Meet the prototype.

Height: 6 feet 2 inches. Weight: 226 pounds, big enough to take a hit and break a tackle.Arm: At Syracuse, he tossed for 8,389 yards. Legs: He ran for 1,561.

He’s Donovan McNabb.And he’s gone.

Since he left, Syracuse has tried to recruit his carbon copy — a quarterback who can drop back and fire, who can lower his shoulder and ram and duck and weave.

But because so few McNabb-esque high-schoolers exist, and because so many colleges want them, the sucess rate for landing one is low.

Syracuse learned that in 1999, the year it signed current starter R.J. Anderson. That year, the Orangemen recruited five quarterbacks, but four chose other Division I schools. A year later, Syracuse tried to ink Jeff Smoker, who starts at Michigan State, and Carlyle Holiday, Notre Dame’s starter, and lost on both.

But even the most highly regarded recruits sometimes flop. Of the four lost 1999 recruits — Rod Rutherford (Pittsburgh), Willie Simmons (Clemson), Latrez Harrison (Maryland) and C.J. Leak (Tennessee) — not all panned out.

— Rutherford, who hails from Pittsburgh, threw his coming out party this season, racking up 1,664 yards and completing 53.4 percent of passes. He’s also rushed for 141 yards and three touchdowns. Against Syracuse, he completed 10 of 15 passes for 279 yards in a 48-24 win.

“Rod got me this year,” Anderson said, “but I got him last year.”

No surprise. Rutherford struggled mightily at times last season, and against Syracuse, he completed 2 of 9 passes for 33 yards.

— Similar struggles befelled Simmons, who, just this season, took over as Clemson’s starting quarterback. Although he’s played well (1,199 yards, 58 completion percentage), Simmons endured two years as a backup to Woodrow Dantzler.

— Of the four 1999 recruits, Harrison was perhaps the only true bust. After an unimpressive freshman season in which he completed just 5 of 24 passes, Harrison redshirted his sophomore campaign. An equally uninspiring redshirt sophomore year later, the Maryland coaching staff decided to move him to wide receiver.

“I was mobile,” Harrison said. “I could run and throw. I was the Donovan McNabb type.”

But probably not the type Syracuse wants on its roster.

— Leak, from Charlotte, N.C., chose Wake Forest but transferred to Tennessee after an unimpressive freshman season in which he was 30-of-70 passing before bowing out with a knee injury.

“I didn’t do a whole lot,” Leak said. “I didn’t get the opportunity I really wanted.”

After sitting out a season because of transfer rules, Leak has spent the last two seasons backing up starter Casey Clausen.

He started his first game for the Vols last week against Georgia, but didn’t last long. Leak was yanked after completing 1 of 3 passes.

Though he aspires to, Leak doesn’t fit the passer/runner model Syracuse coveted.

“I kind of idolized Donovan McNabb,” Leak said, “and even to this day, I try to model my game after him.”

Anderson stared across his living room and saw Lou Holtz.

The South Carolina coach had come to Plainville, Conn., to recruit him. That’s when Anderson knew he’d play big-time college football.

Not long before, Anderson had been targeted by just one school — Memphis. But after he paid that campus an official visit, word of his two-way ability spread, eventually to Syracuse.

“The thing about college football is, once you get one offer, it’s all downhill from there,” Anderson said. “I got home Sunday night (from Memphis). By Tuesday, Syracuse called me and asked me to come up.”

While Anderson has disappointed with his numbers this season (822 yards, 44.3 completion percentage), he has been in the Syracuse quarterback mix since his redshirt-freshman season.

At least physically, the 6-foot-1, 229-pound Anderson fit the mold SU sought. His ability to bust through tackles like a fullback attracted Syracuse, too.

“Nowadays, the quarterback with mobility, the Jeff Garcia, the Donovan McNabb, everybody wants them,” Syracuse offensive coordinator George DeLeone said. “The old, classic, drop-back passer is not as popular as he once was. You have to be able to move at quarterback.”

But those two-way signal-callers often are unavailable. Syracuse quarterbacks coach Steve Bush said high schools often play a watered-down offense, a far cry from SU’s option-based attack, which combines a wide array of shifts and formations.

Plus, high school quarterbacks are often the best athletes on the team. That tempts coaches into playing them on both sides of the ball. While that improves the team, it limits a quarterback in terms of learning the position.

As for the quarterbacks who exclusively play the position, they’re often drop-back passers who wouldn’t fit the SU offense.

“We’re looking for an athletic guy who can also control the ball,” Bush said. “An awful lot of people are looking for the athletic quarterback who has a lot of size. There’s a lot of smaller, athletic quarterbacks who don’t have the size or the arm.

“It’s a pretty unique combination, and not that easy to find.”

So Syracuse searches far and wide, although its most recent recruiting successes have come from the Northeast: Cecil Howard (Pittsburgh, 2000), Perry Patterson, (Lancaster, Pa., 2001) and Joe Dailey (Jersey City, N.J., 2002).

When Syracuse hopes to sign a quarterback, it starts with a pool of about 50, DeLeone said. By spring practice, the number drops to 20 and eventually to 10 before the summer. Three or four usually make an official visit, DeLeone said.

Those official visits used to entail staying with McNabb and attending basketball games with him. What better way to build a replica of the prototype himself.

“Every quarterback with athletic ability,” DeLeone said, “we’re interested in.”

Published on October 17, 2002 at 12:00 pm