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Syracuse head coach Dino Babers underscored that Saturday’s game against Rutgers football is a big win for the program given how both states recruit the same region. This includes “that city” of New Jersey, according to Babers.
With the return of Greg Schiano as head coach at Rutgers, recruiting New Jersey has become a priority once again for the Scarlet Knights. The same can be said for Syracuse, a program that comes down south to tap the deep talent pool in the Garden State.
So Saturday’s game at Syracuse is a big one for Rutgers to further cement themselves in their home state. The Orange would like to make further inroads in New Jersey, putting plenty on the line for both programs beyond just an out of conference win.
“You know, I think it’s really obvious that New Jersey has a lot of good players and that not only us but other schools go in there and recruit that city as well,” Babers told reporters this week.
“Some of our most explosive players on this team are from New Jersey. So, we understand that it’s a recruiting battle. I think recruiting is a little bit different now because I think there’s a lot of people who go all over the country, and it’s more, it’s more international recruiting as we got people from Hawaii on our football team.
“So that being said, New Jersey guys go all over the place. It’s not like the old days, everybody would stay at home, but it’s a very important recruiting area, there’s no doubt about it and it’s one of the top recruiting areas for us.”
The humor behind these comments, of course, is that New Jersey is a state and not a city. In addition, Hawaii is part of the United States and, despite not being part of the contiguous 48 states, is not considered “international.”
The irony behind the comments is that Babers was a former running back at Hawaii for five years beginning in 1979. He then began his coaching career with his alma mater as a graduate assistant in 1984.
Last year, Syracuse had just one player from New Jersey in their recruiting class, four-star defensive back Darian Chestnut. For the 2022 class, there are two players from the state among the dozen verbals to Babers’ program.