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Jakob Phaup has never experienced a rough patch like this. His 6-of-21 performance at the faceoff X against Vermont was the first “slump,” he said. Two solid outings against weaker nonconference opponents followed, but another slump returned with a 1-of-10 game against Duke and a 1-of-8 match against Notre Dame the week after. 

Phaup said he was in a “mental funk” and a “rut,” too. After the Notre Dame game, he texted SU defensive coordinator Lelan Rogers that he was “pretty lost.” Prior to the 2021 season, only five of the All-American’s 23 career games ended with him losing more than half of his faceoffs. But eight games into the 2021 season, he’s added three games to that total.

In high school, anything under 80% of faceoff wins was an off-day for Phaup, said former Souderton Area (Pa.) High School coach Mark Princehorn. The numbers he’s put up during his slump were “never in his repertoire” in past years at SU. 

Princehorn said Phaup just had bad games. The junior’s Faceoff Academy coaches said he reverted to the strategies he’d used before the NCAA changed the rules so that faceoffs are taken from standing-neutral ground position instead of on one knee. 

But they all said that he’ll work his way out of the slump. A 9-for-15 performance against Albany represented progress, but it’s still almost 8% lower than his average last year. He ranks 30th nationally in faceoff percentage but was sixth in 2020. Phaup started this season as Syracuse’s (5-3, 1-2 Atlantic Coast) primary faceoff specialist once again, but head coach John Desko has since turned to senior Danny Varello and freshman Jack Savage amid Phaup’s struggles.

Phaup’s latest high point — the Albany game — was fueled by an extensive rebuild. Ahead of the game against the Great Danes, he made the three and a half hour drive to New Jersey on a Monday to “go back to square one.”

He worked for four hours with Faceoff Academy coach and founder Jerry Ragonese, going one-on-one with the New York Lizards player and “starting with the basics” of faceoff technique. Then, he drove back to Syracuse.

This season’s been tough for every faceoff specialist in the country because of the rule changes. Faceoff Academy coach and founder Greg Gurenlian said multi-time All-Americans have been benched because they didn’t focus enough on the new faceoff stance. The midweek trip helped clear Phaup’s head so he could figure out what caused the funk, he said.

“We just got him back to homeostasis,” Ragonese said. “He came in real hot out of the gates this season and then kind of trailed off. We got him back to where he needed to be.”

When the NCAA first announced the rule changes this summer, Phaup was worried, Gurenlian said. Faceoff specialists nationwide were frustrated, too, because they’re “creatures of habit” who were being forced to stray from the fundamentals they’d been using their entire career, Princehorn said.

Gurenlian told Phaup that his body’s reaction to the whistle still remained, and so did his knowledge of the position, so it was just about fine-tuning the nuances. By the end of the summer, he’d grown far more comfortable in the new stance.

With the old position and rules — the motorcycle grip, with both faceoff specialists on one knee — it was easy to predetermine who would win a matchup. “It was either you won the clamp and you were gone or lost the clamp and (your opponent was) gone,” Ragonese said.

Now, specialists have a plethora of different ways to win a faceoff. They can go straight for the clamp. They can “counter” by lifting the opponent’s hand with their stick and trying to disrupt them from getting to the ball. They can use a “true plunger” to trap the ball with the bottom sidewall of their stick.

Specialists don’t have to go straight for the ball anymore — that’s a “knee-down mentality” from the past, Ragonese said. Phaup forgot that during his slump.

“He was honing in on only one facet of the game,” Ragonese said. “He went back to ones and zeros. It’s not one and zeros, there’s a lot more colors. There’s a lot more things going on.”

Phaup, a former high school wrestler, was never known for his hand speed, Gurenlian said. It’s some players’ only asset, but Ragonese describes Phaup more like a Madden player who has a 50-rating in everything as opposed to a quarterback with a 99-passer rating and dwindling stats in the remaining categories. Phaup can counter well, and he has the footwork and IQ to track down and scoop up a loose ball in traffic.

That’s why Ragonese has been trying to get Phaup to focus on the macro instead of the micro. The macro is about brushing off losses and moving on to winning the next faceoff, Ragonese said. It’s about positioning his wings correctly, forcing a turnover if the other faceoff specialist starts to scramble away and choosing between a back-and front-door exit. It’s about what to do if Phaup doesn’t get to that ball first.

“If you’re not planning for a disaster, you’re not planning — period,” Ragonese said.

Phaup and Ragonese break down film over Zoom every week. They analyze the mistakes that led to losses and “walk back to a 50% or 60% game” based on the film. Faceoff specialists are the only players who “can’t hide behind anything” because the stats definitively represent their performance, Ragonese said, so he doesn’t sugarcoat anything.

After the Notre Dame game, Phaup texted Ragonese to ask if he could come down. “He goes, ‘I’m not even moving on the whistle. It’s not like I’m even getting beat. I’m getting my doors blown off,’” Ragonese said.

Phaup made the drive to New Jersey and went head-to-head with Ragonese. The session helped get Phaup out of his own head, and by the end, Ragonese could tell the junior was more relaxed in his shoulders. The difference was palpable, he said.

“What better way to make yourself feel better than to go against a pro guy, see that your hands are just as fast, see that your counters are just as fast,” Ragonese said. “If you can do this versus me, you can do this versus anybody, so go out there and do it.”

Phaup has picked up a number of violations this season, something that’s disrupted his ability to get in a groove. Every ref’s been calling violations differently because of the rule changes, to the point where Gurenlian recommends watching film to prepare for a referee’s tendencies. Phaup said not knowing what’ll be called on a given day has been the toughest part.

Because Phaup was in his own head, he didn’t make those necessary in-game adjustments. “That’s what separated Jake last year from Jake at his low point right now,” Ragonese said. 

Jakob Phaup charges at ball during faceoff against Vermont. The Orange defeated the Catamounts 17-13.Courtesy of Rich Barnes | USA Today Sports

On Tuesday morning, Ragonese texted him a meme that referenced “Syracuse sucking at faceoffs.” He told him to print it out and stick it on his locker because “this should piss you off.” Phaup said he would.

And on the opening faceoff against Albany two days later, he clamped and shoveled the ball out the back door toward short-stick defensive midfielder Peter Dearth.

“Even though I wasn’t really winning clean faceoffs, I was able to kind of have a little pep in my step, able to get the ball back after winning those clamps,” Phaup said after the game. “It was a confidence booster.”

Phaup threw both arms in the air in celebration as he trotted off the field. Varello gave him a pat on the helmet, and others came up to congratulate him. Two violations later, Phaup was back on the sidelines in the second quarter, just like the previous two games. But this time, Desko reinserted him in the third quarter. 

“That’s why coach (Desko) goes back to him,” Gurenlian said. “Because he is dependable, because he is durable, he’s humble, and he’s not shook by this stuff.”

Published on April 11, 2021 at 11:02 pm

Contact Roshan: rferna04@syr.edu | @Roshan_f16