2027 Recruiting | Page 47 | Syracusefan.com

2027 Recruiting

DoctahLexus said:
Most if not all of these have been factors in all of our recruiting classes of at least the last 5-7 years, but we still found a way to make up for it. Heck you could say that about Upstate NY and social media haters for a looong time. But the on campus experience for students at cuse is still quality. Penn state kids are going out to Happy Valley in the middle of nowhere where it is truly just the campus. Think we still have what it takes to keep up here and just missed on a couple key guys we were close to landing. A flip or two in the coming months would go a long way. Feel good about midfield and defense/rope unit in these last three classes. Just need a little more at strictly attack.
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fair enough
 
DoctahLexus said:
But then you have Cornell not even in the conversation and an MD class that is good but not miles ahead of ours on paper. There are clearly more factors at play than just playoff success.
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The Cornell thing is a little strange.
UMd had a relatively small and somewhat weak class 4 years ago. Creter, Stobaugh and Gravino were the only top 50 recruits. So unless Tillman got pumped up with additional scholarship money, I had doubts about this fall being a big class for UMd.
UVa also had a small, weak class 4 years ago, so the same thing was perhaps true for UVA. It looks like Tiffany will probably get those extra scholarships starting next year.
 
Zack80 said:
The Cornell thing is a little strange.
UMd had a relatively small and somewhat weak class 4 years ago. Creter, Stobaugh and Gravino were the only top 50 recruits. So unless Tillman got pumped up with additional scholarship money, I had doubts about this fall being a big class for UMd.
UVa also had a small, weak class 4 years ago, so the same thing was perhaps true for UVA. It looks like Tiffany will probably get those extra scholarships starting next year.
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everything i've seen is that the scholarships at uva aren't extra. they're just endowing scholarships that were already provided previously by the school. the hoped for next is that uva athletics will add to the total soon or eventually as they are on the hook for fewer than they used to be.
with all the "new expenses" that are coming out of the house settlement, it's insuring men's lacrosse isn't up for cuts down the line.
 
Zack80 said:
The Cornell thing is a little strange.
UMd had a relatively small and somewhat weak class 4 years ago. Creter, Stobaugh and Gravino were the only top 50 recruits. So unless Tillman got pumped up with additional scholarship money, I had doubts about this fall being a big class for UMd.
UVa also had a small, weak class 4 years ago, so the same thing was perhaps true for UVA. It looks like Tiffany will probably get those extra scholarships starting next year.
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100%, I suspect UVA to be this years UNC next class.
 
SULAXAHOLIC said:
I would have March on a very short leash I like the players we did get but for a guy who was touted to be the next great recruiter the only player who came specifically because of him is Hiltz.Donahue was 10x better at player development and in game adjustments he just didn’t excel at modern recruiting strategies
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With in game adjustments I pretty strongly disagree. As great of a run as he had, there is a reason we moved on from alley-dodge-Donahue.

With recruiting we did have to make a transition from grabbing a large percentage of recruits locally to making inroads in Long Island, the DMV, and Prep Schools. It is easy to forget how few quality recruits we got from those areas before March came in. Not at all true to say Hiltz is the only recruit where he deserves credit. Among others, Anderson Peck and Rawson from the prep school scene? Rhoa Hottle and Hahn from the DMV? Highly doubt those guys are in the fold if we still have Donahue/Desko in charge. March and Co. do not have the numerous top of the line local recruits or stream of high end guys from OCC that Donahue had to work with.

That being said the classes of 23-26 have been passable offensively, but we need to build from there, not regress, which it feels like as of now for '27. There are a lot of factors going into that beyond March, and where blame for him starts and blame for other factors ends is unclear, but him and everyone on staff will be on notice if we do not find another gear on the recruiting trail. Gait would have to answer for that right along with March, so I do not agree with singling him out.
 
I think a lot of it will even out in the end. Could just be wishful thinking on my part. There aren't as many transfers in lax these days but there will always be the portal. There will be plenty of good players every year available. Certain teams hoarding talent can only go so far, there will absolutely be players that want playing time. This is where coaching has to step up though, in terms of overcoming any recruiting disadvantage.
 
FloridaCuse said:
Are other schools badmouthing our coaching staff?
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Other schools don't need to "badmouth" our staff, they just have a few advantages to their pitch, and in some instances, work a tad harder than some on our staff when it comes to delivering that pitch. The whole weather/academic/social side of things when compared to southern schools has been that way forever, the further from '09 we get, the less these kids and their families (or the staff) have to point to for tangible success with the program. Was nice to finally get back to MD weekend, but to act like that was going to have a large impact on this class is missing the larger point. The ground work needed to be laid far in advance of what happened last May and however you dress it up, or explain it, doesn't change the fact they needed to bring in high end offensive talent in this class (especially attack), and they watched the large majority of that talent go to direct rivals in their conference (and an all time class built by the guy who put together their last "great class"). I dont know enough specifically about how they go about their business on the trail but the proof is in the pudding at the end of the day and however its happening, they aren't closing on anywhere close to enough of the highest end talent, especially on offense, being coached by at worst one of the top 3-4 players in the sports modern history. I've heard Gary is more the "hands off/CEO" type of coach, and thats cool, and that can work in Football with a roster of over 100 guys, and needing to find 22 starters each week. That doesn't work here with lax, or not to the level he thinks it does, clearly. Sorry for the rant but it was pretty depressing reloading the page every few hours for a week and watching top players they were supposedly in on picking anywhere BUT SU.
 
APsFinest said:
Other schools don't need to "badmouth" our staff, they just have a few advantages to their pitch, and in some instances, work a tad harder than some on our staff when it comes to delivering that pitch. The whole weather/academic/social side of things when compared to southern schools has been that way forever, the further from '09 we get, the less these kids and their families (or the staff) have to point to for tangible success with the program. Was nice to finally get back to MD weekend, but to act like that was going to have a large impact on this class is missing the larger point. The ground work needed to be laid far in advance of what happened last May and however you dress it up, or explain it, doesn't change the fact they needed to bring in high end offensive talent in this class (especially attack), and they watched the large majority of that talent go to direct rivals in their conference (and an all time class built by the guy who put together their last "great class"). I dont know enough specifically about how they go about their business on the trail but the proof is in the pudding at the end of the day and however its happening, they aren't closing on anywhere close to enough of the highest end talent, especially on offense, being coached by at worst one of the top 3-4 players in the sports modern history. I've heard Gary is more the "hands off/CEO" type of coach, and thats cool, and that can work in Football with a roster of over 100 guys, and needing to find 22 starters each week. That doesn't work here with lax, or not to the level he thinks it does, clearly. Sorry for the rant but it was pretty depressing reloading the page every few hours for a week and watching top players they were supposedly in on picking anywhere BUT SU.
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I personally think that the hands off CEO mentality is an excuse for lazy. As you said, you can’t do that while other HCs are out there making relationships. JB was supposedly that too in his late career and it drove me crazy. No one should work harder than the HC. That’s my opinion.
 
jr4750 said:
I personally think that the hands off CEO mentality is an excuse for lazy. As you said, you can’t do that while other HCs are out there making relationships. JB was supposedly that too in his late career and it drove me crazy. No one should work harder than the HC. That’s my opinion.
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He’s hands off when it comes to letting the coaches run the offense and defense but he seems very involved in recruiting. He coached the Canadian u-20 team to a gold medal which I thought would be more fruitful then it was atleast for now. He attends lots of box games in Canada and made several trips to Florida for recruiting events. Like it’s been stated on other threads this is a money thing and if it comes down to a cash race Syracuse is going to have to be extremely creative to even have a hope of competing
 
OrangeXtreme said:
Half our fanbase wanted Gait fired at some point last season.

A fact that hasn't been lost by opposing coaches. Twitter/Insta don't lie.
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Half the fanbase of every Power lax team is calling for a new staff every year. Danowksi has taken a beating the last few years, ditto our friends at UNC, even Milliman was hearing it from Hop fans over at fanlax last year. Hard to negatively recruit when you won the ACC tourney and went to the Final Four. Negative recruiting is making almost zero impact.
 
APsFinest said:
Other schools don't need to "badmouth" our staff, they just have a few advantages to their pitch, and in some instances, work a tad harder than some on our staff when it comes to delivering that pitch. The whole weather/academic/social side of things when compared to southern schools has been that way forever, the further from '09 we get, the less these kids and their families (or the staff) have to point to for tangible success with the program. Was nice to finally get back to MD weekend, but to act like that was going to have a large impact on this class is missing the larger point. The ground work needed to be laid far in advance of what happened last May and however you dress it up, or explain it, doesn't change the fact they needed to bring in high end offensive talent in this class (especially attack), and they watched the large majority of that talent go to direct rivals in their conference (and an all time class built by the guy who put together their last "great class"). I dont know enough specifically about how they go about their business on the trail but the proof is in the pudding at the end of the day and however its happening, they aren't closing on anywhere close to enough of the highest end talent, especially on offense, being coached by at worst one of the top 3-4 players in the sports modern history. I've heard Gary is more the "hands off/CEO" type of coach, and thats cool, and that can work in Football with a roster of over 100 guys, and needing to find 22 starters each week. That doesn't work here with lax, or not to the level he thinks it does, clearly. Sorry for the rant but it was pretty depressing reloading the page every few hours for a week and watching top players they were supposedly in on picking anywhere BUT SU.
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I don't agree with everything but you made a lot of good points. In the end your last point was the biggest and most sobering, from an O standpoint this class so far has not met expectations, in fact the last 2 haven't if we're being honest.
 
JeremyCuse said:
Half the fanbase of every Power lax team is calling for a new staff every year. Danowksi has taken a beating the last few years, ditto our friends at UNC, even Milliman was hearing it from Hop fans over at fanlax last year. Hard to negatively recruit when you won the ACC tourney and went to the Final Four. Negative recruiting is making almost zero impact.
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Exactly. The kicker is that schools we are losing recruits to do not even have an active fanbase on social media. If anything we get penalized for actually having a fanbase that exists/cares. Breshi/Petro got bounced in the first round by Richmond. They didn't take out their star player during a blowout loss in the ACC tournament when he was clearly battling an injury. That is after 3 years of barely getting above .500. Do you know how insane the tare down on social media/here would be if we went out like that last year? 12-2 in the 3rd quarter and we are still playing a clearly injured Hiltz or Spallina and then promptly lose in the first round the following weekend? It would be insane. Along with all the benefits that come with it being UNC, they benefit from having only like 2 fans who give a crap. It would not help them to have a Syracuse sized chorus of haters pointing out how embarrassing the end of their season was.

We are 2-0 against Princeton under Gait and beat one of their most stacked squads in years on the road to the final four. There is no way they beat us out on Riley Woods and other offensive guys because they convinced them that we have a weak staff. What would that say about them? Definitely other far bigger factors than negative recruiting.
 
nyclax said:
i dont know if cuse ever showed much interest but hearing that rocco spallina is headed elsewhere
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Don't believe he was a target but I thought SU could potentially pivot to him depending on how things went. My assumption is Cade is still a target (had heard SU had some interest) never heard anything on Rocco.
 
JeremyCuse said:
I don't agree with everything but you made a lot of good points. In the end your last point was the biggest and most sobering, from an O standpoint this class so far has not met expectations, in fact the last 2 haven't if we're being honest.
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Could they have done anything differently in the approach to some of the top end guys on O that they were in on and missed? I tend to think not, it's unfortunate that with guys like Woods and Stankavage, the academics ended up being a deciding factor in the decision. I hate when its trotted out like SU is some community college taking any and every paying member of the public, but the margins between all these top end ACC/Big10 schools are becoming smaller in most senses, but in a handful like weather or campus life it seems like the gap for the Upstate area in general, Syracuse specifically and the "Southern Schools" is growing. I don't know nearly enough about how much is or isn't spent on the program as compared to the rest to make a definitive statement on its impact, but if they're lagging behind their rivals, that feels like the piece we can affect the most and need to boost critically in order to remain competitive for these top echelon recruits.
 
i will offer my two cents

the trend goes back years and started during desko. that 2022 class with spallina was the exception, not the norm. desko's last handful of classes were not very good imo...take a look at that 2019 class. the best player was probably brandon aviles? it's a class of 16 and only like three or four guys ever saw major playing time at cuse. 2021 wasnt a whole lot better. long story short: the market forces that are creating headwinds for cuse recruiting started before gait...it may be part of the reason they moved on from dekso...

i also am not sure if the OC has the best reputation...i am not making a comment on him one way or the other, just reporting what i've heard...there was the whole dustup with spallina last year...people talk...if cuse is struggling to land top recruits on offense...it's something to at least consider.

bottom line though, the school just isnt as attractive as a destination for a 16 year old as a UNC (nothing is)...and it doesnt have the elite academic reputation that princeton or even hop can fall back on at the end of the day...cuse is recruiting with one hand tied behind their back...they have to get a lil creative
 
nyclax said:
i will offer my two cents

the trend goes back years and started during desko. that 2022 class with spallina was the exception, not the norm. desko's last handful of classes were not very good imo...take a look at that 2019 class. the best player was probably brandon aviles? it's a class of 16 and only like three or four guys ever saw major playing time at cuse. 2021 wasnt a whole lot better. long story short: the market forces that are creating headwinds for cuse recruiting started before gait...it may be part of the reason they moved on from dekso...

i also am not sure if the OC has the best reputation...i am not making a comment on him one way or the other, just reporting what i've heard...there was the whole dustup with spallina last year...people talk...if cuse is struggling to land top recruits on offense...it's something to at least consider.

bottom line though, the school just isnt as attractive as a destination for a 16 year old as a UNC (nothing is)...and it doesnt have the elite academic reputation that princeton or even hop can fall back on at the end of the day...cuse is recruiting with one hand tied behind their back...they have to get a lil creative
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I was really hoping you'd be willing to share your perspective, thank you. Matches up with alot of what I've felt has hindered them going back several years. As Jeremy pointed out, without the increase in NIL/funding specific to the lax program, they'll continue to watch the gap grow between themselves and the other schools they see themselves as recruiting against. As I said to a friend over the weekend, they'll end up recruiting against the Marquette's of the world soon if things don't see positive change. Also felt that the success or lack thereof on the field with the '22 class (relative to expectations) has to be used against them on the trail, especially by the schools they end up having to play multiple times every spring. They have to, as you said, "get creative" however that happens, and if that means taking a long, hard look at Pat moving forward (since Gary isnt falling on that sword before him); so be it. I know he's brought in his share of talent (Hiltz, Hahn come to mind), but if some of those whispers about him on the trail have even a hint of truth to them, then it just adds to how far behind their back that other hand is being held imo.
 
I think UVa is pretty close to UNC in terms of drawing recruits. UVa seems to do particularly well with top recruits from the Baltimore/DC area.
 

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