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For months we have talked about the changing location of where SU football coaches are trying to recruit. With a plethora of coaching experience in the Midwest and Florida, Syracuse saw a steady push by Scott Shafer and his staff to move into new areas for recruiting pipelines. But there is a region a lot closer to home where the Orange needs to make a push now.
The Orange used to dominant  New Jersey. It was able to pluck the best talent out of the region and keep those players close to home. Between the rise of Rutgers football under former head coach Greg Schiano and the demise of the Orange football program under Greg Robinson, there was a shift for players to stay in state rather than take I-81 up north to CNY.
Although Rutgers is entering the Big Ten and will surely attract talent purely because of that, there is plenty of uncertainty to how they will do on the field. Rutgers will have to play some of the best teams in college football and could get dropped to the basement of the Big Ten early on. The Scarlet Knights had a very subpar season in the AAC, going 6-6 but only winning 3-of-8 conference games—with notable losses to Houston, Cincinnati and Connecticut. They ultimately ended up losing to Notre Dame 29-16 in the Pinstripe Bowl. QB Chas Dodd threw three interceptions.
Rutgers’ main competition for in-state recruits is Penn State. The Nittany Lions did see a drop in recruiting after the Jerry Sandusky scandal, but recuperated shortly after Bill O‚ÄôBrien took over. With O‚ÄôBrien in the NFL, James Franklin will be tested both on the field and to keep recruiting stable in the Northeast.
This is a perfect opportunity for the Orange, who has won 3 bowl games in the last 4 years, to make its case to reenter the region. We saw New Jerseyan Dontae Strickland commit to the Orange last week; his teammate Daivon Ellison is very interested in Syracuse. There are currently only six Syracuse players from the state of New Jersey, only two of whom play significant minutes in Dyshawn Davis and Ross Krautman. We mentioned last week how new tight ends coach Bobby Acosta is the main recruiter for the New Jersey region. Another positive of recruiting harder from the region now more than ever is because of the MetLife games. The Orange has already played USC in 2012 and Penn State in 2013. With the Notre Dame game coming up on Sept. 27 at the Meadowlands, SU coaches would be smart to push recruits even harder to attend given limited future chances.
Rutgers and Penn State are both going through chances in their respective programs. This is an opportunistic time for Syracuse to take back what was once theirs.
Posted by: Zephan Mayell 
13 responses to “Home Grown: Syracuse Needs to Redouble its Recruiting in New Jersey”
Isn’t this article several months past being relevant? They need to recruit New Jersey? Well duh. They just got one player from there. You don’t name any players they should target. So you essentially provide no information.
Not to mention the glaring grammatical errors. For example:
“The Orange used to dominant New Jersey.”
I expect much better.
Grammer aside, guys, Ellison and Strickland are NOT teammates. One plays at South Brunswick, and the other at Don Bosco in Ramsey. Huge strides are being made in NJ, and it is getting noticed! momentum breeds momentum. I am looking at Jake Pickard, Ellison, Maybe Fox, Ryslik… The NJ movement will help us get and keep any NY talent. The NY kids know NJ has the attention of recruiters and the skill for the upper echelon of college football. The NJ kids come to Cuse, and we may see an easier time keeping NY’s talent too. I think Ryslik and Sheppard are friendly from a Rutgers camp. If they clicked and one goes to SU, the other may come.
What Malone said above…agree.
To say that PSU and Rutgers are going through changes..have you seen the current recruiting class rankings?? One is becoming Raquel Welch and one Phyllis Diller.
Well fella’s we’re now up to 10 recruits for the class of 2015.
N/R 6’3″ 256 lb DT/DE Anthony Giudice out of Old Farms High School (Avon, CT) committed to the Orangemen on Tuesday.
That leaves us with about 15 more to go.
@Malone;
I started following the recruits that Shafer was offering scholarships too. After you,Russell and I had talked about the talent in NJ and how important it was to go after them,I was surprised to see that Shafer was going after some 15-20 of the top dogs from that area and as the year went along they offered more scholarships to other recruits.
I know from what I’ve read that Shafer and staff are going heavy for the players and my”homie personality took over one night and I said I’d like to see Syracuse get at least 5-8 players from the state to come to Syracuse. I feel with Strickland committing over the weekend,might be the key player that we’ve all been waiting for that unlocks the gates to those schools.
I honestly feel Malone that we might get more than 5-8 players the way things are going right now. I think putting Bobby Acosta in Jersey recruiting was one of the best things to come out of this season.
Well another 2 star from CONN!!! What’s with all the leaked hype from the staff about 3/4 stared talent interested in SU. Another BS move from HCSS!! The new verbal from CONN does have a motor, but is that “IT”!! Nothing on this kid at all!! He came out of a clear blue sky!! You do not grow let alone win with a program on 2 star hope and prays. SU has proven that since Coach P until now!! WHAT’s SU’s record during that time???? Terrible!! I’m getting tired of this leaked info on possible talent coming to SU and in reality SU gets lesser ones. Again I hope I’m wrong. And in truth this kid I like by his motor. But you can’t always make diamonds out of shale. You need substance to grow. This ain’t growing this is my way=HCSS. OK just do your job and WIN more than 6 games a year then!! Prove me wrong or stop the false leads you feed us!! ENOUGH ALREADY!!
DO NOT FORGET THE KIDS OF PSABUSEDU!! THE NCAA DID!!
Terry and Co…
Giudice is actually from NJ and has recently”transferred” to Conn. Those highlights are from his time in NJ.
Your right from what I hear-orangeinva!!! So the teams he played against should of been better quality. But since he transferred to Avon maybe there’s schooling issues!!
There might be issues with qualifications this fall with incoming Freshmen too!! Maybe 2/3 of them?? Hope not!!
So far, this staff seems to executing the “Regional” Recruiting strategy that HCSS talked about early on. Getting kids from NY,NJ, New England, PA, and kids from Illinois,Ohio, and Florida.
Jersey has a lot of good kids, if we get back in there strong, keep building in Florida and Illinois, I think our recruiting is well on the way to becoming a consistent top 30-40 program.
Avon is a very good prep school and if school was a problem it is better that it gets things fixed now rather than later. Take a look at Guidice’s picture on Scout. He is probably all of 17 years old. Although 250 lbs now, he will be 285 pounds in 2 years with quickness. His motor is high and he manhandles running backs and QB’s. He is a typical Paterno recruit from NJ. Pitt, Maryland and Rutgers will be all over him by August if not sooner. Joe Vellano was a 6-2,250lb DT from Albany who was not recruited by D1 schools until Maryland offered. Vellano was 1st team ACC in 2012 and is in the NFL now. I think SU will be fortunate if thay can keep Guidice.
Kyle Flood is proving to be our Greg Robinson. Get them while you can because mark my words, when the KING returns to his throne, it will be back to how it use to be.
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