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Before spring practice started last month, Jatius Geer sat down with Tori Brown, Syracuse’s new director of performance nutrition. After weighing 227 pounds last year, Geer put on an additional 25 to 30 pounds by himself in the offseason. He wanted to maintain that weight and turn it into muscle. So Geer went to Brown, talking about what to eat daily and what weight he wants to be at by September. Brown now helps Geer plan his exact breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. 

Geer was one of the players who pushed head coach Dino Babers to bring in a team nutritionist. Mikel Jones publicly opened that discussion last summer at Atlantic Coast Conference Kickoff, and multiple players confirmed this spring they wanted the program to make the hire for years. 

Syracuse hired Brown in early March, making it the last ACC school to add a team nutritionist. The Orange struggled with injuries last season, losing six starters for the year and several others for multiple games. Babers said Tuesday his main goal for Friday night’s spring game is keeping all his players healthy. Players said Brown has made a quick impact. Since her hiring, she’s focused on preventing injuries along with players eating and drinking right to get to an ideal weight.

“It’s been great. Tori came in, and she changed everything,” wide receiver Trebor Pena said. “She’s only been here for a couple of weeks or a month, but everybody can already tell the difference.”

Tori Brown is Syracuse’s new nutrionist, being hired last month after serving as a football dietician at West Virginia. Courtesy of West Virginia Athletics

Brown graduated from Christian Brothers Academy and spent last season as West Virginia’s football dietician. She previously worked at Pitt in the football and basketball sports nutrition departments for three years. An SU spokesperson declined to make Brown available for this story. 

Syracuse’s announcement of Brown’s hiring said she is responsible for performing dietary assessments and creating nutrition programs for all football players. She also works closely with coaches, performance chefs and the sports medicine and strength and conditioning staff. 

Team-focused dieticians or nutritionists (the only major difference between the two is the certification process) can also provide “evidence-based guidance” to help ensure healthy weight or body composition changes. They also help plan meals on road trips, said Jessica Garay, an assistant professor in Falk College’s Department of Nutrition and Food Studies. 

“When we’re at this level of D-I, Power Five conferences, all of the players are really talented,” Garay said. “So you’re looking for these other ways to make sure that you’re properly supporting the players to get the best out of them. And I think of nutrition — along with things like sleep and mental health and hydration — as these ‘X-factors.’”

In the age of NIL and the transfer portal, having a team-specific nutritionist can also help recruiting efforts. Each ACC school has at least one nutritionist or dietician in its athletic department, and all but one program that finished in last year’s top 25 have one as well. Veronica Tearney, SU’s director of strength and conditioning for Olympic sports, helps with nutrition in the athletic department, but doesn’t work with football.

“They’re things that you’re not going to necessarily focus on in your training and practices, but they make a huge difference in terms of how the guys feel, and how well they’re going to be able to perform,” Garay said.

Before Brown, Syracuse’s football strength coach, Sean Edinger, was responsible for strength, conditioning and nutrition simultaneously, Garay said. A nutritionist can provide significantly more individualized nutrition and hydration advice than strength coaches, who don’t have the time for that, Garay added. 

“We’re one of the later schools to acquire one, and I think we’ve got a good one,” Babers said on April 4. “It’s something that we’ve needed, and now, she’s already off and running with our players and it’s gonna be a huge advantage for us.”

Brown made quick changes after arriving. Before, players had the choice of eating with the team or taking food to-go, Pena said. Now, it’s mandatory for players to sit and eat during team dinners, ensuring they’re getting the proper food. Brown makes sure players eat before and after practice, defensive lineman Kevon Darton said. 

The expectation for a team nutritionist is that players can stay healthy and avoid injuries, they said. That comes through staying hydrated, eating well and avoiding certain meals, but also by stretching and taking ice and warm baths, defensive back Isaiah Johnson said. Since Syracuse practices early in the morning — typically starting around 8 a.m. — getting enough sleep is difficult, but important, Johnson added. 

“I would say everybody looks a little more healthy with Tori here,” quarterback Carlos Del Rio-Wilson said. “Some players are coming out full speed, no holding back, with Tori putting nutrients and vitamins in our body.” 

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Syracuse has numerous players trying to gain, lose or maintain weight, Johnson said, and Brown has been crucial. Wide receiver Oronde Gadsden II said he talked with Brown about what food and supplements to take to stay healthy. Enrique Cruz Jr. said having a nutritionist helps “tremendously” with the offensive line’s development by ensuring players eat enough healthy food.

“I’ve been super happy about it,” linebacker Marlowe Wax said. “You can just feel the energy around her, and how happy the team is with her being here. It’s definitely a big thing.”

Brown’s hiring had been a long time coming, said Garay, who recognized the need after arriving in Syracuse in 2005. She was surprised SU was one of the few major conference programs without any full-time sports dieticians despite having strong athletic and nutrition programs. 

Garay said she presented a proposal outlining the duties of a dietician for all sports to a Syracuse athletic department administrator several years ago. There was interest, she said, but was told it was a budgetary decision not to create a new position. 

There was some headway made on creating the position a few years ago, but those conversations “died completely” when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Garay said. Brainstorming sessions with athletic department officials included the details of the position, how the person would work with existing people in athletics and how to work with students in the nutrition program. 

The newly renovated Lally Athletics Complex has two cafeterias — one for football, and one for all other sports — which furthered the need for a nutritionist, Garay said. 

Syracuse lost several key players — including Garrett Williams and Chris Elmore — for the season last year, and others, like Garrett Shrader, missed time too. Shrader also missed last year’s spring game with a mild hamstring injury suffered in practice, and later said he should’ve drank more water beforehand.

In November, Babers said the injury numbers were concerning and warranted the need to evaluate “everything.” A week later, Director of Athletics John Wildhack told syracuse.com SU was in the process of hiring a dietician and making other enhancements to alleviate the injury problem. 

“We’re not quite sure what happened last year,” Babers said on March 21. “I’ve been around a long time. I’ve never had a year like that. And you know, sometimes it’s just happening. But if it happens twice, it’s not.”

Babers said Syracuse investigated the problem and changed some things in the weight room and in other areas, declining to share specifics. 

With those changes now in place, Babers and SU will await the results. The Orange return 17 of their 22 starters — ninth-best nationally — in addition to a slew of players who missed time during last year’s 7-6 season. The hope is that Brown can help Syracuse improve in 2023. 

“Now that we have (Brown), it just feels like we’re taking another step to being one of those teams that has a nutritionist (and is) just competing with everybody else,” Wax said.

Published on April 19, 2023 at 11:13 pm

Contact Connor: [email protected] | @csmith17_