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Syracuse Athletics announced the addition of TD Ierlan as a volunteer assistant coach for men’s lacrosse on Friday afternoon. He’s the latest to join an overhauled coaching staff now being led by former Syracuse great Gary Gait, who replaced John Desko as head coach following last season. Soon after, Dave Pietramala was named the new defensive coordinator, taking over for Lelan Rogers. Pat March, who joined SU in 2020, remains the offensive coordinator.

After five seasons playing at UAlbany, Yale and Denver, Ierlan holds every NCAA Division I single-season and career record for faceoffs and ground balls, including total career faceoffs won (1,159), single-season faceoff percentage (.791), career ground balls (810) and career faceoff percentage (.753). He also ranks first and second for multiple single-season stats: ground balls, ground balls per game and faceoffs won.

The Premier Lacrosse League Redwoods selected the perennial college All-American fourth overall in the 2021 PLL Draft. In his first season with the Redwoods, Ierlan won 65% of his faceoffs, second in the league behind Trevor Baptiste. His 79 ground balls were also second in the league behind Baptiste.

Ierlan will look to help what was an inconsistent Syracuse faceoff unit last year. The Orange finished 26th in the nation in faceoff percentage (.516), though the results varied greatly game to game. Desko pointed to the lack of possessions at times last year as a reason for why SU, and especially its defense, struggled

Last year’s starter, Jakob Phaup, returns for his senior campaign and is likely to retain the starting job despite his up-and-downs a year ago. Phaup was an honorable mention All-American in 2020 and finished the shortened year ranked sixth nationally in faceoff percentage. The year before, Phaup led the Atlantic Coast Conference in faceoff percentage. Phaup also comes from a wrestling background in high school like Ierlan.