Quality or quantity: It’s a question often posed to college coaches and recruiters on college football’s National Letter of Intent Day.

For Syracuse head football coach Paul Pasqualoni, it’s easy to see which angle he emphasized after wrapping up recruiting season Wednesday at 5:15 p.m. with a press conference at Manley Field House.

Syracuse signed 32 recruits, eight more than the number SU can invite to preseason camp, per NCAA rules.

‘As always in college football, this is a day you look forward to,’ Pasqualoni said. ‘It marks the end and the beginning – the end of 2004 and the beginning of 2005. We’re pleased with the number of prospects we signed.’

Because of the NCAA rule, some players will miss camp. Prep school, community college or delaying admission until next January all remain possibilities for a few recruits.

Syracuse is also anticipating at least two of the three players that enrolled in January will ‘roll back’ and count against last year’s recruiting number.

The three players that are already taking part in team activities and attending classes are quarterback Joe Fields, defensive tackle Mike Sklarosky and offensive tackle Kurt Falke.

Both Sklarosky and Falke are junior college transfers, while Fields – considered one of SU’s top recruits – graduated high school in three-and-a-half years so he could compete as a true freshman for the starting quarterback job.

‘If I’m talking about competing for a starting job, the players have to feel that they can believe in a freshman quarterback,’ Fields said. ‘Me being around and them seeing my work ethic and passion for the game really helps.’

SU’s other highly-touted recruit is running back Curtis Brinkley of Philadelphia. Brinkley was named Pennsylvania’s Class AAAA Player of the Year this fall as well as the Player of the Year in Philadelphia.

Still, as highly as Syracuse touts Brinkley and Fields, their luster with many experts is not as brilliant.

Both Brinkley and Fields were ranked only with three stars by Rivals.com. Rivals ranks recruits from one star to five, and 10 SU recruits garnered three stars. None, though, were higher.

None of the major recruiting services ranked any Syracuse recruit among their top 100 national players. Rivals ranked Syracuse’s class as No. 51 in the country – right ahead of Rutgers.

‘I believe we’ve done a good job in the evaluation process and we feel good about each one of these kids,’ Pasqualoni said. ‘We tried to do the right thing in evaluating and in our system of evaluations. We believe this group fits.’

No matter what, Syracuse will most likely be at the 85-player scholarship max this August for the first time in Pasqualoni’s era.

With a big incoming class, SU will heavily rely on youth to challenge the starters that have gone 10-14 in the past two seasons.

‘It’s not just a lot of players, but we have a lot of great players coming to help Syracuse football,’ Fields said. ‘I feel like if they come in and we work as hard as we can, the sky’s the limit.’

The strength of this year’s class is predominantly on offense, signing 18 recruits.

Four wide receivers have been brought in to upgrade a unit that struggled at times last year and looks to struggle even more without the enigmatic Johnnie Morant.

J.J. Beddle and Tommy ‘Rice’ Moss are considered the best. Moss is the tallest of the four at 6 feet 3 inches and could be the most athletic. All four could see action next year.

‘We will give everyone of those guys an opportunity to show us what he can do,’ Pasqualoni said. ‘I would say they all have a chance.’

Wide receiver, though, was also a source of disappointment for Syracuse. Up until the final day, SU was in the running for Sydney Rice, who was ranked as high as No. 15 in the country at wide out by recruiting guru Tom Lemming. But ultimately the South Carolina native chose the Gamecocks over Syracuse.

The offensive line will get a boost as well with five new and rather large players. There is the 6-foot-7 Falke, who started at offensive tackle at Blinn College in Texas last year, and four other large linemen who are all over 6 feet 5 inches and average more than 300 pounds.

Running back appears to be a position of strength with Brinkley and two others. The Philadelphia native is joined by New York Class B Player of the Year Kareem Jones as apprentices to current back Walter Reyes.

On defense, Syracuse once again attempted to strengthen its secondary. Syracuse signed seven defensive backs to try to solve a unit that continues to be a problem after finishing last in the country two seasons ago, allowing 303.8 yards a game passing.

Among them are four safeties and three cornerbacks. Syracuse also brought in five linebackers to add depth to a unit that will be without graduating senior Rich Scanlon.

‘Players win games,’ Pasqualoni said. ‘Recruiting is the life and blood of every program.’

Published on February 4, 2004 at 12:00 pm