Syracuse, N.Y. — Rich Belin is a two-way quarterback. He comes from a family of football players. He has the athletic ability to play both running back and wide receiver throughout his football career.
Still, Belin said he knows what position he wants to play at Syracuse. He said there was no talk of a position change during his recruiting journey with the Orange football program. And that's a good thing.
“That conversation never came up,” said Belin, who was named New York's Gatorade State Player of the Year and verbally committed to the Orange for the 2025 class on June 27. “They only offered me as a quarterback.”
Belin tried out other positions in order to share the field with his older brother, Henry IV, who is now a quarterback at Duke University.
Other than that, Belin said he's been a quarterback almost his whole life. The Cardinal Hayes High School student in the Bronx has trained under former Syracuse University quarterback Maday Williams since he was about 10 years old.
Williams, who played quarterback at Syracuse from 1998-2000, said Belin has the intangible qualities to thrive at the position at a Power Four level, despite his small stature and the fact that Syracuse was the only Power Four school to offer him a scholarship at the time of his recruitment.
Williams said he believes Belin's size — he's just over 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs 190 pounds — intimidated bigger players, helping his biggest rivals, Delaware and Princeton, win the bidding war for him.
“If he was 6-foot-2 and met the traditional measurement standards, he would have had a lot more offers from the Power Four,” Williams said.
“I was really depressed,” Belin said. “I was in the coach's office, I was with Maday. It's funny how the scouting world works. I always trusted God, so I didn't let it get me down. You can only control the things you can control.”
Fran Brown staff first contacted Belin in the spring. They offered him the scholarship in late May. He visited the school in June and accepted last week.
Williams said he believes playing quarterback means finding ways to win, and he said Belin is able to do that in all three ways that are essential to being a successful quarterback in modern football.
“Every quarterback these days needs some variation of triple threat,” Williams said. “They need to be able to outplay their opponents with their brains, their brawn and their creativity when there's some pressure and confusion. Can he throw both on and off the platform? Yes, he can. Quarterbacks come in all shapes and sizes. The size is lacking, but the ability is there.”
Belin said one of the reasons he chose Syracuse was because offensive coordinator Jeff Nixon tries to adapt the offense to the strengths of his players. Belin said Nixon wants to take the offense as far as the defense will allow.
Mr. Belin's strength is his flexibility, which is crucial to Mr. Nixon's plan.
Belin threw for more than 3,000 yards and ran for more than 1,000 yards last season before being named player of the year as a senior at Cardinal Hayes High School, where his team became the first player from New York City to win the New York State Catholic High School Championship.
They did so by taking Belin from last in the league in his first season as the school's quarterback to first in the league in his junior year.
At Syracuse, Belin knows he may have to exercise the same kind of perseverance to get an opportunity.
He will enter Syracuse as one of two quarterbacks who have verbally committed to the school's Class of 2025. Texas native Luke Carney is ranked higher of the two, but Williams said he has no reason to think that ranking is wrong.
“I was in Atlanta this week at an event and some guys from the Dallas area were talking about him,” Williams said. “They said he's a player. He's playing against some weak teams (in Texas), but he could be a starter at a well-known school in Dallas that's in top-level 6A football. There's competition wherever you play. You can't run away.”
Neither Williams nor Belin would say specifically who else will be on campus competing for the position next season, although Williams acknowledged it would make sense for the Orange to try to bring in another transfer student next year given the lack of an experienced player behind Kyle McCord this season.
In the meantime, Belin will spend the summer working out with former NFL quarterbacks Phil and Matt Sims, preparing for the high school season and hoping for a little luck.
Belin's father, Henry Belin III, was a defensive lineman at Vanderbilt University. His older brother, Henry IV, was a quarterback at Duke University and is 6'3″ tall. His twin brother, Blake, is 6'2″.
There is hope that a developmental sport like Belin's scholarship offer will arrive late.
Rich Belin is ranked as the No. 11 prospect in New York state in the 247Sports composite rankings, and his twin is a defensive lineman who is ranked as the No. 10 prospect in the state.
Rich Belin said the twins are not choosing colleges together, and he doesn't expect his decision will affect Blake's choice, nor does he hope it will.
“He didn't dictate my decision,” Belin said. “I'm not going to dictate his decision. I just pray that he makes the decision that he wants to make. That's the only influence I have.”
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