Syracuse football: a new coach and new player for the Orange defense

The Syracuse Orange football program appears to have found its new defensive coordinator.

Reports out of Albuquerque have New Mexico Lobos’ defensive coordinator Rocky Long moving across the country to join the Orange, and in time for the Pinstripe Bowl.

The 72-year old Long will take over running the 3-3-5 defense from Tony White, a player Long recruited and coached at UCLA. What’s interesting is that in 2020, Syracuse hired Zach Arnett who was Long’s defensive coordinator at the time. When Arnett left for Mississippi State (where he’s just been named HC), Dino Babers tried to convince Long to take the job and nearly three years later the two are going to be working together.

Long is known as the architect of the 3-3-5 and it would seem like this could be an opportunity for him to mentor Nick Monroe and others in Syracuse.

Of course we don’t want to assume Monroe or anyone else is staying these days, but Monroe was out yesterday landing a transfer cornerback for the Orange. Jayden Bellamy of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish committed to Syracuse.

Bellamy did not play for the Irish this season so he’ll have four years of eligibility. The 6’1 cornerback from New Jersey picked Notre Dame over Penn State, Ohio State and Tennessee. He’s going to join his Bergen Catholic teammate Jaeden Gould who committed to the Orange earlier this week.

We’re sure there’s going to be more news dropping this week as we head into Early Signing Day so stay tuned.