Who is the best Syracuse football coach at producing NFL talent? We decided to break down the facts and let you decide. Here’s what we discovered.
As we wait for the Syracuse football season to get here, we received a request from one of our loyal readers (Duncan MacAndrew): who is the best Syracuse football coach at producing NFL talent?
We decided to do a deep dive and find out for ourselves. For this exercise, we grabbed the resumes of the last three Syracuse head coaches. In our research, we cross-referenced these coaches to the years they coached to the players that were selected in the following year’s NFL Draft.
Not only did we compare the Syracuse results, but we also gathered any players they got to the NFL in any of their prior collegiate head coaching stints.
Go through the following slides and see the facts on each Syracuse coach in terms of getting players to the NFL. Then at the end, make your vote on who you think is the best at getting guys to the next level.
Doug Marrone
- 2009-2012
Doug Marrone seemed like a “dream fit” for the Orange. He was the first Syracuse alum hired to be the head football coach since Reaves H. Baysinger in 1948. Although we know how all that eventually turned out.
Before things got ugly at the end with Doug skipping out on his “dream job” for another one with the Buffalo Bills he spent four years guiding Syracuse. In his four seasons, he was 25-25 overall with two bowl victories under his belt (both coming in the Pinstripe Bowl).
But how did he do getting Syracuse players to the NFL during his reign?
- Since Marrone was hired at the end of 2008, the 2009 NFL Draft prospects are omitted from his resume since he didn’t coach those players.
- 2010 NFL Draft:
- Mike Williams, WR, fourth-round pick (101st overall)
- Mike Williams was always uber-talented, but clearly had a variety of issues which included him quitting on the team at Syracuse. Despite those issues, he was still taken in the fourth round.
- Arthur Jones, DT, fifth-round pick (157th overall)
- Arthur has a long family athletic lineage and that helped him have a long NFL career. He spent seven years in the pros and won a Super Bowl championship with the Baltimore Ravens.
- 2011 NFL Draft:
- Delone Carter, RB, fourth-round pick (119th overall)
- Delone Carter was the engine that could for a lot of those Syracuse team’s rushing attacks. Carter had a much bigger impact at SU then he did in the pros.
- Doug Hogue, LB, fifth round pick (157th overall)
- 2012 NFL Draft:
- Chandler Jones, DE, first round pick (21st overall)
- Chandler became the first SU player selected in the opening round of the draft since Dwight Freeney back in 2002 believe it or not. So this was a really big deal when it happened.
- Andrew Tiller, G, sixth-round pick (179th overall)
- Despite being a sixth-rounder, Tiller lasted several years in the pros and was a star in the now-defunct Alliance of American Football league.
- 2013 NFL Draft:
- Justin Pugh, T, first round pick (19th overall)
- Make that two first-round picks since 2002 for the Orange. Doug Marrone was responsible for the only first round pick prospects since Freeney, that’s pretty impressive.
- Ryan Nassib, QB, fourth-round pick (110th overall)
- One of the best quarterbacks in program history was the perfect player for Doug Marrone’s offense. But it does speak volumes that Marrone left Syracuse and had four opportunities to select Nassib as his quarterback and never did with Buffalo. He instead selected EJ Manuel 16th overall in the same draft… so about that.
- Shamarko Thomas, DB, fourth-round pick (111th overall)
- Just one pick later another Syracuse player was selected in the 2013 NFL Draft. Shamarko had huge expectations coming out of Syracuse with one Pittsburgh Steelers Insider telling me the team hoped he could be the heir apparent to Troy Polamalu. Sadly that never materialized and Thomas has since bounced around the league.
- 2013-2015, Syracuse
- 12th in the country in first downs allowed.
- 10th in pass defense.
- 14th in pass efficiency defense.
- And a top-15 unit in scoring defense.
- 2014 NFL Draft:
- Jay Bromley, DL, third round pick (74th overall)
- Jay Bromley is still the highest drafted Syracuse player in the last five years. Bromley was one of the better interior defensive linemen to come out of Syracuse in the last decade.
- Marquis Spruill, LB, fifth round pick (168th overall)
- Spruill is the second highest drafted Syracuse player in the last five years. People can say what they want about Scott’s time as head coach of the Orange in terms of wins and losses, but you can’t say anything about his ability to get SU players to the pros.
- 2015 NFL Draft
- No Syracuse players were taken in the 2015 NFL Draft. That’s only the third time that has occurred since 1976.
- 2016 NFL Draft
- Riley Dixon, P, seventh round (228th overall)
- One of the most popular players in modern Syracuse history. Riley was more than just a great punter, he was also famous for his trickery on fake punts and field goals. #DixonForHeisman is still trending on social media.
- 2015-present, Syracuse
- 2014 NFL Draft:
- Jimmy Garoppolo, QB, second round (62nd overall)
- After backing up future Hall of Famer Tom Brady from 2014-17, he was traded to the San Francisco 49ers and became the highest paid quarterback in all of football.
After Dino’s stint with Eastern Illinois, he was hired by Bowling Green. He spent another two years with the Falcons and went 18-9, but despite the on-field success, he did not have a player selected in the NFL Draft.
Now finally getting to his latest and current job with the Syracuse football squad. In December of 2015, Dino Babers was hired by the Orange and has had success on and off the field.
- 2017 NFL Draft:
- No Syracuse players were taken in the 2017 NFL Draft. That’s only the third time that has occurred since 1976.
- 2018 NFL Draft:
- Zaire Franklin, LB, seventh round (235th overall)
- They say good things come to those who wait and that was certainly the case for the Indianapolis Colts. Franklin not only made the 53 man roster, but he even started a few playoff games, not too bad for a seventh-round pick.
- 2019 NFL Draft:
- Chris Slayton, DL, seventh round (245th overall)
- The same can be said for Slayton, we’ll have to wait and see if he can have the same success as his former teammate.
Who is the best @CuseFootball HC at producing NFL talent? (check out all the facts in our article above, then vote below) #OITNF #ProOrange #Orange
— InsideTheLoudHouse (@LoudHouseFS) May 12, 2019Now we haven’t really mentioned any undrafted free agents who have had potential success in the pros because that is slightly more difficult to track. But since we’re fresh off the NFL Draft we can do a quick report on all the undrafted free agents following the 2019 NFL Draft:
- Koda Martin
- Only spent one season at Syracuse, but made a huge impact and the Los Angeles Chargers felt the same.
- Cody Conway
- Cody Conway was a grinder and earned his chance with the Tennessee Titans.
- Jamal Custis
- Didn’t realize his potential until his senior season, but better late than never. That hustle earned him the highest guaranteed dollar amount by any UDFA wide receiver in the last two years.
- Eric Dungey
- You can’t say enough good things about Eric Dungey as a football player or a human being. All he asked for was an opportunity and the New York Giants gave him one, we’ll see what he does with it.
While Ravian Pierce (Cleveland Browns, Buffalo Bills) and Dontae Strickland (Arizona Cardinals) earned rookie minicamp invitations.
So who was the best Syracuse coach at producing NFL talent? We’ll let you be the judge with our Twitter poll! Let your voice be heard and share your thoughts in the comments below!
- Chris Slayton, DL, seventh round (245th overall)
- Zaire Franklin, LB, seventh round (235th overall)
- Jimmy Garoppolo, QB, second round (62nd overall)
This is obviously an extremely small sample size and just like Marrone, Syracuse is the only time he’s ever been a head coach of a college football program.
Dino Babers
Syracuse football hasn’t been in this good of shape in a very long time. Dino Babers finally broke through in 2018 with a 10-3 season after back-to-back 4-8 campaigns. He’ll have to prove 2018 wasn’t a fluke and it was simply the start of something truly special on the hill.
Unlike the other two coaches on this list, Dino has prior head coaching experience at the collegiate level. So we’ll have a larger sample size of what Babers’ prowess is delivering talent to the NFL. We’ll go in chronological order:
Dino got his first head coaching opportunity in 2012 with Eastern Illinois after spending nearly 30 years honing his craft at a variety of other programs. He went 19-7 in two years and produced one NFL player during his time:
- Riley Dixon, P, seventh round (228th overall)
DT @SlaytonCuse95 continues our strong tradition in the #NFLDraft pic.twitter.com/IV7z2pCAbZ
— Syracuse Football (@CuseFootball) April 27, 2019
- Jay Bromley, DL, third round pick (74th overall)
Despite Doug Marrone being hired by the Buffalo Bills in early January (before the 2013 NFL Draft), he is obviously responsible for all the players that were taken in that draft since those were his players, so he gets credit for that.
Marrone has been a part of over 13 collegiate and professional franchises, but only at Syracuse was he a head coach of a college football program.
Scott Shafer
Scott Shafer was hired by Doug Marrone back in 2009 to help turnaround a horrible defense. Prior to Shafer arriving, Syracuse was one of the worst defenses in the country (101st in 2008).
Talk about a dramatic turnaround: Syracuse went from being 101st all the way to a top-20 defense in the country. He really turned things around at every level, here are some of the highlights of the Orange defense under his reign:
Now let’s take a gander at what players he was able to produce during his time as a head coach. Now before we dive into each NFL draft class, he does deserve a head nod for coaching up the defense and getting Chandler Jones into the NFL.
While he wasn’t the head coach, he still deserves a ton of credit for coaching up Chandler and making him the highest selected Syracuse player in over a decade from 2002 to 2012.
- Justin Pugh, T, first round pick (19th overall)
- Chandler Jones, DE, first round pick (21st overall)
- Delone Carter, RB, fourth-round pick (119th overall)
- Mike Williams, WR, fourth-round pick (101st overall)