My guess is that Marrone has always believed NYC would be a huge resource for recruiting because he grew up in the City. If football talent is a numbers game in any way then NYC is a goldmine waiting to be developed.
Growing up in the Bronx like Marrone, I assume he's seen the same thing I've seen for years: lots of really terrific athletes who could probably be developed into very good football players if they were just given the opportunity to play organized ball. New York kids love football but the vast majority of them limit their playing experience to two-hand touch in the street or tackle w/ no pads in the park.
Just playing lots of pick-up and rec league basketball throughout the city, I used to marvel at some of the really gifted, large, fast, hi-flying athletes that I'd go up against who were, at best, average or talented but limited basketball players. But many of them could've probably been fantastic football players if the city was just more conducive to developing football talent. I have a buddy named Bear who's 6'4, roughly 300lbs, who won a city championship as a power forward on Kenny Anderson's Archbishop Malloy team. This guy was cat-quick, fast and had good hops but was just an "okay" basketball player. I always tell him, "you coulda been in the NFL, man." And he knows it too but Malloy didn't have a football team so he never played the sport other than two-hand touch in the street.
But there is a silver lining: I see far more youth football programs nowadays than compared to when I was a coming up. Kids are playing organized football much more than they did in the 80's and 90's, especially "in the 'hood" so to speak. There are now field turf football fields and little league football programs all over Harlem, the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn that just weren't there back in the day. The NFL has had a lot to do w/ that. And now finally some of these young athletes are getting a chance to grow up playing organized football, which bodes well for NYC producing more D1 football players going forward.
That's why Marrone's strategy of mining the city for talent as well as Dr. Gross' decision to market SU as "NY's college team" are both brilliant and I believe will pay tremendous dividends for years to come. When the wins start mounting and the program really takes off, I can really see a day when kids in the city (and in the 'burbs of LI and Westchester, etc.) will grow up wanting to play for Syracuse the way kids in Texas or Pennsylvania grow up wanting to play for UT or Penn St.
Now all we need are the W's. The seeds have been strategically planted.
