SYRACUSE (AP) -- Doug Marrone grew up in the Bronx and admires the toughness of kids who hail from the metropolitan New York City area. As he continues to rebuild Syracuse into the football force it once was, he's sticking to his roots.

Fresh from Syracuse's first bowl victory in nearly a decade - a rousing 36-34 win over Kansas State in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium, a stone's throw from where Marrone grew up - the Orange signed 27 players to letters of intent on Wednesday and nine are from the metro area.

"When you do a study of this program, you'll see we've been very successful in certain recruiting areas," said Marrone, who starts his third season at his alma mater on the heels of the program's first winning season in a decade. "Our goal as a football staff coming in was to get back that foundation that made this program great."

Marrone, whose Orange finished 8-5, said he was awaiting an answer from one more player and expected to hear within two weeks. If signed, that would bring the total number of players on scholarship to 84, one below the NCAA maximum.

Geographically, 11 recruits are from New York state, four are from Florida, three from Georgia, two each from Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and one each from California, Colorado and Virginia. By position, there are six defensive backs, five offensive linemen, three receivers, three defensive linemen, three linebackers, two running backs, two quarterbacks, and one tight end, punter and long snapper.

One of the quarterbacks is 6-foot-3 Ashton Broyld of Rush-Henrietta High School in suburban Rochester, N.Y., another recruiting area Syracuse has mined over the years with great success. Recruiting coordinator Greg Adkins said both Broyld and Terrel Hunt, a two-sport star at Christ the King High School in New York City, would begin their Orange careers as quarterbacks, giving the team a handful of players at the position behind starter Ryan Nassib.

Character tops the list of attributes Marrone looks for, and this class seems to have that.

"Every single player that we've signed was a captain on their high school football team," Marrone said. "I think that shows a lot about the respect that they have and shows a lot about the type of character we're bringing in. We do want to bring in kids who understand they have to push themselves and work hard. Our program is not for every player out there. It has a lot of structure and discipline."

Among the signees is speedy wideout Jeremiah Kobena, named New York Daily News Bronx-Manhattan player of the year in 2009 after gaining 1,798 all-purpose yards with 18 touchdowns. Defensive back Brandon Reddish of Fort Hamilton High School in Brooklyn, N.Y. was the 2010 New York Post all-city player of the year after notching seven interceptions and 593 yards rushing, to go along with 323 yards receiving and 18 scores.

Kobena spent the fall at Milford Academy and is one of six players already enrolled. The others are: tight end Louie Addazio of Buchholz High School in Gainesville, Fla., whose father, Steve, the new head coach at Temple, coached at Syracuse under Paul Pasqualoni; cornerback Jaston George of Chesapeake, Va.; Dyshawn Davis, a linebacker-safety from Woodbury, N.J., who also spent last year at Milford; offensive lineman Lou Alexander of, Palmdale, Calif., a transfer from College of the Canyons; and linebacker Siriki Diabate, of the Bronx, a transfer from Nassau Community College on Long Island.

With the departure of star tailback Delone Carter, the Orange landed Adonis Ameen-Moore of Denver, rated a three-star recruit by Rivals.com and a former high school teammate of current Syracuse quarterback Jonny Miller. Ameen-Moore led Mullen High School to 33 straight wins and three state titles, rushing for 1,774 yards and 26 touchdowns as a senior.

Six of the eight new linemen weigh 285 pounds or more to add size, one of Marrone's goals. He's also had great success in his first two years fitting players into positions that suited them best. Doug Hogue and Derrell Smith starred at linebacker for two seasons after switching from running back.

"That's who we are," Marrone said. "How we develop them into winning football players - that's the key to our success."

Clearly, the Orange's first postseason win since 2001 helped Marrone avoid the usual late push by other teams to steal a recruit or two at the 11th hour. He said four or five players were given a "full-court press to decommit" by staffs from the Big Ten, ACC, Big East.

None bit.

And that seems to be catching on. After all, it's the second straight year Syracuse has not had a player change his mind.

"This year alone, more people have de-committed than any year in the last 10," Marrone said. "I'm happy to say that players that have committed to us stayed with their commitment. The bowl game and us winning, I'd be naive not to think that the bowl game did not help us. I'm sure the win in the bowl game gave people less ammunition to attack our football program."

(Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)