor practice facilities and the Dome. They took me everywhere.”

Adams plans to move into Syracuse sometime around June 1st. 

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