The coaches who had built the initial relationships, sold Syracuse to recruits and convinced them to join the Orange were gone. One by one, they followed Doug Marrone out the door and to the Buffalo Bills. The staff dwindled, uncertainty swallowed the program and those same recruits lost their contacts with the Orange.

Scott Shafer took over as head coach, assembled a staff quickly and together, they flew all around the country, convincing the prospects to remain committed to Syracuse. Some did, some didn’t. In the end, it was a frenzied few weeks that culminated with a solid recruiting class comprising 19 recruits from 13 different states. The Orange’s new coaches had to mend the relationships that might have bent when Marrone and SU’s former coaches moved west down Interstate 90.

“It was more go out and show these kids we recruited prior to some of these new faces on staff who we are and see if they wanted to play for us,” Shafer said at a press conference Wednesday. “And if they still wanted to see who we were to the core, great. And if they didn’t, that’s great, too. Let’s go find some kids that do want to buy into what we’re about.”

Marrone’s departure was a blow to the Orange’s recruiting efforts. It worsened when offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett followed him to the Bills. Both resulted in Syracuse losing the commitments of Texas quarterback Zach Allen, New York running back Augustus Edwards and Miami defensive end and linebacker Malik Brown.

Shafer said this is what happens in college football. Coaches move to other positions and the remaining and new coaches have to adjust to the changes.

At one point, though, SU’s coaching staff was so thin that the holdovers had no way to reach out to every recruit. Only Shafer, defensive line coach Tim Daoust and wide receiver coach Rob Moore remained. It was three coaches trying to reach out to more than a dozen recruits.

“The tough part was, at one point, we only had three coaches, so there was only three of us on the road,” Moore said. “It was almost impossible to touch every kid that you want to. We were scrambling for a while.”

When Shafer put his new staff together, the coaches spent little time in Syracuse. They went into the recruits’ homes and met with their families. All in all, they held the class together, with only a few exceptions.

The coaching changes took place quickly, but the new coaches managed to salvage the commitments of almost every recruit.

“I think, given the situation,” Moore said, “we came out of this thing pretty good in light of being down some coaches and really have to scramble toward the end.”

Published on February 7, 2013 at 12:36 am

Contact Chris: cjiseman@syr.edu | @chris_iseman