Lou DiRienzo couldn’t help but stare at the video board.

Forget that DiRienzo had to coach his team, New Rochelle (N.Y.) High School, in the 2004 Class AA New York State Championship against Christian Brothers Academy in the Carrier Dome.

DiRienzo took his eyes off the game as highlights of Syracuse’s upset win over Boston College that afternoon flashed on the screen. The victory assured the Orange a tie for the Big East regular season title, a bowl game and, many thought, another chance for head coach Paul Pasqualoni, whose job was in jeopardy.

DiRienzo felt convinced his star running and defensive back, Ray Rice, would play for Syracuse the next year. Rice, who led New Rochelle to a 2003 Class AA championship, had verbally committed to SU his junior year after a weekend in Syracuse where he instantly felt a personal bond with the Orange coaching staff.

Gazing at the board, DiRienzo thought Rice wouldn’t need to worry about the standing of a coach who, recalled mother Janet Rice, instantly formed a father-son relationship with him.

‘I remember,’ DiRienzo said, ‘everyone was like, ‘Pasqualoni will be back (to the Dome). And so will Ray.”

They were wrong. Rice will return to the Dome this Saturday for a noon game, but in a Rutgers uniform.

Syracuse’s 51-14 loss to Georgia Tech in the Champs Sports Bowl, fan reaction and low attendance prompted newly hired athletic director Daryl Gross to fire Pasqualoni on Dec. 29, 2004 – a month and two days after DiRienzo and SU fans thought he had saved himself. Soon after, Rice withdrew his commitment from Syracuse and chose Rutgers.

Since then, the junior running back has helped the Scarlet Knights to a 21-10 record and two bowl trips, including a victory in last year’s Texas Bowl over Kansas State. As Rutgers’ all-time leading rusher with 3,536 career yards and 34 rushing touchdowns, Rice is the program’s third player to have back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons.

‘My commitment was to (Pasqualoni), not the school, because my trust was in the coach,’ Rice told The New York Times last year. ‘I had to find somewhere else where I felt that trust.’

The Rutgers media relations department did not make Rice available for comment on this story.

The normally talkative and cheerful Rice said little to his mom after Pasqualoni’s firing. Surprising, considering Ray grew close to Janet, a single mom of four children, who works with special-needs children.

Ray often spent time with his mother watching football and going bowling – activities more commonly spent with a friend, not a mother. Despite Ray’s silence, Janet Rice still knew the coaching change might cause her son to reconsider his college choices.

So, too, did new SU head coach Greg Robinson, who learned of Rice’s situation the day he arrived at Syracuse on Jan. 11, 2005. Two days later, Robinson booked a trip to New Rochelle, N.Y., in hopes of signing him on board with the new coaching staff.

‘We really worked with him for two or three weeks,’ Robinson said ‘That was the end of it. Recruiting was over, and we did everything we could to get back in the game with him. But he decided to go to Rutgers.’

During his trip, Robinson watched Rice play point guard for New Rochelle’s basketball team and met with DiRienzo and Janet and Ray Rice.

Though unsure of his son’s impressions, Janet Rice left the meeting unconvinced about Robinson.

‘Personally, I didn’t feel (Robinson) was very much interested in my son,’ Janet Rice said Monday in a phone interview. ‘I knew my son had so much athletic ability. But it seemed (Robinson) could care less if he would come or not.

‘When Ray made his choice, I’m glad he went to Rutgers over Syracuse. Just the way (Robinson) asked the questions and the way things were going, (Robinson) didn’t seem concerned whether (Ray) was going or not. I know with my son’s athletic ability; he could go anywhere.’

DiRienzo didn’t fault Robinson’s effort. Both DiRienzo and Janet Rice said little could sway Ray to Syracuse without Pasqualoni.

‘Absolutely, we would’ve loved to have him here,’ Robinson said. ‘I saw him in that (2003 and 2004) state final game on video, and when I got down there, I saw him play basketball. I knew he was a very talented young person who was also very competitive.

‘To say you’re not disappointed, of course you are. But really there was not much I could do.’

Janet Rice insists she told her son to choose what he wanted. Ironically, Rice has said his mother’s proximity (one hour away from the Piscataway, N.J., campus) played a part in his decision to go to Rutgers.

The warmness both Ray and Janet felt toward Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano didn’t hurt, either. When Ray and Janet made an unofficial visit to Piscataway, both saw Pasqualoni’s fatherly qualities in Schiano.

‘We told him, like we do with most guys who committed, ‘We want you, but if (Syracuse) is where you want to go, good luck,” Schiano said. ‘When the change was made, I saw it as an opportunity to reach out. I did, and he was responsive. Then we just went from there.’

Schiano acknowledged that the interest of Rice’s high school teammates Glen Lee and Courtney Greene helped give the Rutgers coaching staff an advantage on Rice’s final decision. Rice ultimately decided to withdraw his commitment from Syracuse and move on to Rutgers, a school that had little football tradition before his arrival.

Rutgers’ short history literally hangs on Janet Rice’s necklace, which carries Rice’s Insight.com Bowl and Texas Bowl rings. It also carries Rice’s 2003 Class AA championship ring.

Meanwhile, Syracuse, a school that once had great football tradition, has not rebounded since Pasqualoni’s departure. And with a team whose rushing offense ranks only higher than Notre Dame in the nation, Robinson knows he could use a back like Rice.

But no one, including Robinson, could convince Ray to have faith in SU without the man who attracted him there in the first place. So he’s establishing a tradition elsewhere.

‘His mind was set on going to Syracuse University,’ Janet Rice said. ‘But (when Pasqualoni was fired), he started to open up options. Ray called me at midnight one night to tell me he committed to Rutgers. It was his choice, and he thought he could make a name for himself. And he has. He’s broken every record.’

Published on October 9, 2007 at 12:00 pm