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ayson Raines dominated Syracuse’s camp. Invited to SU in June 2019, Raines made the 3.5 hour drive from West Orange, New Jersey, hoping to add to his list of offers. But even after Raines played well, Syracuse coaches told him they were still unsure about offering him a scholarship, and wanted to watch a few of his senior year games.

On the drive home, Raines’ high school coach remembered UVA calling and offering a scholarship. Stanford called days later, telling the 3-star wide receiver they wanted him. Syracuse didn’t offer until January, and Raines committed to Stanford instead, playing in five games for the Cardinal this season.

“This is a guy who, if (Syracuse) had been a little more aggressive, they could’ve had,” said Darnell Grant, Raines’ high school coach. “I just know that a team from 3,000 miles away came and plucked the kid, and the kid’s playing for them, being productive as a freshman. I would think that’s a kid that could’ve possibly stayed home.”

Raines’ recruitment illustrates Syracuse’s inconsistent efforts in the football hotbed of New Jersey under head coach Dino Babers. Located in an area that lacks significant homegrown, ACC-level talent, the Orange have long been forced to expand their reach regionally. Babers has pointed to New Jersey as “one of the top recruiting areas” for SU, but Syracuse’s recent classes reveal a national approach to recruiting and a lack of clear success in New Jersey and other nearby states.

With SU’s 2022 class now roughly solidified after National Signing Day, Babers and Syracuse face an uncertain future, both on the field and in recruiting. The incoming class ranks 70th nationally and 12th in the ACC, and includes two New Jersey players. The Orange have won just six games over the past two seasons with no bowl appearances since 2018. Two of the three assistants Babers had recruiting in New Jersey were fired after this season, and the head coach himself enters the 2022 season with his job security in limbo. Babers said in December that New York and New Jersey were important to him, but multiple prominent coaches in New Jersey said they have never met him.

New Jersey is consistently one of the top producers of top-level talent — ranked in the top 10 nationally with 56 NFL players as of September. Jabrill Peppers, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Rashan Gary and Jonathan Taylor all played high school football in the state, examples of the elite players in close proximity to Syracuse and other regional programs.

Syracuse didn’t make Babers or any of his assistants available to comment for this story. An SU Athletics spokesperson said Babers and assistant coach Nick Monroe spent last weekend visiting over 15 high schools in the tri-state area, and pointed to eight players on the Orange’s 2021 roster who were from New Jersey. SU recently brought in transfer cornerback Alijah Clark, a former 4-star recruit and high school teammate of cornerback Duce Chestnut, too.

Babers has said he wants to recruit close to Syracuse, but he wants players who have an opportunity to play.

“We want the best players that we can get from as many close states as we can, preferably New York and New Jersey, states that are close and bordering us,” Babers said on Dec. 15.

SU’s recruiting approach, though, is “absolutely national,” ESPN national recruiting director Tom Luginbill said. Syracuse’s 2021 class — outside of Chestnut — featured no players from New Jersey, but did have players from Hawaii, Indiana and Minnesota, among others. Each of the Orange’s recruiting classes dating back to 2016 featured at most two players from New Jersey. But the players from areas further from Syracuse are ranked similarly to ones located closer, Luginbill said.

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“When they say, ‘Yeah, we’re recruiting New Jersey hard,’ maybe they are, but maybe they’re not winning any of those battles, too,” Luginbill said.

After arriving at SU in 2016, Babers had defensive line coach Vince Reynolds and tight ends coach Reno Ferri recruiting in the talent-rich areas of North and South Jersey, several New Jersey high school coaches said. Reynolds and Ferri developed relationships with high school coaches and players in their respective areas for roughly five years before being fired after this season.

Ferri was honest, coaches said, and usually quick to respond to messages. Timber Creek Regional High School (N.J.) head coach Brian Wright recalled Ferri texting and calling him after summer practices or big wins, and Delran High School (N.J.) head coach Garrett Lucas said Ferri was always invested in conversations and had a sharp memory. Ferri was involved with the recruitments of Chestnut and running back LeQuint Allen, SU’s second-best prospect in the Class of 2022.

After Syracuse fired Ferri in November, he became the associate head coach and tight ends coach at Akron. Two coaches said Ferri has already reached out to them since taking the new job in early December, but neither coach had heard from anyone on Syracuse’s staff since Ferri departed.

“A lot of those relationships now go to the new place,” Wright said. “The most frustrating thing for me is when I don’t know who has this area in terms of recruiting and I don’t know whose responsibility that is (at Syracuse). It’s tough to send kids places when you don’t know who’s that coach that’s responsible for corresponding with guys in my area.”

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Grant said Reynolds did a good job connecting with players in the Newark area, but took a “wait-and-see attitude” — hesitating even after more successful programs offered players. Since Reynolds was fired, though, Monroe has taken over the area for Syracuse. Coaches describe him as more aggressive, as well as “engaging” and “refreshing.”

Monroe has told coaches that North Jersey is an important area for Syracuse’s recruiting, and has been more vocal in reaching out, said Bergen Catholic High School (N.J.) head coach Vito Campanile. The two speak almost weekly, including a conversation around Christmas Eve — which showed Monroe’s willingness to go “the extra mile,” Campanile said. Monroe has recruited 2023 defensive end DJ Samuels hard, Campanile said, and Samuels is expected to visit Syracuse in the coming weeks.

Syracuse offensive line coach Mike Cavanaugh played a key role recruiting in the central part of New Jersey after joining the staff in 2018. Cavanaugh left for Arizona State following the 2020 season, and his role was filled by linebackers coach Chris Achuff, who coaches described as a “thorough” and “honest” recruiter. But Hillsborough High School (N.J.) head coach Kevin Carty Jr. said Achuff, like Reynolds, has been hesitant in offering players, mentioning 2022 safety Thomas Amankwaa, who committed to Rutgers.

Achuff visited multiple schools toward the end of January, including The Hun School of Princeton (N.J.), where he watched film and talked about players with head coach Todd Smith. Achuff said Syracuse wants to “make New Jersey a priority again,” Smith said.

Smith recalled meeting Babers at Monmouth University camps, and was impressed by his energy and charisma. Other coaches who have met Babers appreciated his genuineness and sincerity. But four of the nine New Jersey coaches who spoke with The D.O. have never met Babers, including Dwayne Savage and Dennis Thomas — who respectively coached Chestnut and Allen in high school. Others haven’t heard from Babers in several years.

“It’s as important, if not more important, than any other relationship in the process,” Luginbill said of the relationship between college and high school head coaches. “I would call it highly, highly unusual for a high school head coach to have not met a college head coach.”

Several high school coaches in New Jersey said they’ve never met Dino Babers or haven’t communicated with him at all in recent years. Daily Orange File Photo

Coaches spoke in-depth about their productive relationships with Rutgers’ coaching staff, and they also said Pitt, Penn State and several Big Ten schools heavily recruit the state. Savage said head coaches Pat Narduzzi (Pitt) and James Franklin (Penn State) visit Camden High School every year, and Grant said Rutgers, Pitt and Nebraska, among other schools, have all come to West Orange High School to watch practice or workouts in recent seasons.

“We’ve had seven to eight Division I guys. So we’ve had pretty much everyone come to practice and stuff like that,” Grant said. “Syracuse never came to practice.”

New Jersey coaches who have visited SU in recent seasons said they and their players were impressed with the campus and facilities. But for Thomas, those visits differed from when he visited Rutgers, sat in on coaches meetings and watched players lift — allowing him to emulate college programs at the high school level. He said Syracuse doesn’t come across as genuine or helpful.

“It’s not real,” Thomas said. “It’s like we’re just going to try to say the right things, but I don’t want the ‘How you doing, man?’ I want the, ‘Coach, how can we help you?’”

A head coach in the Camden area for a decade, Wright said Syracuse has never stood out to him during recruiting interactions, but he hasn’t had a negative interaction with them before, either.

“Recruiting-wise, they do as much or as little as the next person or the next school,” Wright said. “Syracuse hasn’t really put their flag in New Jersey, at least in the southern part, as much as they probably should.”

Making itself distinct in recruiting could be key for a Syracuse program trying to get back to seasons like 2018. SU is such a “hard job,” according to Luginbill, since there isn’t enough talent in New York to compete in the ACC, forcing the Orange to recruit mainly outside of their backyard. The Orange found success recruiting the state under Dick MacPherson and Paul Pasqualoni in the 1980s and 90s before Pasqualoni was fired and Greg Schiano built a contender at Rutgers in the 2000s. Schiano’s return has made recruiting New Jersey harder, too.

Coaches said that recruiting New Jersey well is critical to Syracuse’s success. Players like Chestnut and Allen have headlined SU’s most recent classes, but the Orange haven’t landed a single commitment from a top five player in the state during Babers’ tenure, per 247Sports.

“New Jersey historically puts out some of the best football players in the country,” Wright said. “So for the universities and colleges that don’t make New Jersey a priority in their recruiting, that’s probably a sign that that staff isn’t going to be around too long.”

Photo illustration by Meghan Hendricks | Photo Editor; photos courtesy of SU Athletics

Published on February 3, 2022 at 12:33 am

Contact Connor: csmith49@syr.edu | @csmith17_