Petro To UNC

[JeremyCuse]

I like Petro a lot especially in the recruiting game and he played a big role in the program building aspect as nyclax noted. That said I don't think his system was ever going to work here consistently and he clearly was never going to be here long term. Like NYC I wouldn't be shocked if Dwan was a major candidate. I know a certain 4 time AA defender will be campaigning for the job but Ric has no chance. I suspect SU will look to pull a fairly well known name Petro was making very good $$, SU csn outbid 90% of teams.

 

[cuselaxss26]

I wonder if could possibly pull trey wilks(believe his name is) from delaware over. As delaware has been one of the better defense in last few years under him and he is also a faceoff guy which could help our fogos. Isn’t a hugely big name or anything but could see him wanting a higher paying job or bigger name school. Yes delaware isn’t playing acc but they have played some good teams and play solid defense having one of lower goals allowed per game.

 

[JeremyCuse]

Portal's closed.

Fig is all orange, id be shocked if he left.

 

[cuselaxss26]

Curious when gonna make the announcement and how long till hire someone.

 

[JeremyCuse]

Curious when gonna make the announcement and how long till hire someone.

SU will look to move quickly, need someone in place before 9/1.

 

[DMVCuseLax]

Fig is all orange, id be shocked if he left.

100%

 

[SULAXAHOLIC]

Petro was a bad hire from the start he was never staying here long his systems absolutely do not fit and I think people are giving him way too much credit for recruiting. Keeping Rogers would have been a better option. Hell if were gonna get as far fetched as talking about hiring Brody Merrill bring back Desko as a DC with a young 3rd full time assistant to do the recruiting. T

 

[Powellfan]

This was inevitable, IMHO. As everyone else has said, I just hope he doesn't take anyone with him.

I really hope I am not jinxing anything, but when Petro moved to SU he brought a grand total of one of his former Hopkins players with him, and he was a reserve player. I really don’t think many players transfer schools to follow their former coaches. I could be wrong but I’m having a hard time thinking of many recent examples. Ierlan to Hopkins is one but that was a grad transfer situation, and many years after Milliman left Cornell.

I think the big thing to keep an eye on is the ‘2024 recruiting class with them not having signed their NLIs yet.

 

[nyclax]

I think people are giving him way too much credit for recruiting.

if anything they are giving him too little credit. i dont think you know how little gait was involved in recruiting. it was petro's baby

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[DoctahLexus]

We have been getting plenty of great offensive guys. Is that all thanks to Petro too? Sort of thought that was Pat March’s wheelhouse. Literally have no idea or inside info on what gait does but he is definitely involved. Deere said in that interview that his talk with gait was a big part of why he joined. Others have definitely mentioned him. I don’t see anything stopping us on offensive recruiting down the road. Defense I think if we just get someone doing solid work now and he has a decent year then things stay ok.

The one thing that is annoying is the timing. Feels weird for it to happen after the portal window closes and what have you. Could all be so much easier if it went down after the season. But I guess you can thank the UNC shake up happening later than expected.

I think a coordinator change was needed if this upcoming year looked like the first two. That part is really not the end of the world and could be a positive. While I never like to agree with the college crosse folks, what about our defense the past couple years would have UNC fans excited about this hire? The main reason I didn’t think it would happen was because it seemed like a weird time to poach the guy.

 

[Laxfanshutt]

Was just wondering seeing we are looking for a new D coordinator are we also looking for an extra coach ?
I thought this was the year you could add an extra coach

 

[JeremyCuse]

Was just wondering seeing we are looking for a new D coordinator are we also looking for an extra coach ?
I thought this was the year you could add an extra coach

That's correct, thought I believe SU already has that worked out

 

[SULAXAHOLIC]

The only improvement SU saw in Petro’s d was Will Mark and they still had games where they got blown out.

 

[4evaOrange]

Uh oh.

I guess I can double dip on the field too. Gimme my stick and I’ll teach the youngins a lesson.
Shout-out season!

 

[Powellfan]

That's correct, thought I believe SU already has that worked out

I’ve seen Aquaviva tagged on a bunch of recruiting event photos. I kind of figured that meant they are giving him the third full time position but not sure if recruiting is part of a volunteer assistants duties.

 

[bjred]

Well not quite the news I was expecting to see when opening up Twitter earlier. I think though most of us thought he'd be gone after next year, whether it was his choice or not.

Timing stinks. Now SU has to scramble to find/hire a coach, what a month/month and a half, before fall semester starts. The defense will have to spend fall ball learning a new scheme instead of practicing what they've been playing for two years. And while we can hope we keep everyone, I'm sure one or two guys will end up following him to UNC after the fall semester.

As stated before, don't think his scheme fits this era of lacrosse but all the behind the scene stuff he did will be missed. Hope he enjoys coaching his sons.

 

[MadNY3]

This is a great opportunity for the program.

Gary doesn’t need the crutch a tenured guy like Petro provided and his defenses were too cerebral. He’s leaving at the end of the portal, which doesn’t suck.

It will make prospect camp on July 28 interesting as hell.

 

[RoofBeam]

I really hope Gait and SU were not surprised by this- it was the first thing I thought of when Breschi fired Metzbower. Petro seems like a standup guy who appreciated the opportunity Gait gave him. Unless this was an entirely unexpected opportunity, I would have guessed that Petro kept Gary in the loop.

 

[Orange77]

I totally agree with RoofBeam. Gary is immersed in every aspect of recruiting and of coaching, including the X and O's. Gary knew what he was getting regarding Petro. No surprises.

 

[Letsgocuse!]

1. I dont think the players or cuse knew this was coming and petro was in a cuse shirt recruiting last week just before the 4th
2. Brodie Merrill - Wikipedia

 

[315Upstate]

This is tough loss imo on And off the field. Have heard he is very close with the obvious ones of Fig and Dwan but was told is extremely close with Joey and his family and it bears watching Let’s hope this gets sorted quickly Gary needs a recruiter and probably a lockeroom presence

 

[OrangeXtreme]

This is tough loss imo on And off the field. Have heard he is very close with the obvious ones of Fig and Dwan but was told is extremely close with Joey and his family and it bears watching Let’s hope this gets sorted quickly Gary needs a recruiter and probably a lockeroom presence

Joey committed to Syracuse when he was 10 years old.

 

[Powellfan]

Just as a fan I have to say my top choices would be Kyle Georgealas and Matt Dwan.

Georgealas might be more realistic though I have no idea. He might view the Syracuse job as higher profile and thus more likely to get him a future head coaching job. He’s still young but has been coaching since he graduated Cornell in 2005. He’s been in charge of recruiting for the Black Knights and Big Red. He has a good thing going at Army and probably feels like he has pretty good job security. That said he’d be my first call.

Dwan always seems to put together good defenses and hardly ever gets brand name recruits to do it. He would still have Baltimore connections that Petro helped develop. He has been at Loyola for 17 seasons. He may feel a bit skeptical about making such a big change for a lateral move. Obviously he has connections to his nephew but does he want to move to CNY so he can coach Billy for three years? Not so sure.

Other names to keep an eye on for me are

Noah Fossner (UMass)
Trey Wilkes (Delaware)
Craig Chik (UMBC)
Conor Kubikowski (Manhattan)

All young guys who were in the Top 10 for goals against average last year. None are coaching at their alma maters. I have to imagine they would all be very enthusiastic about coaching at SU. It would be a pretty big leap in competition for all the names mentioned above.

Another name to keep an eye might be Jeremy Hersch from Princeton. Has familiarity with Pat March and connections with Stevens and English. He’s a Princeton grad so may be harder to pry away.

There are not a lot of former SU players in the college coaching ranks right now which makes this guessing game difficult. Paulo Cifferi is at Cornel but the Big Red looked pretty bad on defense last year even with Irelan and Adler. Also I think Jordan Stevens is in charge of the defense.

The timing of this really makes things difficult. A lot of coaching hires seem to be based on connections and I’m not sure what those connections look like for Gait since he’s still pretty new to DI Men’s lacrosse. Could be a relatively safe choice like a young up and coming coach, or he could go outside the box (which it feels like he’s done with both Petro and Irelan hires). Virginia just brought in a very high profile head coach to be an assistant so I’m sure nothing is off the table.

Syracuse is all in on this season, it’s really important Gait nails this hire.