What Syracuse needed was a college football coach. They needed a guy with a recruiting base. They needed a guy who could persuade the best recruits in the northeast to stop going to Boston College, Penn State and Rutgers and to start coming to Syracuse. They already had a guy with an NFL pedigree come in and try to do that, but instead Greg Robinson left the program with a 10-37 record over the four years he coached in Central New York.
So why the heck would AD Darryl Gross hire Doug Marrone as the Orange's new head football coach?
ESPN Radio 1000 in Chicago is reporting this afternoon that the SU alum is Gross's next hire.
Marrone currently serves as the New Orleans Saints offensive coordinator. And the Saints do have a great offense. This year they rank second in NFL averaging 28.2 points per game, and they lead the league in yards per game, averaging 4o5.9 per contest. They also lead the league in offense in 2006, when they lost in the NFC Championship to the Chicago Bears.
Under Marrone's tutelage, Drew Brees has been one of the league's elite passers, and leads the NFL's most prolific pass offense with 4,100 yards through the air this year entering Thursday night's contest in Chicago against the Bears.
Marrone is known as a great teacher who pays great attention to detail. His offense is great, yes. He went to Syracuse, unlike former coach Greg Robinson, between 1983-1985 and was a three year letterman as an offensive lineman. But he hasn't coached college football players in six years.
Surely his NFL experience will make him an attractive coach to recruits, and Syracuse can turn its football program around.
Sound familiar?
The former Orange coach entered Syracuse four years ago with a resume that had the Kansas City Chiefs, the Denver Broncos and the New York Jets on it. Robinson had also coached at major college football programs, most recently at Texas before heading to Central New York. Marrone has coached at Universities of Tennessee, Georgia and also coached at Georgia Tech, before moving up to the NFL with the Jets and now the Saints.
The only major difference between the former coach, and the apparent new coach is that the new one is an alum.
Big deal.
Both of these coaches are NFL guys, not college guys. Before Robinson was at Texas, for one year, he was in the NFL for the previous thirteen seasons. Marrone hasn't coached college kids since 2001 when he was the tight ends and tackles coach for Phil Fulmer's Tennessee Volunteers. Robinson was so far removed from college football that he couldn't relate to the college players anymore. He couldn't recruit any talent. Why will Marrone be any different?
Syracuse lost out earlier today with Skip Holtz. He would have been a great hire. He's a college football coach, who can recruit, and can help infiltrate talent into a barren program. Mike Locksley is off the table, as he's the new head football coach at New Mexico. But why not Turner Gill? After leading the University of Buffalo to the MAC Championship this year, and as a guy who can recruit in New York, doesn't he make the most sense?
Instead, Gross has apparently opted for Greg Robinson, part II.
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