Hours after Paul Pasqualoni was fired as head coach of the Syracuse football team, linebacker recruit Mike Owen, who had verbally committed to SU, waited, unsure of his future.

Who would the new coach be? Would the new coach still offer him a scholarship? Should he accept a scholarship at West Virginia?

That’s when Owen got a reassuring phone call.

‘Coach P called me and said ‘Syracuse is still a great school,” Owen said. ‘He told me to still go to Syracuse. He said it still had great academics, great athletics and that I could have a good career there.’

On his way out the door, Pasqualoni thought enough of the institution where he spent 17 years to make one final pitch. A pitch for a coach he didn’t know and a pitch he would reap no benefits from.

During a time of coaching turmoil, many Syracuse recruits mired in uncertainty like Owen was facing. SU’s new head football coach Greg Robinson will announce which of those recruits remained committed to SU during the coaching change tomorrow at 5 p.m. in the Iocolano-Petty football complex.

‘They were a great staff,’ Owen said of the Pasqualoni regime. ‘But I think the new staff has some of the same qualities. I (warmed up to them) pretty easily.’

In the end, Pasqualoni’s call helped convince Owen to at least wait for the new coach. And Robinson’s resume convinced Owen that Syracuse was the right place for him.

But not all of the verbal pledges that Pasqualoni’s staff secured felt the same way. Cordarrow Thompson of Stafford, Va., reopened his recruitment after Pasqualoni was fired. The 320-pound defensive tackle, arguably the most-talented of SU’s early verbal commitments, eventually settled on Virginia Tech.

‘I just wanted to look around at other programs,’ Thompson said.

Thompson said Pasqualoni’s firing contributed to his decision to look at other schools. Before Robinson was hired, Oklahoma and Marshall showed Thompson more interest. Thompson reneged on his verbal pledge, and Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster eventually convinced him to become a Hokie.

Most recruits who had committed under Pasqualoni will sign letters of intent to Syracuse tomorrow, though. That’s thanks to the assistants who continued on the recruiting trail at the urging of athletic director Daryl Gross. With their coaching futures in doubt, recruiting coordinator Chris White and former running backs coach David Walker, who later accepted a job at Pittsburgh, continued to contact recruits daily.

Walker called Webster native Mike Stenclik, another linebacker recruit, a couple days after Pasqualoni left. And the day before Walker left for Pitt, he called Stenclik to inform him of his decision, but not to persuade him to become a Panther.

Miami and Pitt continued to contact Stenclik before Robinson was hired, recruiting him as a fullback, but in the end, he decided SU was the right place for him.

‘I’m looking forward to college itself and to just playing football,’ Stenclik said.

Houston native Nick Chestnut actually decided to commit to the Orange during its coach-less period. Chestnut, a safety, verbally pledged to SU two days after Pasqualoni’s removal.

‘I still felt that was the best place for me,’ Chestnut said. ‘I talked to (Coach White) just to let him know I was still coming. We kept in touch.’

Chestnut was even more excited when Robinson was hired. Being from Texas, Chestnut had followed the Longhorns.

‘I knew some things about him,’ Chestnut said. ‘Once I found out he was in the running for the job, my coach was saying I would like him. He did the same things we did at my school – like zone blitzing.’

Chestnut was the first recruit Robinson visited and he said secondary coach Scott Spencer has been calling him almost every day since he joined the staff.

‘(Spencer’s) a real nice guy,’ Chestnut said. ‘We became pretty close.’

As of Tuesday evening, about 20 recruits were expected to sign letters of intent to Syracuse. The most coveted of which, Christian Brothers’ Academy receiver Lavar Lobdell, had not yet announced his decision.

Robinson had only a month to secure his first recruiting class. Today, a new era in SU football will begin.

‘The new staff was very enthusiastic,’ Stenclik said. ‘They’re ready to get started.’

Published on January 31, 2005 at 12:00 pm