2009 Football Preview

Check out my Homer Preview of the Orange(men) for the guys at Over the Pylon.

The Snuggification of Syracuse has begun

I think Daryl Gross is enjoying this way too much.

Somebody owes BH some royalties.

Riiiiiight

So in case you haven't seen the news, Syracuse will be playing home games against USC (2012) and Notre Dame (2014 and 2016) a little far from home. 188 miles from home actually. According to Athletic Director Daryl Gross,

"It's nice to know the new Meadowlands people recruited us. We started a relationship. They're very serious about it. Obviously, we're very excited financially with the terms. It has the makings to be a terrific relationship for the future of our program."

What Syracuse fans within driving distance of the Carrier Dome will be serious about is the fact that the value of your season ticket package in 2012, 2014 and 2016 completely plummeted.

I want to throw something

DOCTOR Daryl Gross, in his infinite wisdom, announced Doug Marrone as the 28th head football coach at Syracuse University. Before this week, we would have been asking the same thing you are right now, "Who the hell is Doug Marrone?" It turns out that Doug is an SU Almnus who has spent that past 6 years working in the NFL. Prior to the NFL he was with various college institutions, including Division I-AA/III/III powerhouses Cortland St., Northeastern and the US Coast Guard Academy.

Marrone has not been in the Northeast College Football realm since 1994. Yes, that is before most current High school footballer players were even playing Pop Warner.

Before 2006, Marrone never held a coaching position higher than Offensive Line Coach. In 2006 he was named the Offensive Coordinator for the New Orleans Saints (although Sean Payton continues to call the plays).

I salute the fact that DOCTOR Daryl Gross saw that people wanted a coach who is passionate about Syracuse football. The problem is, Marrone has no experience as a head coach, he has no recruiting ties any longer and it looks like we are going to be stuck with 4 years of the new GROB.

Visit our sister site, http://www.firedougmarrone.com.

It's about damn time.

DOCTOR Daryl Gross fires head coach Greg Robinson.

The Consultant Roundabout

I wasn't paying much attention to the internet and the goings on of Daryl Gross last night as I was watching Game 1 of the World Series (Go Phils!). In my absence, The New York Times dropped a bomb on their website regarding the coaching situation at Syracuse. The Times reported that DOCTOR Daryl Gross has hired former Big Eight commissioner Chuck Neinas as a consultant on the search for a new head football coach at Syracuse. Neinas was commissioner of the Big Eight from 1971 to 1980. During his tenure, Nebraska (1971) and Oklahoma (1974, 1975) won National Championships in football.

DOCTOR Daryl Gross was quick to deny any such involvement in a supposed coaching search to the Syracuse Post-Standard last night.

"No, it's absolutely not true," Gross told The Post-Standard. "The reality is . . . I haven't hired anyone and the university hasn't hired anyone. It's speculation and it would be inappropriate for me to hire someone (a consulting firm or search firm) at this point."

Asked if someone else may have hired Neinas on behalf of Syracuse University, Gross said, "no, it would be inappropriate."

Are you fucking kidding me? It would be inappropriate to hire someone at this point? How can you even imagine that it would be inappropriate to hire a consultant to look for a replacement for a coach that EVERYONE knows is going to be gone at the end of the season? I mean the guy has a record of 8-34. The only team he has beat this year is a FCS team that is currently 2-5. Yeah, they have a better record than we do!

And you seriously think it would be inappropriate to hire a consultant to look for a new head coach? The only thing that is inappropriate at this point is the fact that you can't get over your ego and fire the head coach that you personally picked. Greg Robinson can not coach. Your refusal to remove him shows that you are an incapable Athletic Director. Get off your damn high horse and actually show the people who are fans of this team that you plan on doing something to ensure that Syracuse Football is worth something again.

One thing that I would like to note about the situation is that I caught an interview this morning that Gomez and Dave of TK-99 were doing with the Voice of the Orange, Matt Park. The only reason I was listening to TK-99 was because I heard that he was going to be on discussing Big East(Basketball) Media Day and I wanted hear what he had to say regarding the team for the coming year. The guys asked Matt what the word was regarding the article and Matt really danced around the topic. There was one line in particular that he said which was really interesting. He said something to the effect of, "I don't know the what is legal to say and what isn't." To me, it sounded like a guy who had a little inside information and because he works for the Athletics Department, didn't want to reveal any information. Hence why he danced around the topic and why he wouldn't comment on the entire situation other than saying that it was a "tough situation".

So perhaps there is more to it. Perhaps the University has hired someone and Daryl Gross is just trying to be PC and doesn't want to make any sort of move until he can actually say that he has hired someone. Although at this point, I don't think we are going to see the dismissal of Greg Robinson until after the season. And quite frankly, that is bullshit.

If you thought the boo birds were bad at half-time of the Penn State game, I can't wait to hear how bad it is at Midnight Madness when Daryl Gross gets up there to give his rah rah speech. If it is anything like last year, we are in for some fun.

DGTII - Week 8

A Tale of Two Halves. I didn't watch the game this weekend so I can't get into the nuances of where we played well and where we played awful. If you are looking for detailed information like that you are better off checking in with The Axeman who sat inside and watched the entire game. Instead of being inside watching what I knew was going to be a pathetic loss to a good South Florida team, I attended the 40 Below Summit.

For those of you who do not know about 40 Below, it is essentially a community engagement organization that strives to make Central New York a much more vibrant and exciting place to live. They are working to remove the defeatist attitude that is pervasive in the community and they are working to get young people involved in the community. It is a good organization and you should definitely check it out.

While attending the 40 Below Summit I took a look at my blackberry to get the score for the game as I was riding a Connective Corridor bus downtown. What I saw was a Syracuse team that was only down 21-13 in the 3rd Quarter. I had no idea how we had looked in the first half or what we had done, but I knew that we were only down by 8 against a team that we had no business playing with. I thought for a moment that maybe we were turning a corner since we have looked decent at times in our recent losses to Pittsburgh and West Virginia.

About an hour later, I looked at my blackberry again and the score was 38-13. So much for the good feelings. Thank you 40 Below for the after party and the beer.

Based on these second half stats alone (0 first downs, 18 plays, 9 total yards, 1-10 passing, 6:40 time of possession), I am pretty sure you know what the team gets for the weekly DGTII: