Syracuse men’s lacrosse adds TD Ierlan to coaching staff

This is just getting silly now.

On Friday afternoon, Syracuse athletics announced that the Syracuse Orange men’s lacrosse coaching staff is adding TD Ierlan as the team’s volunteer assistant coach.

Ierlan is the most dominant face-off man in college lacrosse history, holding every major single-season and career record possible for the position. For the first time, he will now be coaching face-offs for SU.

If you’re keeping track, Syracuse men’s lacrosse has now added three coaches to their staff this offseason, all of whom are considered among the best if not THE best in the history of the sport.

Let’s count ‘em up:

1. New head coach Gary Gait is considered by most to be the best offensive player ever
2. New defensive coordinator Dave Pietramala is considered the best defensive player ever
3. New volunteer assistant TD Ierlan, among the best face-off specialists ever (with the statistics to back-up an argument for the top spot)

It’s just laughable at this point. It’s the most accomplished coaching staff in terms of respective playing careers ever assembled, in any sport (unless I’m missing something).

Now, how will all this success as players translate for the 2022 Syracuse men’s lacrosse team? Tough to tell at this point with the talent on the current roster, especially with so many holes to fill off last year’s team. What’s undeniable, however, is that those players are being coached up by just about the best group they could possibly hope to learn from.

Here’s a predictably excited Gary Gait on the addition of Ierlan to his staff:

“We’re thrilled to have TD join the Syracuse staff. His dominance at the position speaks for itself and we’re excited that he’ll be able to share his expertise with our players at the face-off X”.

Ierlan’s ridiculous college career ended this past spring with a graduate year at Denver. Before that, he spent two years at Albany and two at Yale.

Ierlan finished his career with a .751 FO win percentage and 867 ground balls collected, both of which are NCAA records for a career. He also holds the single-season records for win percentage (.791), face-off wins (359) and ground balls (254), all of which he set while he was with the Great Danes.

He was selected fourth overall by Redwoods in the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) entry draft this past spring, and finished a strong rookie season with a .650 win percentage.

If I may, here’s a little free advice to TD as he embarks on the job of coaching the Orange face-off men: just tell Jakob Phaup that every game is against Virginia, and we should be good to go!

Welcome to ‘Cuse, TD! Orange already looks good on you!