On Daunte Bacheyie’s first target of Syracuse’s game against Cal, he knew he had an opportunity.
“I probably could have caught that,” said Bacheyie.
The secondary help from Kingston Lopa just did enough to knock the ball out of Bacheyie’s hands after he soared over Cal defender Jae’on Young. It would have been, at least, a 20-yard gain that would have set Syracuse up at the Cal 40-yard line.
The way Bacheyie responded swung the game in Syracuse’s favor.
The very next play, switched sides of the field
and ran the same post route, this time to the near sideline. Bachieye went deeper on his route this time and ran past Cal defender Michael Hurst Jr. The Syracuse tight end, once again, jumped over his opponent to snag the ball and set up Syracuse near the Cal red zone with 38-yard reception.
Not letting up the pressure, Syracuse ran a play action on a jet sweep. The action forced Cal’s secondary to react, giving Bacheyie the space to freely run a go route right into the end zone for Syracuse’s first touchdown of the day.
Even though the Orange lost 21-18 to Cal, Bacheyie finished with four catches for 73 yards. His touchdown catch was the second of his career. And the signs of his future impact on the Orange roster came during fall training camp as Syracuse started running and installing plays.
“They were all going to me,” said Bacheyie.
It’s been a long time coming for Bacheyie. The Sylvan Beach native was a consensus top-15 player in the state of New York by recruiting services. Fran Brown had recruited Bacheyie to Syracuse with the intention of keeping him as a tight end. However, during his first season with the Orange, Brown switched Bacheyie to the wide receiver room.
“He wasn’t heavy enough at the moment,” said Brown. “But that helped him become a better route runner.”
Bacheyie credited wide receiver coach Josh Gattis in particular for his increased route running skills. Gattis took over as Syracuse’s wide receivers coach in November of last season after initially joining the Orange as a quality control and offensive specialist staffer. Bacheyie said that Gattis not only taught him route running but respacing techniques as well.
“He taught me how to really break down and get in and out of my cuts the right way,” said Bacheyie.
Bacheyie is now back in the tight ends room, the position he was always going to play for the Orange. He is now up to 230 pounds as well, according to Brown. Syracuse’s roster listed him at 210 pounds last season.
It’s also special for Bacheyie playing for Syracuse. He is a graduate of Christian Brothers Academy in Syracuse, along with teammates Darien Williams and Matthew Hawn. Bacheyie would come to Orange games often as a child since his dad was an exercise science teacher at Syracuse. He still remembers watching those old Syracuse games and now wears the Orange and Blue on the Dome turf.
“It’s honestly an honor to be able to represent my city and my school,” said Bacheyie. “A lot of hard work has gone into this, but I think it’s paying off.”
And now that Bacheyie has developed wide receiver skills and improved physically, it’s pretty easy to see the player that Brown wants to mold the Central New York native into.
“My vision of him was to become like Oronde Gadsden,” said Brown.
