Syracuse vanished from Charley Loeb’s college radar way back in November. Sure, his unofficial trip to Syracuse University started great. The Lawrence (Mass.) Academy quarterback witnessed Syracuse upset Louisville, 28-21 – strong pull for someone who admits he didn’t pay much attention to the program’s recession under Greg Robinson.

But Loeb might as well of stayed home. On his visit, then-quarterbacks coach Phil Earley squashed his hopes.

‘(Earley) told me he really liked me but that they had already found their guy, or they weren’t taking a quarterback,’ said Loeb, the 6-foot-4 quarterback.

Naturally, Loeb moved on. Ole Miss, Boston College and Memphis became the favorites. Not Syracuse.

‘I had written them off and was looking elsewhere,’ Loeb said.

But that was before new offensive coordinator Rob Spence contacted him in early January, and the two discussed the importance of ‘analyzing information quickly.’ Before Doug Marrone’s Jan. 20 scholarship offer over the phone in which he repeated the words ‘I’m pumped’ some 20 times. And that was before new SU coach Doug Marrone was at Loeb’s Massachusetts home eating steak, scallops and green beans for dinner with his family after Loeb’s commitment.

One hire changed everything for Loeb.

‘There’s no doubt in mind that we’re going to produce a winning program,’ Loeb said. ‘These are some of the best coaches in the country. I’ve talked to a lot of coaches and these guys are as qualified as anybody.’

The past month and a half has been a frantic hourglass for Marrone. His entire recruiting period was condensed into a quarter of a coach’s typical timetable. Instead of simply solidifying verbal commitments into ink, the former New Orleans Saints offensive coordinator started from scratch. He nearly wiped out Robinson’s class entirely.

Ten of Syracuse’s 13 commits for 2009 came after Marrone’s hiring Dec. 11. This wasn’t a salvation project. Most of Marrone’s recruits never envisioned Syracuse as a final destination.

‘They know the type of players they want, and they’re getting them,’ Loeb said. ‘They definitely know how to build a program well.’

Recruiting the committed

Zach Chibane was thrilled when the inevitability became reality.

He was bound for South Florida, a team that shellacked Syracuse in 2008, 45-13. But deep down, the 6-foot-5, 285-pound Paramus (N.J.) guard wanted to go to Syracuse. The only problem: Robinson didn’t want him back.

‘I’ve always liked Syracuse but I didn’t have an offer at the time,’ Chibane said.

Then the good news poured in. Robinson was fired, Marrone was hired, Chibane got an offer and Syracuse killed two birds with one stone again.

It became a theme. Amid the total recall, Marrone’s staff lured recruits away from Big East rivals. The prospects he cleansed – Robinson’s castoffs – scattered to mid-majors. Leavander Jones to James Madison. Raheem Cardwell to Toledo. Derrell Person to New Mexico.

By NCAA rule, Marrone cannot comment specifically about incoming recruits, and he was not available for comment.

His recruiting surge was abbreviated, but he wasn’t forced to cherry-pick for leftovers. Marrone swung for the fences, thrusting SU into an unthinkable three-horse race with Tennessee and Auburn for David Oku, the No. 1 ranked all-purpose back in the country, according to Rivals.com. And once in a while, Marrone connected. The level of attraction alone spoke volumes.

Cornerback Dale Peterman from Ursuline in Youngstown, Ohio bypassed offers at Wisconsin, Nebraska and Illinois in favor of Syracuse – following new SU defensive coordinator Scott Shafer, who was an assistant at Michigan.

Safety Shamarko Thomas de-committed from Louisville and ignored another offer from Connecticut for SU. His teammate at Ocean Lakes (Va.), linebacker Brandon Sharpe, made the Louisville-Syracuse switch, too. Cornerback Rishard Anderson de-committed from Wake Forest and turned down offers from Rutgers and Vanderbilt. Dr. Phillips (Fla.) linebacker E.J. Carter drew interest from Missouri, North Carolina State and East Carolina, Dr. Phillips head coach Dale Salapa said.

Why would prospects so fervently dive into the 114th ranked offense and 101st ranked defense in the nation? After his own high school staff was overhauled, Chibane said a culture change can be infectious.

‘I know the feeling of people coming in, wanting to rejuvenate a program,’ Chibane said. ‘It’s energy, it’s excitement and wanting to work and discipline, all those things wrapped into one.’

Still, the message itself needed to be delivered – and fast. Relationships were cultivated instantly. Whereas Robinson didn’t even recruit Peterman, Shafer was at Ursuline multiple times. He called the school’s head coach Dan Reardon the day he was hired at SU.

‘Syracuse sure did hustle,’ Reardon said with a chuckle. ‘Shafer wasted no time. …The previous staff was not actively recruiting (Peterman). I’m not sure what the reason was.’

One day later, Shafer trekked to Ocean Lakes. Robinson’s staff had recruited Thomas, but never made the face to face trip to Ocean Lakes, Dolphins head coach Chris Scott said.

Shafer did. Capitalizing on Louisville changing its defensive coordinator, Shafer lured Thomas and Sharpe.

‘Syracuse did a real good job establishing a relationship quickly,’ Scott said. ‘Shamarko fell in love with coach Shafer and what he stood for.’

The quarterback decision

Back in the summer, the GPS on their college futures was set differently. Charley Loeb and Clayton Moore tossed footballs side by side at a senior camp in Mississippi and talked for about 30 minutes. Both hoped to end up at Ole Miss.

Neither made it.

Instead, Loeb and Moore became the epicenter of Marrone’s quarterback decision. And as coaches and players alike said repeatedly, Marrone was systematic and direct.

‘Their honesty is right out there,’ said Michael Taylor, Loeb’s coach as a senior. ‘There’s no games. There’s no charades.’

First, Marrone rescinded the scholarship of JUCO dual-threat Garrett Barnas, a so-called mini-Tim Tebow that rang up 64 total touchdowns at Harper College (Ill.) in two seasons. Next, Marrone turned down Moore, who had been committed to Ole Miss all year. After the Rebels yanked his offer, Moore said he would have accepted an offer from Syracuse. He knew Spence from a summer football camp in Clemson and his aunt and uncle even attended the coordinator’s church in South Carolina.

Divine intervention seemed to sweep right into Marrone’s office. Someone that had 17 offers at one point was all his. Marrone didn’t budge. Moore said the Orange never called him back, and now he’s trying to walk on at Ole Miss. Meanwhile Loeb didn’t want to be a consolation prize at Ole Miss. He knew four-star recruit Raymond Cotton was the Rebels’ top prize.

So Syracuse was the choice. Loeb received a text message from Memphis head coach Tommy West a couple days after his commit-sealing visit to Syracuse Jan. 23-24 – one last chance to bail. But he ignored it. Not just because Loeb’s password-locked phone prevented him from reading the text message, either.

Loeb can’t wait to join Marrone’s reclamation project.

‘I know I have the ability to come in and compete for a job which is all anyone could ask for,’ said Loeb, who threw 24 touchdowns and four interceptions last fall.

Despite the miniscule recruiting window SU’s coaches had, their evaluation process was deep. Between the 1330 math and verbal score on his SAT (Ivy schools all fought for Loeb), tutelage in a pro-style offense under former Buffalo Bills quarterback Todd Krueger and what Taylor called a ‘phenomenal ability to tear defenses apart,’ Loeb was the guy.

‘They were very thorough in their evaluation,’ Loeb said. ‘They told me the process they went through in evaluating me. Before they even offered me (a scholarship), I met with Coach Spence and he gave me his evaluation and everything.’

Wide receiver Alec Lemon was one of Robinson’s three recruits, but he agrees. The time crunch didn’t cue chaos.

‘(Marrone) wanted to bring in the right guys,’ Lemon said. ‘I didn’t see much rush with him. He wanted to take everything step by step.’

A ‘recruitable moment’

Patience aside, the abridged recruiting period required a sixth sense. Marrone couldn’t fortify recruiting relationships while he coached in the NFL. Thus, he needed to hunt beneath the surface. Hunt for those fleeting moments on film that hint at potential, that ‘recruitable moment’ as Dr. Phillips High School head coach Dale Salapa calls it.

Carter’s moment came against the eventual Florida 6A state champions, Seminole High School. Not at linebacker, the position SU recruited him at, but rather at tight end. After officials failed to run time off the clock, allowing Seminole to score with less than a minute left in the first half, Salapa went ballistic.

‘Next thing you know, E.J. catches two passes for 67 yards, takes us down to the 4-yard line and we score right at the end of the half,’ said Salapa, who like Shafer attended Baldwin-Wallace College. ‘(Shafer) looked at the athleticism of this kid and said, ‘You have to be kidding me.’…He said, ‘Wow. We were sold.”

Salapa admitted Carter could use a redshirt season. He only played linebacker his senior year. Had the six-foot, 220-pound Carter played the way he did his senior year during his junior year, ‘he may have been the most recruited kid in Florida,’ Salapa said.

At the core of Marrone’s recruiting blitz was aggressiveness.

‘(Syracuse) wasted no time at all,’ Salapa said. ‘It irritated a lot of the other people that had been recruiting him a little bit longer.’

Aggressiveness took Marrone, Spence, Shafer and others into the players’ homes early and often. It’s why Syracuse even has a recruiting class for 2009. Marrone and his staff didn’t regurgitate the revival lecture over and over. Loeb has heard a lot of stump speeches. Ole Miss’ Houston Nutt, Memphis’ Tommy West, and former Boston College coach Jeff Jagodzinski all made their pitches. But as he talked with Marrone for more than two hours at his house, the ‘afterthought’ label Loeb placed on SU all season officially evaporated.

He came to realize that Marrone was different.

‘He’s definitely a high-energy guy,’ Loeb said. ‘He’s very personal. He’s very enthusiastic and he knows what he believes in.’

thdunne@syr.edu

Published on February 2, 2009 at 12:00 pm