Schonbrun | To the top and back

Less than two years after a Super Bowl win, Ryan LaCasse is back at SU

By: Zach Schonbrun

Posted: 10/7/08

Ryan LaCasse has the ring to prove he was there on the night of Feb. 4, 2007, in Miami, as a member of the Indianapolis Colts.

He was on the delirious sidelines as the final seconds of Super Bowl XLI ticked down and pandemonium flooded into a celebration that became, he'd say, "a long few days."

And he may look at the ring, now in the fall of 2008, after his pre-dawn wake-up calls to arrive at work at Manley Field House at 7 every morning. Two years have transplanted him straight from college to luxury's lap, and back.

LaCasse, a former defensive end who graduated from Syracuse in 2006, a month after being selected in the seventh round of the NFL Draft by the Baltimore Ravens, is in his first year as a graduate assistant in the strength and conditioning program for SU athletics. He's splitting his time this fall between football, field hockey and finance (he is enrolled in the Whitman MBA program).

It's part of LaCasse's new plan, after his playing career stalled, at the age of 25, due to a foot injury - plantar fasciitis, a condition that affects the ligament in the heel and foot - that forced him to give up football cold. A year after lining up as a professional athlete, LaCasse was sending resumes out to college coaches around the country, looking for a graduate assistant position that would let him in.

"Your world changes really fast," LaCasse said, in a telephone interview. "It's definitely a life lesson, and you need to be prepared for it to change. Because as good as things can be going it can change in a heartbeat."

It was, as former SU head coach Dick MacPherson would tell him, a true affirmation of going "from penthouse to outhouse." But while LaCasse recounts his NFL experience with excitement, there's no hint of longing or remorse. He seems at peace with his fate, on track to a career in athletic department administrative work: the "non-glamorous" side of sport as he calls it.

LaCasse works in the weight room and on the practice field with the football team now, assisting defensive coordinator Derrick Jackson and spotting current players like Vincenzo Giruzzi, his former teammate. He spends time on the field hockey field, too, as the team's head strength and conditioning coach.

And he goes to class, after his early morning arrival at Manley, essentially resuming his duties as a student after a three-year hiatus.

Except no other SU student appeared in 12 games wearing the uniform of the Indianapolis Colts. He has Peyton Manning's number stored in his cell phone. He's dined with Dwight Freeney. And when the confetti began to sprinkle down from the top of Dolphins Stadium at the end of the Super Bowl, he was looking to the stands, trying to find his mother to bring her down onto a field of surreal euphoria.

"That was probably the scariest part of the game because I thought I was going to drop her!" LaCasse said. "I helped my mother and my sister get onto the field and one of my buddies, too, so they could enjoy the celebration with me. It was great, it was a great night, lot of fun."

He had been one of four Syracuse players drafted in 2006 (joining Anthony Smith, Quinn Ojinnaka and James Wyche), after running a 4.54 40-yard dash and bench-pressing 225 pounds 34 times in the February NFL Scouting Combine. That was after he was named an All-Big East First team selection, recording nine sacks his senior season following three years of near-anonymity at SU. He emerged as a legitimate NFL prospect, and the Ravens picked him, at No. 219, in April's NFL Draft.

He made it through training camp that summer. The day after camp ended Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome called him into his office.

"(Newsome) said, 'What do you think about Indianapolis?'" LaCasse said. "I said, 'It's fine, why?' (He) said 'We just traded you. Here's the phone, here's (Colts President) Bill Polian.' You realize in the NFL really quickly that you're definitely a commodity."

LaCasse would also quickly learn that, in order to stay a commodity, you need to be in top shape, something his persistent foot injury wouldn't allow him to do. He'd had surgery on the foot in the spring of 2007, but he would be cut by the Colts after training camp that summer because the heel wouldn't heal.

He worked out for a few other teams. None could get past his injury.

"Every team said, 'We like him, but we don't like his foot,'" LaCasse said. "Everybody was concerned about the foot. You get kind of marked in the NFL."

By the end of the 2007 season, he'd resigned himself to looking toward the future. LaCasse wanted to go back to school and stay involved in sports at the same time - a grad assistant program seemed perfect. He sent resumes and applications to schools around the country. Syracuse called him back.

A few months after taking the Syracuse position, the Oakland Raiders called offering him a workout. But by then his mind had been made up.

"I decided, as far as the long run, going back to school, helping out the program and the opportunity was worth it a lot more than another shot at the NFL," LaCasse said.

Three years after making his mark chasing Big East quarterbacks in a Syracuse uniform, LaCasse now finds himself in a different role: coach. The players, some of whom were LaCasse's teammates, now benefit from his feedback as a teacher.

"I ask him questions all the time about what I need to improve and be a better pass rusher," said SU junior defensive tackle Art Jones.

"It's a different role for him," said SU senior defensive end Vincenzo Giruzzi, a teammate of LaCasse's in 2005. "But it's an advantage for us to have a guy like that with experience and a Super Bowl champ. He has great advice."

It's an advantage for the coaching staff as well, which has another set of experienced eyes to watch practices and provide insight. More importantly, perhaps, his closeness to the players themselves put LaCasse in a sort of hybrid position: he's been there, done that, but he's still a college kid in a sense.

"Any tidbit we can gather to give our kids a better chance to be successful is a benefit, and Ryan provides that for us," Jackson said. "He's a source of great information, and somebody that's played here."

LaCasse's days are stuffed in the short run - "I haven't been catching up on watching 'The Office'" - in order to get in better position for the long run, which he hopes to be a career down the "athletic director" route.

He's got the "athletic star" route already covered. And the ring to prove it.

"All the young guys always ask me if I miss it," LaCasse said. "And I tell them, I miss practice, I miss the games, and I miss the paychecks. Other than that, though, I'm at peace with it and I'm happy where I am right now."

Zach Schonbrun is the sports columnist for The Daily Orange, where his columns appear every Tuesday. You can reach him at zsschonb@syr.edu.