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National signing day has come and gone, and to put it mildly, the results don’t exactly stand out on paper. 

Syracuse’s class isn’t just in the bottom of the Atlantic Coast Conference, but last out of all 64 Power Five schools according to all four major recruiting services (247Sports, ESPN, On3 and Rivals). Rivals’ rankings, for example, has Group of Five schools like Arkansas State, UTSA and Georgia Southern ahead of the Orange, who are listed at No. 94.

The last time Syracuse was this low in 247Sports’ composite rankings was in 2009, when Doug Marrone had just taken over for Greg Robinson. Marrone had to quickly piece together a 16-man class after rescinding almost all of the offers for players who had committed to play for Robinson. When Marrone abruptly left four years later, SU also garnered a low ranking — 74th nationally — as Scott Shafer scrambled to keep the class together. This year, the Orange are 72nd.  

Syracuse lost its top recruit, 4-star quarterback LaNorris Sellers, to South Carolina in December, leaving it without a 4-or-5-star player for the fifth-straight cycle, per 247, solidifying Dino Babers’ worst-ranked class as he enters his eighth year as head coach. Four assistant coaches, including ace recruiter Nick Monroe, departed this offseason, too. 

Yes, none of that is exciting news for an SU program that just returned to a bowl game for the first time in four years and only the fifth time since 2005. But context is also necessary.

For starters, recruiting doesn’t matter as much anymore with the transfer portal. Syracuse can go out and grab talented players it didn’t land out of high school, like Garrett Shrader, Carlos Del-Rio Wilson and Braylen Ingraham — all former 4-star recruits who have arrived from SEC programs. SU also had a lower number of players depart from last year’s team, either by graduating, pursuing the NFL draft or entering the transfer portal. This gave the Orange fewer scholarships to offer and a 15-man class, which is the second smallest in the ACC. Recruiting rankings place a significance on class sizes, which doesn’t Syracuse any favors. 

Still, the consensus on these rankings leaves something to be desired. That’s especially concerning considering Babers, who declined to comment for this story through a team spokesperson, has now had eight years to build connections and make impressions in recruiting circles. 

On3 national recruiting writer Jeremy Johnson says grassroots work is particularly important for a program like SU, which doesn’t have regular, ACC-level talent coming out of its backyard. The Orange, Johnson said, have to be personable and build relationships with high school coaches or players at a young age and hope that work pays off eventually. 

Syracuse, particularly offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Jason Beck, did have an early relationship with Sellers and secured his commitment last March. Sellers appeared intent on joining the Orange even after South Carolina made its push last fall, citing his relationship with Beck, who had originally recruited him as an assistant at Virginia. Sellers still decommitted, though, leaving SU without its top 2023 recruit and a quarterback in the class. The South Carolina native noted a desire to play close to home in the Southeastern Conference. 

Of course, the benefit for the Orange is the transfer portal, which Johnson called “the great equalizer.” There isn’t one right way to build a college football program today, Johnson said, pointing to TCU, which didn’t rank in 247’s top 20 once over the past five years, but played for the national championship this season. Teams like TCU and Syracuse can go out and convince bench players at marquee schools to come in and earn significant snaps right away, even after losing recruits out of high school. 

That strategy worked not just with Shrader, one of the program’s most valuable players, but also with defensive backs Jaeden Gould and Jayden Bellamy, both of whom SU offered out of high school, but neither of whom played much at Nebraska and Notre Dame, respectively. They’re both expected to be major contributors for the Orange’s defense next season. 

Syracuse is ranked 55th in 247’s transfer team rankings this year, but 17th among schools that brought in six players or less. Granted, the Orange lost some key players like Ja’Had Carter and Duce Chestnut to the portal, but the incoming talent shows they can compete in an increasingly-important area of college football. 

SU also lost some of its most important assistant coaches this offseason, with both coordinators, along with Monroe and Mike Schmidt — top recruiters — departing. Syracuse isn’t alone, with 27 ACC coordinators changing teams in the past 14 months, but those losses “sting” since recruiting is all about relationships, Johnson said. 

Assistants like Monroe, who recruited Florida and the Tri-state area for the Orange to bring in players like Trill Williams, Chestnut and Mikel Jones, knew where talent was in those areas, and wouldn’t waste time, Johnson noted. Now, Syracuse will have to rebuild relationships with high schools essentially from scratch, while Monroe’s work will carry over to Minnesota. 

“Whatever (Monroe) had established with the guys down there, that’s gone,” Johnson said. “Now (the high schools’) attention will follow him.”

Babers deserves credit for the replacements he’s brought in, notably new tight ends coach Nunzio Campanile, who has deep ties to the talent-rich area of Northern New Jersey. The head coach is clearly emphasizing local recruiting — Syracuse signed the most New York players (four) in any class since Babers arrived and the coach will be the keynote speaker at the New Jersey Minority Coaches Association coaches clinic in March.

It remains to be seen what success Campanile and the other new assistants can have recruiting for SU. What is clear, though, is that Syracuse is a program predicated on developing talent, not on bringing in the nation’s top high-school players. Jones, Matthew Bergeron, Oronde Gadsden II and Sean Tucker were all 3-stars out of high school. Today, they’re viewed as future NFL players, a credit to Babers and his staff. 

“They’re gonna just have to work harder on development,” Johnson said. “They may not get the guys everybody’s gonna read their clippings about and that’s fine. Because once you get them on campus, I think that staff is really good at developing players and supplementing through the transfer portal when they need to.”

That means there should be some faith that the 18-hour days Babers and his staff put in leading up to the first signing day in December, and the class they’ve assembled, will pay off in some form. The rankings might not be flashy (or even appealing), but with where Syracuse’s roster is today, it’s not surprising. The onus is now on Babers and his newly-adjusted staff to prove the rankings services wrong.

Connor Smith is a senior staff writer at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @csmith17_.

Published on February 2, 2023 at 12:51 am