Syracuse

[Seattle1]

Will Syracuse University ever sniff a national championship again?

[ATLFalcons]

LOL

That's kind of random, but the real question is will they ever sniff a bowl game again?

[Seattle1]

Oh, they'll sniff a bowl game again I'm sure. I think it would be really cool for them to compete for a national championship again, but maybe they need the second coming of Ernie Davis first, lol. (Or Jim Brown.) Probably they haven't approached a national championship recently because they play in a dome on AstroTurf! :thumbsdown: The football gods are frowning on them!

[football junkie]

Don't be hating on Syracuse. The Orange will rise again!

My father worked at the university when Ernie Davis and James Brown played there. Obviously that was way before my time.

I do miss seeing Donovan McNabb, Marvin Harrison and Keith Bulluck in orange. But the university is still developing quality players: Tanard Jackson.

It's only a matter of time until the school makes a big splash, gets a bigtime head coach and starts to rebuild, with the right coach, a bowl game in two years, a BCS game in three.

[soberdennis]

I still have trouble believing how far down the Orange have gone in recent years.
They will rise again sooner or later. Hopefully more sooner than later.

[Seattle1]

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=492801

Greg Robinson bows out at Syracuse

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) -- Greg Robinson wore orange to his bittersweet final public moment at Syracuse.

"I really, really like my job. I love it, every minute of it," Robinson, sporting a familiar shirt with an orange tint, said Tuesday at his final press conference. "I've been very fortunate."

When athletic director Daryl Gross fired Robinson the day after the Orange had been beaten 39-14 at home by Big East rival Connecticut, Robinson said he wasn't surprised. His players responded by upsetting Notre Dame 24-23 the following week in South Bend on national television, providing Robinson with the crowning moment of his four years as head coach.

Robinson, who had one year left on a contract that pays $1.5 million a year, leaves with a 10-37 overall record and 3-26 mark in the Big East.

[football junkie]

Suddenly those Paul Pasqualoni years, 107-59-1, don't seem so bad.

SU is going to be a hard sell. I'm sure with the right head coach a couple of decent recruiting classes the Orange can be back in the top 25 soon.

Maybe if Crennel gets the can in Cleveland he'll come to the college ranks and redeem himself at SU, rebuilding the program.

Pasqualoni, btw, is an assistant coach on this year's surprise NFL success story the Miami Dolphins -- yeah that guy didn't know football!

[Wolverine]

Turnarounds can happen quickly, in both directions. Just look at Louisville. They were talking national championship at the start of the 2007 season. Now they're not much above Syracuse in the BE, having lost to the Orange each of the last two years.

However, the problems at Syracuse run pretty deep. The short list:

1. Losing tradition now well established - Last winning season was in 2001.

2. Very weak recruiting base - Upstate players like Ernie Davis (Elmira) are the exception. To win SU has to rely on imports but . . .

3. Terrible weather hurts recruiting - Having grown up in the area I can attest to that. Sometimes snows in October.

4. Syracuse has been a basketball school for a long time and football coaches prefer their program to be No. 1; same problem Indiana and Kentucky have always had (and one reason Bryant left UK for Texas A&M).

Given these factors it's difficult to attract the better players or coaches.

They had a good coach in Pasqualoni and were foolish to fire him. I don't think he'd have done well the last four years but he almost certainly would have done better than Robinson.

Syracuse has been down before (4-18 in 1973-74; 22-44 from 73 to 78) and recovered but it took a decade before there was real progress (beating No. 1 Nebraska) and several more years before going 11-0-1 in 1987. I think recovery will be just as long this time, perhaps longer because the hole is deeper.

[football junkie]

Terrible weather hurts recruiting - Having grown up in the area I can attest to that. Sometimes snows in October.

Very true, sadly, it even often snows in October! Why spend three or four years shoveling out from 20-inch snow storms every other week (in the winter) when you could be "chillin'" at USC or Florida?

It might take global warming to reignite SU football program! That's why I think all of us should run our cars 24/7, leave on all the lights constantly, your oven isn't just for cooking things, run your clothes dryer even when empty. Just burn all the fossil fuels you can and you'll be doing your part to get SU football back on the map. Then one proud day, maybe not even twenty years from now, when southern California resembles Saudi Arabia and Florida is underwater the Orange will be playing in the BCS Championship game.

Or the SU could just swallow its pride and hire back Paul Pasqualoni, whichever.

[CCN]

Bad weather doesn't really hurt Ohio State too much. Michigan always recruits well. Notre Dame recruits well. Wisconsin does well. It's a handicap, but one that can be helped.

They're in a downward trend, nearly coinciding with a revival (if you can call something from years of practically nothing that) of Rutgers. Right coach, right steps by that coach, and they'll be back.

[ATLFalcons]

Syracuse has chosen Doug Marrone to be their next head coach.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3763669

[Denbrnc]

Syracuse hasn't sniffed a National Championship since 87. That year, Oklahoma and Miami were also undefeated, and they played in the Orange Bowl to decide it, and Miami won. Syracuse went to the Sugar Bowl and tied Auburn to complete an 11-0-1 season. Too bad for Syracuse that Miami and Oklahoma didn't play in the regular season that year like they did the previous two. Maybe Syracuse would have went to the Orange that year if OU would have won, or maybe there would have been a prime-time matchup for the second straight year in the Fiesta between Syracuse and Miami.

[Seattle1]

Oh, they'll sniff a bowl game again I'm sure.

They won the Pinstripe Bowl following the 2010 season!

:applaud:

[ATLFalcons]

3 years later, and I eat my words.