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Syracuse faceoff specialist Jakob Phaup has the NCAA’s all-time faceoff leader as his coach this season. TD Ierlan is a volunteer assistant on SU’s coaching staff and the record holder for every collegiate single-season and career record for faceoffs and ground balls. 

Only, the two have slightly differing styles.

Ierlan is a “clamp guy” and was successful during his college career because he used technique and quick hands to win the initial clamp, said Greg Gurenlian and Jerry Ragonese, two of the founders of The Faceoff Academy. 

Ierlan called Phaup a “clamp guy” too, but that isn’t his best attribute. Instead, the fifth-year player specializes in a more “rough-and-tumble” faceoff style which relies on counter moves to lift the opponents’ stick and get the ball out after they’ve won the clamp, said Gurenlian and Ragonese, his coaches at The Faceoff Academy.

When Ierlan came to SU, Phaup told his new coach that he wanted to stick with the same faceoff philosophy of primarily countering, Gurenlian said. Ierlan didn’t force a change.

“(Ierlan has) let Jake be who Jake was before (Ierlan) got there, which is really important,” Gurenlian said. “Jake was already an All-American, so why tinker with that?”

After leading the Atlantic Coast Conference in faceoff-win percentage in 2019, Phaup became an All-American in 2020, though Syracuse played just five games. But the NCAA’s new rule shifted faceoffs from the “knee-down” position to the “standing neutral grip.” The change was the equivalent of forcing an All-American basketball player who shoots right-handed to switch hands, Gurenlian said. It was a difficult adjustment for all faceoff specialists, and for Phaup, it resulted in his worst season (.567 faceoff win percentage).

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Now, Phaup has had the offseason to continue adjusting to the new rules. The results are showing — though his win-percentage has only slightly improved (.588) from last year, he’s been far more consistent. Phaup has won over half his faceoffs in seven of nine games so far and only dipped below 40% once. And for the first time at SU, he’s the go-to specialist and the only player who has taken a significant number of faceoff reps.

“He’s riding that tsunami, he’s on the surfboard, there’s a huge wave behind him, and he’s taking it in stride. I think that’s where he is right now,” Ragonese said.

Phaup called Ierlan the best faceoff specialist of all time and said he appreciated that the volunteer assistant is from the same generation and can relate to the new faceoff rules. Though most of Ierlan’s prolific collegiate career at Yale was when faceoffs were still taken from the “knee-down” position, he experienced the “standing neutral” grip faceoffs when he transferred to Denver in 2021.

“Unless you’re actively taking faceoffs, like TD, you don’t have either the authority or the wherewithal or the understanding to help a player that’s on the field today,” Ragonese said, explaining that a coach who took faceoffs two decades ago wouldn’t be as helpful because of the rule changes.

Ierlan plays professionally now, but he said that working with a player as talented as Phaup makes it easy for him to have “peace of mind” and balance both his playing and coaching careers. Ierlan’s presence itself is also beneficial for Phaup and Syracuse, Ragonese said. Most collegiate programs don’t even have a designated faceoff coach, so having someone is “100 times better,” Ragonese added.

Ierlan said a lot of people over-coach the faceoff position. He helps with the positioning of SU’s wings and opposing ones, as well as pointing out good exit spots, Gurenlian said. Phaup and Ierlan watch film before and after games. Sometimes they go one on one. But for the most part, Ierlan places “all the trust in the world” in the former All-American to do the rest — like make in-game adjustments — himself. Phaup clarified that he still uses aspects from what Gurenlian, Ragonese and Ierlan have taught him and puts it all together.

“I’m just in here if you need some advice or a sounding board,” Ierlan said of his mindset. “It’s not like I’m out here actively changing what he does. All the success (Phaup) gets because of (Phaup).”

Last year, Phaup texted SU defensive coordinator Lelan Rogers at one point that he was “pretty lost.” The message came after the Notre Dame game, when Phaup went 1-of-8 and got benched early on. This summer, he worked on getting more comfortable with the standing neutral grip position.

“Once you do something enough, it becomes like riding a bike,” Phaup said in February. “I can’t even do knee-down anymore, I’m sure.”

Phaup took live reps on Wednesday mornings last summer against top collegiate faceoff specialists including Mike Sisselberger (Lehigh), Nicholas Ramsey (Yale), Jamie Zusi (Penn), Luke Talago (Jacksonville) and Tyler Sandoval (Princeton). One session was equal to two full seasons of repetitions, Ragonese said.

TD Ierlan won 75.3% of his faceoffs, the highest by any player in NCAA DI history with at least 500 attempts. Courtesy of SU Athletics

“He was able to get a master’s course (with) the best guys in the country every single week,” Ragonese said. “He’s like ‘OK, if I see this, I’m going to make this adjustment.’”

That helped Phaup gain confidence in the “standing neutral” grip position. He had a better understanding of how he matched up against certain individuals, a big reason why he struggled for chunks of last season. Now, Phaup is more comfortable in his own abilities. What he’s doing in the first quarter is rarely the same thing he’s doing in the fourth because he’s got the confidence to make in-game adjustments, Ragonese said.

He’s better at recognizing when he isn’t winning the initial clamp and when he needs to switch to one of many counter moves, Gurenlian said. “If you are willing to make those adjustments in-game, you can really destroy your opponent,” Ragonese said. “And that’s where (Phaup) is doing a really good job this year.”

Phaup said he feels more comfortable with the true plunger, a counter move that requires precise timing. He worked on that “nonstop” this summer, Ragonese said, when Phaup learned to use the motion of turning a doorknob and then stabbing the side of the ball instead of rolling his wrist, Gurenlian said. Once he understood that, there was a “drastic improvement.”

Phaup correlates success on faceoffs with what he calls “flowing.” Some days he gets the initial clamp, some days he doesn’t, but it’s about mentally being able to adjust on the fly and “flush things out.” The biggest thing Ierlan has taught him relates to the mental side of the game and having a clear mind to stay focused, Phaup said.

Phaup’s background is in wrestling, and he’s not going to try to overpower an opponent. Instead, he earns the ball back with counter moves, “by playing chess versus checkers,” Ragonese said. Ierlan said Phaup is better than he was at counters. 

“It’s a little bit easier to coach someone that’s better at that than I am. So he’s more efficient where I was deficient,” Ierlan said.

Last season was filled with “valleys and peaks” for Phaup, Ragonese said. He’s still had a few “valleys” this year, like the Virginia game where Petey LaSalla finally got the better of him. But for the most part, Ierlan said giving some leeway to a player like Phaup has helped him settle in.

“I just think mentally, he’s in a great spot,” Ierlan said. “I told him, I was like, ‘It’s your ship, we’re going to give it to you and you’re good to go.’”

Published on April 6, 2022 at 11:17 pm

Contact Roshan: rferna04@syr.edu | @Roshan_f16