Nov 19 2008
Fixing Syracuse
Last week, Kali lamented the death of the Notre Dame program as a national power. This week, I layout my ideas for fixing the Syracuse Orange.
The most important task is probably the hardest of all, finding a coach. Greg Robinson waited something like 30 years for his chance and failed miserably. The coach hiring trend has seemed to be to hire young, energetic assistants. The Orange need to act swiftly in identifying the particular guys they want. Right now, I believe Washington, Clemson and Tennessee are the only other big programs are overtly seeking coaches. The Cuse can’t wait for other teams to start firing.
I don’t know enough about potentially available coaches, but I think it is a pipe dream to think that Randy Edsall from UConn or Mike Leach from Texas Tech is going to Syracuse. Edsall as a Cuse alum, would probably be more likely, and since he’s been syphoning away talent that used to be Syracuse property, he’d be a great fit. But the reality is he’s too hot. They wouldn’t be able to negotiate with him until after the season, and by then SEC, ACC and Pac-10 etc, schools will be calling.
They should be looking first at coaching style. The Orange have a potentially dominate home field advantage. The dome is loud and no teams play regularly in a dome. Syracuse might have once been running back U, but they need to become Spread U. Indoors and on turf, they need to exploit speed. They need to spread defenses and play fast tempo games. Unfortunately, Rich Rodriguez and Urban Meyer are completely unavailable. So pluck their most valuable assistant, find the guy beside the coach leeching off his brain.
To run a wide open, speed dependent offense you need athletes, and for whatever reason athletes seem to be most abundant in Florida, Texas and California. The South Florida program has built itself up on the Floridian leftovers. Cal, Texas Tech etc have done the same thing. The Northeast isn’t as stocked, so the next coach will have to be able to find some players that fall through the cracks elsewhere.
That being said, his first job is to shutoff the thefts from Rutgers and UConn. It’s one thing for the big national programs, ND, USC etc to steal players. And the Cuse have always had to battle Penn State, Pittsburgh and BC for talent. But seriously, UConn and Rutgers shouldn’t be able to outrecruit Syracuse in the Northeast. That has to change.
There is the basic plan, nothing sophisticated. Take advantage of the dome, find a lesser known assistant coach, recapture the Northeast in recruiting and steal some leftovers from the south and west.
Fans though need to temper their expectations of this program. Without a playoff and with so many quality big programs, it will be hard for Syracuse to even get a change to play for a championship. They should though be a 7-4, 8-3 program playing in a decent bowl yearly. They should be another Donovan McNabb away from a BCS game every year. Right now, their talent level seems so low, I suspect you could line McNabb up with Marvin Harrison, Jim Brown and Art Monk and still lose 5 games.
Lastly, the uniforms are horrid. I don’t mind teams seeking new avenues of revenue by recreating an identity.
Change the stink of the program and take these unis with it.
