Stony Brook football's Long Island contingent on a mission to prove projections wrong

From freshmen to sixth-year seniors, Stony Brook’s football players are buying into first-year coach Billy Cosh’s vision.

Twenty-six Long Islanders who play for Stony Brook, including East Islip’s Sebastian Regis and Freeport’s Jordan Jackson, have arrived via their individual journeys.

Regis, a freshman defensive lineman, is one of the most decorated high school players in Long Island history. Last year, Regis won the Gregg Sarra Trophy as Long Island’s top defensive player, Newsday’s Carl A. Hansen Award as Suffolk’s top football player, the Rob Burnett Award as Suffolk’s top defensive player and the Bob Zellner Award as the county’s top lineman.

Jackson, a redshirt senior safety who earned Newsday All-Long Island first-team honors in 2018, spent four years with the Seawolves from 2019-22 and a season at Bowling Green last fall before transferring back to Stony Brook for his final college season.

Stony Brook is projected to finish last in the 16-team Colonial Athletic Association, something Cosh brought up just once and moved on from. The Seawolves hope to invalidate the outside preseason expectations, though, starting with Cosh’s process-oriented leadership at the top that trickles down each day.

“He was just genuine,” Jackson said. “I feel like our first conversation, he just told me exactly what it was. He’s a very transparent guy, tells me what it is — why I would be coming back, and his philosophy. He wants to win.

“That’s a big thing with him is winning, and doing what we got to do to win.”

Regis said: “[Cosh] makes a personal experience with every player. So it’s not just like he’s only talking to the kids who are playing. He’s going to talk to everyone. He’s going to talk to everyone the same. No one’s on a less or higher level.”

Regis, listed at 6-1, 260 pounds, has been doubted because of his size. Although Regis is a freshman, Cosh said he is part of the rotation and will play.

“I saw Sebastian’s tape, like, why would we not take that kid?” Cosh said. “He would help us in every facet. So the location didn’t matter. It really didn’t to me. I just wanted good, quality kids and good players.

“And these [Long Island] guys are good enough, take them, and plus they’re right down the road. It kind of helps just the continuity of being close to home and familiarity.”

Jackson redshirted his freshman year in 2019 and appeared in only three games in the spring 2021 season. He played in all 22 games between 2021 and ’22, posting 69 tackles, eight passes defended, three forced fumbles, a fumble recovery and an interception.

Jackson decided to bet on himself after the 2022 season, taking the jump to the FBS level at Bowling Green. He called it a “rewarding experience” but grew unhappy with his situation at the end of last season.

Jackson entered the transfer portal again and had options. His former teammates made it known that Cosh — in the unusual position of re-recruiting a player to Stony Brook, though he obviously was not there during Jackson’s first stint — was his type of coach.

“All the guys were telling me, ‘You’ll love Cosh,’  ” Jackson said. “  ‘Cosh is a guy you’ll love. He’s what you’re about. Everything you’ve been preaching when you was here before you left, he’s that. So you would love him.’  ”

Stony Brook opens the Cosh Era on Aug. 31 with a game against Marshall, an FBS team, in Huntington, West Virginia.

“We definitely are affected by the 16 — not affected, but we kind of took it on the chin being the 16th seed,” Regis said. “So we’re going to go out there and prove them wrong.”

By Ben Dickson

benjamin.dickson@newsday.com@bendickson__

Ben Dickson joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.