John Anselmo understands Syracuse football coach Doug Marrone wants more out of him than just training the cornerbacks and safeties. Marrone expects Anselmo, SU’s new secondary coach, to make an important mark in one of his primary areas of focus: re-establishing recruiting ties to downstate New York and the tri-state area.

‘I’m sure that one of the things that enticed Doug to ask me to come is the fact that I’ve been down on Long Island and in the city,’ Anselmo said. ‘I’ve been doing that for 30 years, so I do have a lot of ties down there.’

The big question in the coming years is whether those ties will turn into big-time recruits. Anselmo returns to Division I coaching for the first time since 1999 after a successful tenure at Nassau (N.Y.) Community College, where he served as head coach. Anselmo worked with Marrone at Georgia Tech and has already snagged a well-revered prospect from the city in preparation for next season: cornerback Torian Phillips, a two-star recruit from Staten Island. Andrew Tiller, an offensive lineman who played for Anselmo at Nassau, will also be joining the Orange next season.

‘When you coach at a JUCO, you are always coaching kids from the city and from Long Island, so I built some good ties with those coaches,’ Anselmo said. ‘I’m sure that would help in a situation like this. I think we only had two or three kids on the team from the Island or the city, so if they can play, then we want to recruit them.’

Before taking the job at Syracuse, Anselmo accumulated 152 wins in 16 years as the head coach at Nassau from 1989-94 and 1999-08. He left Nassau as the winningest active JUCO coach, winning at a clip of 80.4 percent.

Having such a knowledge and background in the tri-state area correlated perfectly with what Marrone is trying to establish at Syracuse. Marrone, a Bronx native, wants to become the dominating force in recruiting downstate New York, an area SU once controlled. Under former head coach Greg Robinson, Syracuse’s standing in New York City and Long Island slipped, and the recruits from the areas began choosing programs like Rutgers and Connecticut, among others.

When putting together his staff for this year, it only made sense for Marrone to add Anselmo.

‘John is a veteran coach who has a great deal of experience in recruiting, particularly in one of our most critical areas in New York City, Long Island and New Jersey,’ Marrone said in the press release announcing Anselmo’s hiring. ‘… John will bring stability in the area of recruiting. From a standpoint of evaluating talent, he has seen more high school players than most coaches in college football today.’

Anselmo agrees with Marrone about the importance of getting back into New York for the top high school talent. As the only BCS football program in New York, he said a team couldn’t afford to not recruit the vast number of high schools in the region and lose the in-state talent. Under Robinson, Syracuse only had six recruits from downstate New York and nine recruits from New Jersey.

Anselmo and Marrone’s focus on New York is already paying dividends. Anselmo helped lock up City Player of the Year Phillips, from Port Richmond High School in Staten Island, for next season. He led Port Richmond to a PSAL championship last season with 1,486 yards rushing and 34 touchdowns.

SU also locked Zack Chibane, a lineman from New Jersey. Anselmo said the coaching staff wanted to work on some other recruits, but it was too late to do with the December hiring of Marrone. The recruits, though, already show Anselmo’s ties to the region.

‘There’s probably not a coach within a 100-mile radius who wasn’t very friendly with him over the years, because he’d dealt with so many of them,’ said Russ Cellan, the head coach of Freeport (N.Y.) High School. ‘So I think between John and Doug Marrone, I just don’t see many people that don’t know them already and aren’t familiar with them. They’re not starting from ground zero with recruiting.’

Though the recruiting aspect is important, Anselmo will have to successfully coach the secondary as well. When Marrone brought Anselmo on staff, he asked him what he would be comfortable coaching, and since Anselmo had only been a head coach and coached the secondary at Georgia Tech, he returned to his familiar position.

Right now Anselmo, along with new defensive coordinator Scott Shafer, is working to get the right personnel into the system.

The players have taken to their new coach so far.

‘He’s a good coach, he’s always hard on us on the field, but when we get in the meeting rooms he tries to coach us up as much as possible,’ sophomore free safety Dorian Graham said. ‘The main thing they try and do is coach inside the meeting rooms and execute on the field, that way we can run through things a lot faster and do more reps. He’s a real good coach and he knows a lot.’

But it all comes back to recruiting. As more time passes, Anselmo will have a chance to keep recruiting impact players for the team – and his secondary – from his secondary.

The ties are there. It’s now time for them to be utilized for SU.

‘Surely you want to get the New Yorkers, but you want to get them to visit you,’ Anselmo said. ‘You got to get them up here, and I think that’s changed the number of coaches that have come up from the Island and the city, and I just think you have contacts in that area, the better off you are going to be recruiting.’

mrehalt@syr.edu

Published on April 22, 2009 at 12:00 pm