Yulander Wells previously worked at Notre Dame, and now he'll work directly with head coach Fran Brown.
According to a report on Thursday from USA Today, new Syracuse athletic director Bryan Blair is hiring Yulander Wells as part of a group of new hires in the athletic department. Those hires should be official this week.
Wells previously spent 3.5 years at Notre Dame, but also has stops at Harvard, South Florida and the University of Florida.
Wells will be integral in the football department, working with head coach Fran Brown, but he won't be involved on the field. He will be involved in a financial role.
He will be the chief operating officer, specializing in football.
"Among Wells’ initiatives while in South Bend are Notre Dame’s lucrative, 10-year renewal of its exclusive apparel deal with Under Armour — a pact Under Armour controls after outbidding Adidas and Nike to maintain its Fighting Irish partnership."
What does all this really mean?
It means that Blair is fully investing in the football program, which is important, despite the fact that men's basketball remains the biggest program at the university. Football requires a ton of financial capital to operate, so if you're going to have it, you might as well do it right.
It also means that Wells will (likely) be tasked with coming up ways to make money for the football program. That money can help the cost of simply operating the program, while also helping to elevate the program in terms of its NIL offerings to players.
Syracuse won 10 games in 2024, but finished just 3-9 in 2025. The program has the potential to be good, as it showed in 2024, but is not in the same historic conversation as ACC powers like Florida State, Clemson and Miami. If it wants to get there, NIL revenue generation will be critical.
Also on campus
--The men's basketball team reportedly looking to play an exhibition contest against Siena this upcoming season. However, the game wouldn't take place in Syracuse, it would take place in Albany. Why? A handful of reasons.
1) Syracuse reportedly doesn't like staging exhibition games at home because of the high cost of doing so.
2) If Siena were to host the game, it would give the university a chance to properly honor Gerry McNamara, Gavin Doty, Francis Folefac and Tasman Goodrick. All four helped Siena make the NCAA Tournament this past season and the school would use the game as an opportunity to raise the MAAC championship banner at the MVP Arena.
--Now-former Syracuse big man Tiefing Diawara has a new home after entering the transfer portal.
--The Syracuse women's lacrosse team will play on Friday night against Loyala Maryland in the NCAA Tournament. You can read up more on the SU women here, thanks to Goslowski. The men will play Yale on Sunday (5 p.m. ET) at the Dome.
--The Jacksonville men's lacrosse team is also in the NCAA Tournament, and they are led by a Syracuse alum.
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