Country roads have taken Jesse Edwards home to West Virginia. After four seasons playing under the Jim Boeheim, the Flying Dutchman will now suit up for another legendary coach in Bob Huggins. Out of the three schools Edwards narrowed his decision down to, it’s hard to argue with the choice he made; Kansas and Gonzaga are both modern college basketball powerhouses and Edwards wouldn’t have seen as much playing time at either of those two schools.
As interesting as the choice itself wound up being, it was easily second nature to Edwards’ comments about his decision to transfer.
This quote as good as confirms what we’ve come to fully realize over the past few days in the wake of the Adam Weitsman news. Syracuse Athletics is way behind the 8-ball when it comes to NIL. Almost two years since NIL was legalized, the administration’s efforts to adapt to an evolving collegiate athletics landscape have been minimal at best, and that failure to change is in the spotlight more than ever.
These words from Edwards should not come as a surprise though. When Jim Boeheim trashed the state of college athletics a few months ago, it put a target on his back. That was clear and obvious. What we didn’t fully realize at the time was these were the first warning signs that something was really off in the program. There’s a reason why Boeheim was the only one criticizing Jeff Capel, Jim Larrañaga, and Steve Forbes among others. He was as good as criticizing himself and the program through that, because Syracuse was, and still is, stuck in the past.
Nothing but the best should be wished to Edwards for his future in Morgantown because A) he did a lot over his time in Central New York and B) you should not blame him for leaving at all. If West Virginia is going to offer him more NIL-wise than Syracuse is and you’ll likely have a fairly similar role, why would you want to stay? There has been more than a little bit of negative reaction on social media directed at John Wildhack among others with SU brass. Was this finally the wakeup call?
