Syracuse University pins its football hopes on alum Doug Marrone

Forgive Doug Marrone for feeling like the man who wasn’t there, because he was working in New Orleans while the Syracuse University football team’s implosion was completed just last year. “I addressed all issues because I wasn’t here,” the rookie head coach said during SU football’s annual media day when asked to assess the strengths from the 2008 squad. Seeing how the team amassed a record of 10-37 under Greg Robinson’s uber-embarrassing four-year tenure as head coach, implementing the “Ludovico Technique” ala A Clockwork Orange seems to be the only way to reform this once-proud program.

Robinson is a nice guy, but his placid demeanor seemed impervious to inspiration, which seemed to rub off on his players and spill onto the field. Marrone, on the other hand, comes across as a no-bull, no-excuses leader who isn’t afraid to tell it like is, just like he did with the Syracuse New Times after his Aug. 10 press conference, when talking about why he decided to approach the team with tabula rasa.

“You always start over,” he said, “and you never start from where you left off. That’s bullshhh. . .  {pauses before completing obscenity}, excuse my language. You always got to go back and do the basics at the beginning and every phase of the team has to be addressed. The roster is constantly changing and you have to compete, earn and hold your position to play.”

The players are also noticing the change of pace and expressed optimism about being able to take a mulligan on the Robinson years and attempt another swing at success. When asked if he thought it was a smart move for Marrone to completely revamp the program, senior wide receiver Mike Williams, ambling around the Carrier Dome field while waiting for a team photo, answered simply. “That’s a real good thing,” he said. “It gives everybody a chance to be able to play and he’s making everybody fight for their job and you’re seeing the best of everybody out there right now.”

Marrone’s introduction as head coach on Dec. 11, 2008, came as a surprise, but of all possible candidates rumored for the position, he made the most sense. The 45-year-old Bronx native is familiar with the culture of the Big East and Central New York. He was a three-year letterman and captain of the SU football team as an offensive lineman under head coach Dick MacPherson from 1983 to 1985. His first coaching job was at SUNY Cortland as a tight ends coach in 1992; he moved to the pros in 2001 in the same role for one year with the Tennessee Titans before heading to the New York Jets from 2002 to 2005 as an offensive line coach.

Most recently, he served as the offensive coordinator for the New Orleans Saints, which, under his guidance last year boasted the best offense in the National Football League, scoring more points and accumulating more yards than any other team. Saints quarterback Drew Brees connected for 34 touchdowns and came up 15 yards short of breaking Dan Marino’s single-season passing yards record by tallying 5,069 yards throwing to wide receiving studs like Marques Colston and Lance Moore. 

Looking at those off-the-charts stats, it’s hard not to imagine offensive players on the Orangemen relishing the opportunity to operate in Marrone’s system—although they had no frame of reference and were all like children wandering in from the forest during early practices last spring. “I’m still trying to see how I move in this system,” continued Williams. “You know as much about it right now as I knew about it coming into it this year.”

The Longest Yards

While some may argue that coaching at the professional and collegiate levels are two different ball games, Marrone believes he’ll be able to translate his NFL strategy to the Orange and transform the sterile offense of the Robinson years into a high-powered machine.

“I don’t see a big difference in skill and a lot of the systems are the same,” said Marrone about the two levels. “If you have {New Orleans Saints running backs} Deuce {McAllister}, Reggie {Bush} and {Aaron} Stecker and those types of guys around, you can use those talents in rotation and in different ways and develop a comfort level. But if you have one guy that’s the real deal like {Minnesota Vikings running back} Adrian McPherson, I’d say give him the ball 50 times and let’s ride him.”

Like most every other position, Marrone has yet to announce who will start at running back. Curtis Brinkley, the 1,000-yard rusher from a year ago, graduated and is now doing his best Steven Seagal impersonation by dodging bullets. The leading candidates to replace him in the backfield are sophomore Antwon Bailey, who came on strong toward the end of last season, highlighted by a 221-yard, two-touchdown performance in the Orange’s 24-23 upset of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., on Nov. 22; the other two backs in the mix are junior Delone Carter and redshirt freshman Averin Collier.

But just as he did with Bush, McAllister and Stecker on the Saints, Marrone has no problem not selecting a true starter. “If you look at my background, we’ve always had two or three backs that we use as a change of pace,” he said. “And at the end of the day if we have to use three, I don’t have a problem using three. If we have to use two, we’ll use two and if we have to put the onus on one, we’ll use one. If we have the real deal, one guy that is so much better than everyone else, we’ll use one.” 

The hottest hot-button issue coming into this season, was who was going to be at quarterback for the first game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Saturday, Sept. 5, at the Carrier Dome. Sophomore Ryan Nassib was the most likely starter, had hometown boy Greg Paulus tried his slightly-better-than-Eric Devendorf chance of being selected in June’s National Basketball Association draft after playing hoops for four years at Duke University under Mike Krzyzewski. 

Instead, he decided to take advantage of his remaining year of college eligibility, and after being recruited by a few of the country’s top programs, including Michigan—ironically where Robinson now serves as defensive coordinator—chose to come home and engage the battle for quarterback. Just before press time, Marrone announced that Paulus will indeed be the starter, but those who have had the closest look at the gunslingers didn’t know who the clear-cut favorite was until that decision was made.

“Every quarterback that’s here right now I’ve had a chance to catch with,” said Williams, “and I think they’re all trying to one-up each other and they’ve all looked good. But the coach wasn’t giving any hints as to who was going to start.”  

Despite his Duke credentials, Paulus realizes he’s just now one of the guys and, like Marrone has said, had to earn his chance to start. “I understand there’s only one year and as a result of that I have as much urgency as you could have,” he said at media day. “But I made this decision knowing the obstacles and challenges and I’m looking forward to trying to reach my goals.” And even if Paulus didn’t get the starting nod and had to ride the pine come regular season, he believes he would have still been able to help the team improve. 

“The competition was good for the team and it helped bring the level of play from all the guys up,” he continued. “I’m trying to use my experience that I’ve had from playing at Duke; having that type of environment and culture I’ve learned so much and grown so much that I think I can either show some things to the guys that are just coming into the program and also maybe bring a different kind of dimension to the team and am just relying on those experiences to try to help everyone.”

Paulus also noted that one of the main reasons he decided to come to SU was for the chance to play for Marrone, who he feels is steering the program in the right direction. Paulus merely wants to be a part of that. For his part, Marrone sees this opportunity as a chance to repay SU for what SU did for him.

“I’m back to the place I started, back to the place I could never do enough for, for what it’s done for me,” he said. “This job has been in my heart for such a long time and I’ve been preparing myself for a long time for this job. Every decision I make is for the program and the university and I know there will be setbacks along the way, but there have been setbacks along the way my whole entire life and we’ll just sit back and go full scale ahead.”

And even though he knows he’ll be judged by wins and losses, he believes the sport of football transcends mere statistics and would consider himself a failure if he didn’t focus on preparing his players for life outside the gridiron.

“I get very emotional when I talk about the game of football and what it should mean to people,” he continued. “If I can go through this program and develop life skills, leadership skills and teach the players how to handle themselves and carry themselves so when our guys walk out into the community, people of this town can say we’re proud of the type of product this university is putting out there, it’ll mean more to me than wins and losses. But for the people that judge on wins and losses, that’s OK; I know that’s part of the deal.”