Orange ready to shake mediocrity
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — Doug Marrone knows the task at hand is daunting, especially for a rookie head coach at his alma mater: resuscitate the Syracuse football program.
And for fans, yesterday wouldn't be soon enough.
"I'm excited," Marrone said. "It's going right now according to plan. I know there will be setbacks along the way, but there have been setbacks along the way my whole entire life, so we'll just sit back and we'll go full-scale ahead as we attack those situations, and everyone will be aware of them."
If any coach in America at college's top level faces a more daunting challenge, it's difficult to imagine. Syracuse has a storied past and an oh-so-forgettable recent stretch that has rendered the Orange as nothing more than cannon fodder for television analysts: Does Syracuse still play at the FBS level?
"I do feel more pressure than I did anywhere else I've been," said Marrone, who quit his job as offensive coordinator for the New Orleans Saints in December to return to Syracuse.
"I've always put a lot of pressure on myself as an assistant coach. I've always worked with guys who've done the same thing, putting a lot of pressure on themselves, but to say that this is the same amount of pressure as before in all my other jobs, it's not. It's not because I'm the head coach, it's because of where I am."
And where the team isn't.
After averaging eight wins a year from 1986 to 2004 (Marrone played offensive line from 1983-85 for coach Dick MacPherson) and playing in 13 bowl games, Syracuse has fallen to the depths of college football.
In four seasons under Greg Robinson, the Orange went 10-37, including the first-ever 10-loss seasons (1-10 in 2005 and 2-10 in 2007) since the school started playing the game in 1889. Only five of Robinson's wins were over BCS schools, and his Orange finished last each year in Big East Conference play, going winless in seven games his first year and 1-6 in each of the next three seasons.
Marrone, who grew up in the Bronx, inherited a team accustomed to Robinson's laid-back, southern California demeanor, and that already is a thing of the past. The locker room is neat and orderly, facial hair has vanished, and jewelry, for those players who do have it, is nowhere to be found when they're in uniform.
To get a sense of how different the atmosphere is, one only has to know that 16 players have left the team since Marrone took over. Maybe the new emphasis on conditioning had something to do with some of those departures. Conditioning coaches Will Hicks and Hal Luther have done their best to eliminate the tired athletes fans saw in games during the Robinson era, instituting such endurance tests as three 400-yard dashes with minimal rest in between.
"It's real intense. We're all working harder than we were before," said All-Big East defensive tackle Arthur Jones, who expects to be a force again after recovering from a torn pectoral muscle during the offseason. "Everyone is improving. People are getting better."
Marrone's top priority is choosing a quarterback and revamping a porous offensive line that two years ago allowed an eye-opening 54 sacks (4.5 a game).
Sophomore Ryan Nassib is No. 1 on the depth chart at quarterback, and he's never thrown a pass in a college game. He will have plenty of competition from former Duke point guard Greg Paulus, a Parade All-American as a record-setting quarterback in high school in Syracuse. Paulus has one season of eligibility remaining and has received a waiver from the NCAA to give football a shot while he takes graduate courses at Syracuse's Newhouse School of Public Communications.
"It's a pretty unique situation, and one where I feel blessed," Paulus said. "I came here with a goal in mind, and I'm doing everything I can to achieve that."
Whoever ends up starting at quarterback — last year's starter Cam Dantley is still in the running, too — will have a stellar target in senior Mike Williams, who returns after missing a year because of academic issues. Williams returns with a streak of nine straight games with a touchdown pass, the longest active streak in the country in the FBS division.
Although Jones, Williams, senior center Jim McKenzie and junior punter Rob Long are surefire exceptions, Marrone has made one thing clear: Every other position is up for grabs — may the best man win.
Expect early decisions.
"The faster that we do that with all of our players, the better football team and the better chance we have of making less mistakes and executing on high level," Marrone said.
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