The first Big East game of the season proved daunting for the Syracuse University Orangemen football team as they were outclassed, out-muscled and simply outperformed on Saturday, Oct. 3, losing 34-20 to the South Florida Bulls, arguably the best team in the conference this year. And unlike SU’s previous head coach, the current one doesn’t hesitate to tell it like it is.

Team colors: SU quarterback Greg Paulus pauses to try to remember which team he plays for, as he had nearly as many completions to South Florida as he did to the Orange.

Diver down: SU safety Max Suter (No. 24) lunges for the loose ball, before ultimately recovering one of three fumbles for the Orangemen defense.

MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTOS

“Does South Florida have better talent than Syracuse University?,” asked Doug Marrone in the post-game press conference when assessing roster calibers. “They do right now.”

But while he admitted that the Bulls might have been too much to contain this early in his resuscitation of the Greg Robinson-atrophied program, he still thought they had a chance to win, if not for one repetitive statistical flaw. The Orangemen, now 2-3 on the season, committed seven turnovers, the most since they lost that same amount against Rutgers in the 1984 season, when, ironically, Marrone was strapping on a helmet as an offensive lineman under Dick MacPherson.

“I thought we were going to come out ready to play,” continued Marrone, “but at the end of the day, it was the seven turnovers. It’s my responsibility as head coach and I have to straighten it out. I don’t know of any team that’s ever won with seven turnovers, and it’s just unacceptable.”

Actually, Florida State bested Wichita State on Sept. 20, 1969, after committing eight turnovers; alas, Wichita had 12 of its own, and those 20 combined are the most ever bloopers committed in a collegiate football game. But unfortunately for SU, South Florida only turned the ball over three times—all fumbles—and those extra chances resulted in more points for a potent offense that needs no extra favors, as they are currently ranked No. 2 in scoring in the Big East with 37 points per game. Marrone appeared bewildered trying to decipher how the ball changed hands so many times.

A reporter from Syracuse’s daily paper asked the coach, “Do you think it was because of a lack of preparation?” Marrone, with an “are you kidding me?” glare, responded, “A lack of preparation meaning we don’t work on it?” As the fumbling reporter tried to amend his statement, Marrone added, “You can ask all the players, we work on ball security constantly. We do not give the ball up, no matter what position we play and it’s not acceptable.”

Because of the turnovers, the Orange offense dumped an extra load on the defense which had to contain Bulls quarterback B.J. Daniels’ scrambling rushes and cannon-like arm more than they should have. But afterward, members of the Orange bulwark didn’t take it personally. “Yeah, that’s high,” said Orange linebacker Derrell Smith—who led the team with 11 tackles including one sack—of the seven turnovers. “I think we did a pretty good job today and we’ll just have to try to look forward to the next game and go practice harder for next week.”

Senior defensive lineman Arthur Jones, considered to be one of the top-rated prospects in the country at his position, doesn’t think this loss will hamper the progress the Orange has made so far this year. “Coach Marrone is not going to expect anything less than for us to bounce back,” he said. “We’re a good football team, but we’re not where we should be yet and we’re going to keep working hard and I have 100 percent confidence in this team. I didn’t come back my senior year to lose and we’re going to keep working hard and try to make it to a bowl game.”

The press conference moment of the day came courtesy of another reporter from The Post-Standard, who asked Jones this confounded question: “Was there anything special about your defense today? Statistically, the numbers looked good and you held them down fairly well. Did you find out anything about your defensive side today that you didn’t know going in?” A befuddled Jones paused for several seconds, and then stated, “Could you please rephrase the question, sir,” as if he was the interrogation subject in an Abbott and Costello routine. 

While it didn’t seem like the honeymoon was officially over, as the 40,147 announced fans refrained from booing SU quarterback Greg Paulus off the field despite his five interceptions, patience had indeed been lost. By midway through the fourth quarter, with the game seemingly out of reach for the Orange, half of the crowd had already filed out of the Carrier Dome. Paulus stated that this was the first time he’s ever thrown five interceptions in a football game, and made this analogy: “I’ve had eight, nine, 10 turnovers in a basketball game, but you just can’t do that against a really good opponent like South Florida.”

While he’s still trying to shake off the rust from a four-year football sabbatical, Paulus has apparently already lost his touch in basketball, too. One of his five interceptions came toward the end of the third quarter when he tried a dump-off pass—similar to a 5- to 10-foot jumper in the lane in basketball—over the head of 6-foot-6 Bulls defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul, who just simply put his hands up, snatched the ball and danced in for a 19-yard pick-six touchdown. That score made the game 34-13, and it was at that point that all hope of a comeback seemed to deflate. But Paulus seemed to take it in stride and, always the optimist, believes this loss could actually benefit SU.

“Sometimes you need these experiences in order to take a couple steps forward,” he said, “and we’re going to take this game and learn from it.” One thing they should learn is to get the ball in the hands of wide receiver Mike Williams as much as possible. Williams is in the discussion as best wide receiver in the country, and he added to the chatter with 13 receptions for 186 yards and two touchdowns this game; he now leads the Big East Conference in receptions with 41 and yards with 623 and is No. 4 and No. 3 in the country in those two statistical categories, respectively.

One of his touchdown receptions came when Paulus aired it out and Williams jumped above two South Florida defenders and hauled it in. “Mike Williams has done a tremendous job,” commented Marrone. “But we need other players to step up and help us out and I’m sure as we go along, there’s going to be teams that try to take Mike out of the game and we need {wide receivers} Donte Davis, Marcus Sales and Alec Lemon to step it up for us. And when they do, overall, it’ll help our offense out quite a bit.”

To see if the Orange can rebound from the South Florida loss, they’ll take on the West Virginia Mountaineers for a noon contest on Saturday, Oct. 10. Tickets cost $15 to $113 and to secure them, show up at the Dome box office on Saturday or call (800) DOME-TIX.